Hey, there! Log in / Register
Tech bloggers, free beer get Faneuil Hall bar in hot water
By adamg on Tue, 04/03/2012 - 10:48am
A party by tech-blog site BostInno that featured free cans of Naragansett beer landed Ned Devine's before the Boston Licensing Board today.
State law prohibits free alcohol at events open to the public. Ned Devine attorney Dennis Quilty said the bar was told by BostInno the "Insider Awards" party on Feb. 23 was a private event and that managers did not know it was being advertised as open to anybody on the Internet until told by Boston Police Sgt. Det. Robert Mulvey that night.
Mulvey said the bar gave out eight cases of 16-ounce Gansetts before he and his partner Det. William Gallagher arrived shortly before 10 p.m. for an unscheduled inspection.
A BostInno EventBrite page for the event promised "There'll be some free beer from our fine friends Narragansett, food, dancing, and plenty of fun to be had."
Quilty said BostInno had given Ned Devine's an invitation list of 200 people. BostInno itself says 900 people showed up.
The licensing board decides Thursday what action, if any, to take.
Neighborhoods:
Topics:
Free tagging:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
oh, the horror
free alcohol oh no!!!
the public can't think for themselves, surely there will be rioting in the streets!
Not only does Boston chase out the students
but also the entrepreneurs. If you go to any entrepreneur event across the country they give out lots of free alcohol. Why? Because people are more apt to share their ideas, and network with one another with a little lubrication. And it works! entrepreneurs leave this city in troves for many reasons, don't let this be one of them.
misinformed on many counts
MA (and Boston metro in particular) has one of the highest rates of entrepenuerial activity in the world. Entrepenuers go from here to other regions because we produce such an abundance of them (Btw, the word you were trying for was 'droves', not 'troves').
Second, open-to-the-public free booze events are so rare as to be non-existent in any big city in the US I've ever been to. Feel free to provide cites to prove me wrong. Invite-only open bars? Sure. And those exist here in Boston too - been to more than a few techie versions. Ditto for any conference that comes to town. But the whole point of the article above is that it wasn't a by-invite-only event - it turned into a come-one, come-all.
We can argue the righteousness of the state's no-happy-hour law, but the fact is the preponderance of restaurant and bar owners support it. And you can try to convince yourself that real entrepenuers care more about getting sloshed for free than meeting people that are passionate about turning their new ideas into reality...but you'd be wrong.
more ideas have come from a
more ideas have come from a pint a beer than a cup of grape fruit juice. It's not about getting sloshed, it's about having loose lips. Boston has a great entrepreneurship community, but the talent is leaving. I have been to many bars that give out free beer for events, in both Austin and SF. In other parts of the country cities aren't run by the puritans.
repeating falsehoods does not make them true
You can't serve free booze at public events, Jaron, no matter what your justification. And this is true at other cities as well - including Austin and San Fransisco. Feel free to provide cites to prove me wrong. This is just a snafu by BostInno, nothing more.
And you can keep repeating the canard that Boston is losing its entrepenuerial class, but I've been listening to that lament from local Debbie Downers for 25 years, and it's demonstrably not true. To be fair, our perennial (and unwarranted) inferiority complex, and the crisis-du-jour addiction of the media (adam unfortunately sometimes included) make this an easy false assumption. But the rest of world envies this region's ability to create and profit from new ventures.
I guarantee you that 'the next big thing' from around here is 2000% more likely to be hatched over pints at the Thirsty Ear or the CBC, and not some free-for-all swag-fest at Faneuil Hall.
http://austinontwowheels.org/
http://austinontwowheels.org/2009/06/05/thursday-n... - this is a repeating event. Yes I know not entrepeneurial, but one that I attend regularly.
Almost all non badge Events at SXSW have free booze.
https://www.riseglobal.org/austin/week/fast-pitch
Yes this is a register event, but I showed up without registering, and guess what there was free booze. Check out places outside Boston, and you'll see what a wonderful place it is. So many basic freedoms.
I agree that a small event is more likely to generate good ideas, but why do you care so much if someone is handing out free beer? If they have the money to do it let them. Let people have some fun.
I actually attended a free
I actually attended a free booze event in Philly this past monday, at upenn. Open to the public in that no ids or badges or anything was needed. You didnt even have to walk in, they had beer stands in an outdoor patio. Much more beer inside though.
Why won't someone think of
Why won't someone think of the children?!