The Boston Licensing Board holds a hearing next week on plans to convert long empty space at 45 Province St. into a pizza restaurant called Strada 45.
The building's developers got a full-service liquor license from the board in 2008. The board rescinded the license in 2011, but the developers got it back in an appeal to the state Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission.
The Boston Business Journal reports fellow superchef Mario Batali might not be opening his planned pizza joint on Summer Street in Fort Point after all.
The Boston Licensing Board last week gave the Brighton Domino's permission to stay open for delivery service until 2 a.m. Thursday through Saturday, potentially helping the company continue to support the entire Boston economy while lessening its ability to keep fueling drunken college students on all night benders.
The Boston Licensing Board next week hears a request from the owners of the former franchise of the former pizza chain at 1727 Centre St. to sell the place - and its liquor license - to James Loftus, owner of the neighboring Porter Cafe. who proposes to re-open it as Parlor Pizza.
Loftus will seek board permission to extend the eatery's closing time from 11 p.m. to midnight and to remove restrictions on the liquor and food-serving licenses that would prohibit him from installing a bar and that would require table service by a waiter or waitress.
Domino's wants permission to keep its Brighton operation open for deliveries until 3 a.m. Thursday through Saturday.
"There's an absolute need for late-night delivery," Domino's rep Bill Mohan told the Boston Licensing Board at a hearing this morning.
He said that rather than promoting drunken college students in their bids to go on all-night benders, delivery until 3 a.m. would actually help keep the uber-soused at home, by letting them punch in a number and get a pizza delivered, rather than trying to drive somewhere or stumble their way through the streets of the neighborhood.
Jen Langley's last MJ's pie, ordered last night.
MJ's, which has been dishing up pizza and subs for nearly 40 years, closes Sunday. Steve O'Malley, the owner, is retiring.
MJ's started on Hyde Park Avenue, moved to Belgrade Avenue near Walworth, then moved down Belgrade to the West Roxbury line after a fire.
Katie Schilling, for one, is sad to see MJ's go, calling O'Malley "a saint:"
Helped a lot of people over the years who were down on their luck. Sad news!
Kathy Cahill adds:
what a shame! My kids love it! Thanks to Steve and staff, nice people.
But the result could be formal requests for later hours for pizza places in the Fenway and in Brighton - as late as 3 a.m. for the Brighton Domino's.
University House of Pizza in the Fenway and Papa John's and Domino's in Brighton all had to explain this morning why they were open way past their licensed closing times at a hearing before the Boston Licensing Board.
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.
The Seaport continues to spin like a vortex, sucking out liquor licenses from the rest of the city: On March 27, the Boston Licensing Board holds a hearing on a proposal by chef Todd Winer (late of Met Back Bay) to buy the liquor license from Aces High in Andrew Square for his impending Pastoral at 345 Congress St.
A former Harvard Square Upper Crust renamed the Just Crust could soon be joined by a former Newbury Street Upper Crust to be renamed the Proper Slice.
The Boston Licensing Board today gave SS Investments permission to start serving food at the old Upper Crust at 222 Newbury St., a location it acquired from bankruptcy court in December. However, the board deferred action on a request from the company to also obtain the location's beer and wine license, pending submission of some corrected paperwork.
A Theater District pizza place that stays open after the bars shut down on weekend nights faces possible penalties after fed-up police said they were tired of cleaning up the human, cardboard and cheesy messes left behind by its customers.
The Boston Licensing Board decides Thursday what action, if any, to take against New York Pizza on Tremont Street for a Dec. 1 incident involving up to 200 people on the sidewalk that ended with a particularly obnoxious customer pepper-sprayed and under arrest - and the street covered in pizza boxes, paper plates and slices of pizza.
Bit of an editing war going on on the people's encyclopedia about the local once-and-future pizza chain: The current owners of the name keep trying to delete references to past Labor Department investigations into the chain's treatment of immigrant workers and Wikipedians keep putting them back in.
Here's the entire Upper Crust entry you would have seen at 5:39 p.m. yesterday, after somebody claiming to be from the current ownership was done editing:
The Crimson reports on the impending name change for the soon-to-re-open Upper Crust there as the Just Crust, to reflect its new status as being owned by employees.
The Dorchester Reporter reports the state Department of Revenue has turned the volume down on Hi-Fi Pizza.
The Boston Business Journal reports the winner of bidding for four of the ten closed Upper Crust pizza places is a group working with Jordan Tobins, the co-founder of the chain who was kicked out by the other owners as the whole thing was falling apart. Pizzeria Regina got first dibs on the chain's former Fenway location.
The Boston Licensing Board decides tomorrow whether to let Beantown Pizzeria, 270 Babcock St., stay open until 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.
Steven Parnagian, lawyer for the pizza place, told the board this morning that the store, tucked into the heavily BUish Gardner Street area, is losing business now with its current midnight closing time. He said the owner comes in first thing Saturday and Sunday morning to find his voice mail full of missed calls from people desiring pies between midnight and 2 a.m. He added other nearby eateries are open until 2 a.m. already.
Jen Langley tweets:
Just noticed Arbri Cafe is def gone + grand opening sign on Belgrade for Prime Time Pizza.
Over the past few years, that Belgrade Avenue location, near Walworth, has been home to various incarnations of Albanian (and Albanian owned) restaurants.
The Boston Licensing Board yesterday approved a request from Domino's to extend the delivery hours of its Staniford Street outlet from 1 a.m. to 3 a.m. because of near-unanimous support from West End resident groups and nearby businesses - a dramatic difference from the reception Domino's has gotten in certain other neighborhoods.
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