Dining
Allston bar gets permission to stay open until 2, just like the other bars
By adamg - 5/24/12 - 3:12 pmThe Boston Licensing Board today gave the Avenue Bar and Grill on Comm. Ave. permission to extend its closing time from 1 to 2 a.m.
Some residents of a neighboring condo building objected, as did the offices of the mayor and City Councilor Mark Ciommo, but the board agreed with owner Douglas Bacon that he's run a fine operation with no problems since he bought the place a year ago and that he deserves to offer service as late as other nearby establishments for customers getting off late shifts. Bacon told the board he would serve food right until closing.
The New Yorker abroad's eternal question: Where to get good bagels around here?
By adamg - 5/23/12 - 11:39 pmSooner or later, every single New Yorker who moves up here does what Tara Vuono did and ask:
Best bagels in/around Boston? (from an ex-NYer, and yes I know it's cliche to miss the bagels and pizza)
Proposed South End steakhouse finally finds a liquor license
By adamg - 5/23/12 - 4:11 pmPlans for an upscale steakhouse on Washington Street are back on track now that owner Brian Piccini has found another restaurant willing to sell him its liquor license.
Restaurant next to Symphony Hall could get new owner, major overhaul
By adamg - 5/23/12 - 4:02 pmThe Boston Licensing Board votes tomorrow on a request from local restaurant operator Douglas Bacon to buy the Siansa Pub on Westland Avenue, gut it and turn it into a place symphony attendees might want to go to.
Bacon said the area is currently "vastly underserved" with upscale dining options. If the board approves, he'll spend $500,000 to buy the pub - some $275,000 of that just for its liquor license. He said he'd then spend well in excess of $100,000 in renovations.
Bacon is also seeking permission to stay open until 2 a.m., as he does at most of his other restaurants.
The battle to keep Boston sleepy is joined in Allston
By adamg - 5/23/12 - 3:47 pmRepresentatives of both the mayor's office and City Councilor Mark Ciommo agreed that Douglas Bacon is a fine restaurateur who runs quality restaurants. And yet both told the Boston Licensing Board today they oppose Bacon's request to extend the hours of his Avenue Bar and Grill in Allston an hour, to 2 a.m.
Why? Because they always oppose requests in Allston to extend liquor-serving hours to 2 a.m., no matter the number of existing 2 a.m. closing times or the fact that Bacon has racked up no violations in the year since he bought the place and turned it into an upscale establishment with a tough code of conduct for patrons.. In a later hearing, the mayor's office supported a 2 a.m. closing for a restaurant proposed for the area on top of the existing Hillstone restaurant next to Faneuil Hall.
The licensing board votes tomorrow on whether to grant Bacon's request for the Avenue, 1249 Commonwealth Ave.
Adams Village now more caffeinated
By adamg - 5/23/12 - 8:26 amSteve reports Southie's PS Gourmet Coffee is now officially open at the old Loonie's Liquors location.
Ed. note: Cool beans and all, but shouldn't they have called it Crazy Coffee?
Citizen complaint of the day: It's bad enough two North End restaurants qualify for Kitchen Nightmares
By adamg - 5/22/12 - 7:15 pmLast year, Gordon Ramsay showed up at Davide for his Kitchen Nightmares show. This week, he was in town attending to La Galleria on Salem Street. And leaving behind quite the mess, a disgusted citizen complains.
Good God, not another cupcake place in the Back Bay
By adamg - 5/19/12 - 6:47 pmMike the Mad Biologist is mad that his neighborhood is getting another damn cupcake outlet, when residents can't even buy a loaf of fresh bread.
Be vewwy, vewwy quiet - he's hunting mushwooms
By adamg - 5/17/12 - 8:07 amJef Taylor reprints some tips from a guy who likes driving around town looking for Agaricus bitorquis, an edible mushroom that grows well in curbs that have been raised up a bit by tree roots:
Don't run over a dog or cat or rear end a car. Drive slowly ignoring that half-wit behind you blowing his horn. Hunt one side of the street at a time for safety's sake. Season expires around the end of May. This is a delicious mushroom big time.
City could shut venerable Medical Area wrap stand because, after 33 years, inspectors realized it has no wheels
By adamg - 5/11/12 - 10:50 amThe Crimson reports ISD has given Sami's a month to either install plumbing or shut down, because inspectors have determined the stand at Longwood and Avenue Louis Pasteur is not mobile and therefore falls under the city building code, which requires permanent plumbing. Sami's landlord, Harvard, says it has no plans to help Sami's out by running pipes out to the stand, the Crimson reports.
Save Sami's petition - or, at least, donate to buy them a truck (Ed. note: Maybe they could team up with the lady from the Beacon Hill Mexican-food place).
