After 16 years, JP bar finally gets permission to expand

The Boston Licensing Board yesterday approved plans by the owners of the Midway Cafe on Washington Street to increase its capacity from 60 to 99 people.

This was the last major hurdle faced by the Balerna brothers to add some 200 square feet more room in an odyssey that featured a lawsuit by a nearby tavern and active opposition from City Hall. The Jamaica Plain Gazette this week detailed what they went through.

But the city zoning board of appeals finally approved the expansion two years ago, leaving only the licensing board to approve the change in occupancy. At a board hearing on Wednesday, Michael Reiskind the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council rose to reiterate the group's support for the expansion, in a vote taken on Sept. 5, 2000. He told the licensing board the Midway has been a good neighbor and deserved permission to expand.