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Jackson Square sandwich shop gets a beer and wine license

A week after the Boston Licensing Board said it had no beer and wine licenses to give to a new Asian restaurant in Audubon Circle, it found one for a Jackson Square sandwich and pizza shop.

However, the beer and wine license granted to Il Panino, 268 Centre St. is "restricted," which means that owner Themistocles Vlahoulis can't sell it if he goes out of business but instead has to give it back to the board. The license also requires the drinks be served with meals only and that he not operate a bar.

Last week, the board told Mei Mei it had no available unrestricted beer and wine licenses.

Both city officials and the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council enthusiastically supported Vlahoulis for his food and work in the community.

Michael Reiskind, who chairs the council's zoning committee, said the license would prove especially welcome once the 200 apartments being built on the other side of the Orange Line are occupied.

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Comments

the merits of the Weather Channel, perhaps the CIty Council should actually do something useful and enact a regulation stipulating that ALL licenses issued by the CIty be "restricted" and automatically revert back to the city when a business closes down.

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is there parking for bicycles?

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I am confused--when Mei Mei applied for an unrestricted license, did they inadvertently shoot themselves in the foot by asking for something that was known not to exist? Or is the council empowered to give them a restricted license as a consolation prize when they ask for a full license?

I guess what I'm asking is, was the council incredibly shady, or did Il Panino just know how to play the game better than Mei Mei?

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But in the absence of me knowing for sure (and dammit, I should know this stuff), it could be that they got one of the licenses that are only granted for certain urban-renewal areas. I can see that location being in such an area, as opposed to, say, anything in Audubon Circle.

A couple years ago, Stone Hearth Pizza was going to get one of these restricted licenses for its Allston location because it was across the street from a housing project - until somebody from the Allston Civic Association discovered the restaurant was actually a few feet out of the zone (so they went and bought a license on the open market).

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the story here, but the idea of an "urban renewal area" somehow being in desperate need of liquor licenses is ridiculous (as is the notion that Jackson is in dire need of renewal).

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...but yes, Jackson Square certainly could use a hand. The deserted warehouses along Amory behind the White Rock Building, the overgrown trash strewn lots across from them, the garbage that gets left on the street each garbage day in this less white & affluent part of JP, the muggings outside of the elderly housing complex... yeah, it could use some work.

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Or you might not recognize Jackson within the next few years--plenty of plans in the hopper, including the nearly completed building there now where a one-bedroom will go for $1700 a month. And that's just the beginning. http://jamaicaplaingazette.com/2013/11/22/1st-jackson-sq-redevelopment-p...

I still ask what a liquor license will do to prevent trash or muggings...

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When ' Ribs on Wheels ' was there . you brought your own alcohol, usually heavily packaged...............

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Does Frank DePasquale know about another Boston restaurant calling itself "Il Panino?"

Is it a franchise arrangement?

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According to their website, "il Panino Cafe and Grill is part of the North End's il Panino family of restaurants." When they first opened last summer and carpetbombed the neighborhood with menus, they made much of the North End connection. That seems to have toned down.

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