The Boston Licensing Board voted yesterday to cancel the liquor license for Townsends on Fairmount Avenue, which has been shut since January.
The board, often slow to revoke a license, took the action after the restaurant's owner, Michael Tallon, failed to show up at hearings in September and this week.
The move could let the restaurant's landlord find another restaurant for the vacant space [2], although Tallon could delay that by appealing the licensing-board decision to the state Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission.
Landlord John Button, who has the support of city officials, says cancellation was required because a prospective restaurant operator he had been talking to would only move in with a liquor license and the law prohibits two liquor licenses for a single address - even if one is inactive.