Dining

Update: The pizza chain says you can't believe everything you read, even its own license application - says it just wants to add a guitarist, not dinner theater (scroll down the page at that link).

Regina Pizzeria goes before the Mayor's Office of Consumer Affairs and Licensing on Monday seeking permission to add "a comedian and dinner theater" to its restaurant at 353 Cambridge St. in Allston.

Yes, of course, comedy at a restaurant in Boston is illegal without permission from city regulators. The restaurant's current entertainment license only allows for a CD player, a radio, TVs and a jukebox.

The hearing starts at 10 a.m. in the Albert L. O'Neil Hearing Room on the eighth floor of City Hall. Immediately after, the Hilton at 80 Broad St. will also seek permission to add comedy and cabaret performances.

So? They belonged to the restaurant, Wicked Local Brookline reports.

Via Boston Restaurant Talk.

Boston Restaurant Talk forwards the news from Forum, scene of one of the Marathon bombings.

On Friday, the Rosebud Bar and Grill, which is located behind the Rosebud Diner, posted this to its Facebook page:

Update on the sale and closing of the Rosebud: Between last night and this morning something has changed the closing of the sale was scheduled to happen on the 15th of May. But I was informed by the owners of the property that things have changed and we will still be here for the next month or so, maybe longer it everything falls apart with the sale(fingers crossed).

Via Davis Square LiveJournal.

LiveEastie.com interviews one of the owners of Shuckin' Truck, which now serves up seafood in East Boston.

We do try to source our seafood from the family of fishing vessels in RI. However, due to the fact that we now operate 7 days a week, it's hard for them to keep up with the demand. Our secondary source is directly from the Boston Pier every morning.

At Ron's in Hyde Park.

Boston Bites Back at Fenway Park on May 15. Tickets are $211.99 and $1039.95 for food from 100 local chefs.

The owner of the shuttered Ciao Bello on Newbury Street at Fairfield yesterday asked the Boston Licensing Board to let him hold onto the liquor license he holds but isn't using, saying he is close to getting an SBA loan that will, he promises, finally let him finish what turned into a multi-year renovation project.

Joseph Cimino's attorney, Stephen Miller, told the board that "multiple national chefs" have expressed interest in leasing the marquee space, but only after Cimino finishes the work. Cimino himself added that he might still want to run the restaurant on his own rather than leasing it out - he says he'll decide that after the place is actually ready for still more work to turn it into a high-class restaurant.

Limeduck reports the Cuppacoffee being built on what used to be a Merrimac Street parking lot is close to opening.

Todd English is refinancing his culinary empire, which now stretches from Charlestown to Las Vegas. Locally, the infusion of money means English will be able to pay the state of Massachusetts and the company that operates Faneuil Hall back payments for Kingfish Hall, which closed under a cloud of acrimony last year.

Ron Chorney, CFO of Todd English Enterprises, Inc., gave the financial update to the Boston Licensing Board this morning, at a hearing to request more time to sell the restaurant's main remaining asset - its liquor license.

Michal Skrzypek wonders what the cinnamon raisin d'etre is for the bagelful (and rollful) pickup he spotted this afternoon.

Of course. The Crimson reports on some paperwork filed with the city.

Via Boston Restaurant Talk.

West Napoli Cafe, at Centre and Bellevue streets, wants to branch out from pizza and subs to ice cream, pastries and coffee. Its owners go before the West Roxbury Neighborhood Council tonight seeking its blessings for plans to turn the old Absi Jewelers next door on Bellevue street into the Ria Cafe.

The council meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. at the E-5 police station. The proposal doesn't need zoning permission, but it would need a food-serving license from the Boston Licensing Board.

Currently, West Roxbury has one dedicated ice-cream parlor - iScreamWorks - and two bakeries - Sugar and Baker Baker.

The Boston Licensing Board yesterday ordered the Russian Benevolent Society to shut its Crystal restaurant in Allston for a day after its manager admitted letting customers buy whole bottles of vodka even after the board's chairwoman warned him not to.

