pizza

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.

Boston Restaurant Talk reports.

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.

Zagat reports Pastoral will be focused around a wood-burning oven and will feature "Neapolitan pizza and dishes made with new, locally sourced ingredients."

For some reason, Zagat has no listing for Aces High, but one reviewer at another site says, "This is where the teachers who ain't scared of nobody come to drink after hours."

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.

Attorney Mark Evlogiadis said his client, which already runs a pizza place in Brighton, will not need much time to start cheesing up the street - because the old Upper Crust's kitchen and dining area "are in pristine condition."

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.

Wayne Dutch seeks guidance.

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.

Nobody from city government or from neighborhood civic associations attended the meeting to voice any concerns.

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.

Two hotels and Mass. Eye and Ear both supported the Domino's request, saying their customers and workers both require pizza late at night. Mass. General acknowledged its overnight workers often partake of Domino's fare, but refuses to formally support licensing requests, William Mohan, a Domino's rep, told the board.

Mohan said the later hours would ease pressures on existing late-night Domino's in other parts of the city, which he said now struggle to keep up the demand from the small neighborhood.

The main opposition at a board hearing on Wednesday came from the mayor's office, which wanted the board to delay action until after Domino's could meet with civic groups in neighboring Beacon Hill. A mayor's liaison said her office is concerned that later pizza delivery would only encourage Suffolk students living on Beacon Hill to party hardier later into the night.

She added the city is also concerned about driver safety, citing a recent attack on a late-night pizza delivery guy. When Mohan said he was unaware of any such incidents, she acknowledged it had happened in Dorchester.

Somerville Patch reports a Papa John's delivery guy was arrested on charges of trying to run somebody down in Inman Square - after first chest bumping and spitting at his alleged victim.

Meanwhile, across the river, Papa John's delivery guys think nothing of parking 18-wheelers in major intersections while they make deliveries:

La di da: Take a look at the traffic lights.

The Globe reports.

Pesky bankruptcy and all that. But the West Roxbury Upper Crust remains open - it's a franchise owned by a West Roxbury family, not the battlin' chain owners.

The Boston Licensing Board today rejected a request from Domino's, 163 Old Colony Ave., to extend its closing hours for delivery service from 1 a.m. to 3 a.m.

The move comes after a heated hearing at which a Domino's executive and city officials and South Boston residents exchanged accusations of treachery and deceit.

Seems somebody told My Big Fat Greek Pizza the name had to go, because this morning it's just Big Pizza. The place had been using the movie-like name since it opened more than six years ago.

No more.

Ned Bachelder, who organizes a local get-together of programmers who use Python, was getting tired of trying to figure out how to feed the herd. So he's written a script he calls pizza.py to give him an answer.

The Globe reports.

The owner of a Domino's franchise on the Roslindale/West Roxbury plan has decided against plans to open up shop next to the Subway franchise on Washington Street, across from Adams Park, Roslindale Village Main Street reported this afternoon.

The announcement is a victory for Roslindale merchants - led by Roslindale Village Main Street - and residents opposed to the chainification of the square. Some 200 people attended a meeting at the community center last month to voice their opposition - and many were planning to attend a Boston Licensing Board hearing next month on a request for a food-serving license. In an e-mail today, Roslindale Village Main Street said:

A neighborhood retail area that relies on foot traffic is no place for a pizza place that claims most of its business consists of deliveries, Roslindale Square residents and businesspeople told Domino's, which wants to move from a mini-mall off the West Roxbury Parkway to a storefront in Roslindale Square.

Close to 200 people packed a basement meeting room at the Roslindale Community Center tonight to oppose the proposed new location in the office building next to the library, across from Adams Park. Local businesspeople, residents and the city haven't spent 20 years turning Roslindale Village into today's electic collection of mostly locally owned shops and restaurants just to let a delivery business move in, they said.

Boston Restaurant Talk reports the re-opening of Cappy's on Westland Avenue.

The owner of the building with Roslindale's one Subway franchise is negotiating a lease with Domino's. Roslindale Village Main Street is girding up for a fight and will hold a public meeting on Sept. 10 to organize opposition:

Roslindale Village Main Streets is opposed to Domino's being in the Village because it will unfairly compete with several "mom and pop" run pizza shops that are located nearby. We want more locally owned shops that maintain the unique character of our shopping district, not large, multi-national chains that serve low-quality food and send most of our money outside our neighborhood.

Roslindale Square has long been home to locally owned restaurants, but that point of local pride was broached earlier this year when a Subway opened up at 4238 Washington - kitty corner from Romano's, which sells both subs and pizza (and actual Mexican food).

Roslindale already has a Domino's, but it's in that little mini-mallish thing by the CVS all the way up by the parkway.

H/t Dave.

Because it sucks.