Boston restaurants with full liquor licenses can offer bottle service but only after getting board permission, which Crystal didn't have. The restaurant was also letting customers take whole bottles back with them to their tables, which the board does not allow - it requires restaurants with permission to have a dedicated staffer at the table to pour the drinks.

At a hearing Tuesday, police detectives also found evidence the restaurant was offering homemade cranberry vodka - a violation of state liquor laws - and parking cars in a fire lane.

A fight could be brewing over plans for a chain craft-beer bar.

Eater Boston reports some guy is setting up our very first sports bar dedicated to cricket. OK, in Inman Square, but that's right across the river.

David Yamada doesn't think much of the Orange Line ads that posit lack of a Big Mac stuffed in your mouth as the sort of mental issue that one more typically sees advertised on clinical-research ads between Forest Hills and Oak Grove:

I'm sorry, but the ad is just too close to the real thing to be funny.

Andrew Teman is compiling a list of Boston restaurants that use the Papyrus font, because he's sick of it.

WZLX reports that somewhere in eastern Mass., Dunkin' Donuts is testing:

An egg sandwich with bacon that is sandwiched between two halves of a glazed donut!

Vargas and Vargas Insurance will spring for a free ice-cream cone for anybody who shows up at Savin Scoop, 107 Savin Hill Ave. between 1 and 2:30 p.m. today.

The agency says it's doing this as "a random act of kindness" following Sunday's stabbing, as well as part of the neighborhood "cash mob" program, in which resident flood a particular business and buy its stuff.

Update: Ye ed. should have checked the date.

Food blogger (and attorney) Richard Auffrey says he's given a local chef an ultimatum: Move out of town or he'll post details about how the guy is using meat from "large scale, out of state farms" instead of the little locally sourced purveyors his restaurant's reputation is staked on.

If nothing changes this week, then next Monday's Rant will identify the chef and restaurant, providing the evidence I possess. I received much support on both Facebook and Twitter for outing the chef if I possessed sufficient evidence of his deception. My outing will not be without repercussion, but I am willing to take on those consequences to expose this fraud. Once I identify the chef and restaurant, the restaurant owner will have the ability to verify this matter on their own. All they will have to do will be to analyze the invoices for the local meat producers and determine there was an insufficient amount to have fed all of the restaurant's patrons.

Karen Maziarz wonders where she can get the freshest fresh fish in and around Jamaica Plain.

The Boston Licensing Board votes tomorrow whether to let the impending Walgreens at School and Washington streets sell sushi and "locally sourced" bakery items, smoothies and coffee around the clock.

The ultra-luxe drug store is also seeking permission for a 42-seat patio overlooking the Irish Famine Memorial, but store attorney Joseph Hanley told the board this morning the chain would shut the patio at 11 p.m., in part to discourage early morning loitering. The chain's initial license request seemed to indicate a desire for a 24-hour patio.

Hanley added that Walgreens might also cut back on fresh overnight sushi if it turns out there's not much call for it.

Hanley said the food-serving license is the last major city approval the new Walgreens needs before it opens. The store will also feature a mezzanine liquor store open until 10 p.m. and a nail salon, in addition to more traditional drugstore fare in the former Borders/Boston Five Cent Savings Bank building.

City officials and the Downtown Boston Business Improvement District all voiced support for the license request.

The Zoning Board of Appeals agreed to defer a hearing until May 7 on a proposal by the Russian Benevolent Society to turn its Linden Street facility into a 450-seat restaurant with a 90-seat patio and entertainment.

The move lets the owners of what is now a for-profit concern just off Cambridge Street meet with the Allston Civic Association and local police. In recent days, nearby residents have begun organizing against the proposed expansion in what started out as a small social group for Russian emigres that was closed most of the time into a seven-day restaurant. Opponents point to issues of potential noise and inebriated patrons late at night.