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Kells cover charge: $1.4 million
By adamg on Thu, 02/25/2010 - 9:19am
The Boston Licensing Board votes today on transferring the Kells' liquor license to Tavern in the Square, which plans to gut the place and convert it from a nightclub into a sports bar with an extensive menu.
At a hearing yesterday, Tavern in the Square lawyer Robert Allen of Brookline said that assuming the transfer is approved, the new owners will pay $1.4 million just to get in the door - which includes $250,000 for the value of the liquor license and $100,000 in "good will."
Shawn Ahern, who would run the latest Tavern in the Square outlet, said the chain plans to "open up" the existing space, to let in more light and will expand the kitchen.
He said the chain is well aware of the unique issues of serving liquor in a student area - the day before, the Kells was up before the licensing board for serving a drink to a minor - and said the chain is proud to have never had any violations at locations in Central and Porter squares.
"We want to see it cleaned up, we want to see less violations," board Chairman Daniel Pokaski said.
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Comments
Yay! another sports
Yay! another sports bar.
Just what Boston needs
Anything is an improvement
If the staff at this new place exhibit any sort of control of their patrons and this amounts to filtering out some of the idiots that attend places like The Kells... it's got to be better than what's there now.
Now if something could just be done about Mary Ann's in Cleveland Circle too.
right
A sports bar is really going to be a bigger blight than the Kells in its current form. Yes, let's stick with the status quo: weekly appearances from DJ Stab-O-Lot and nightly outdoor rumbles amongst the Napoleon Complex crowd. But, a sports bar, oh no! We musn't allow an establishment to cater to Boston's biggest demographic! Maybe if we petition the owners of Silhouette Cafe, they will create a 2nd faux biker bar in the area. Now that would be interesting!
Hey!
Leave the Model Cafe and it's clientele alone.
More like "my left field"
Because that's where you're coming from.
Name a sports bar (particularly one west of downtown) that isn't Sports Depot and isn't located underneath or adjacent to Fenway. Ok, Joshua Tree...sure it says "Sports" on the front, but it's barely a sports bar. Great, now name another one.
I can think of maybe 3 more total that show some semblance of being a real live Sports Bar and some of them are just AWFUL. For example, Coolidge Corner Clubhouse has a huge menu and pretty decent kitchen, but if you're not one of the first 50 in the door you're better off watching the game through the windows. There's nothing in Restaurant Row in Allston that I would call a Sports Bar.
Hell, just look at a map of Boston requesting "sports bar". It's awful given how much this town loves its sports teams.
When Sports Depot became Captain Fishbones, I told the owner by e-mail that he was making a mistake because people need sports bars in that area and they don't need seafood joints. He told me that he thought I was wrong and to give it a chance. Less than a year later, they were changing it back to Sports Depot and I got to send the guy a fun e-mail ribbing him for the switch back. He told me to swing by and get a beer on the house.
The only reason I'm a little sad to see this as a sports bar is that I'd hate to see Sports Depot get competed out is because it's a decent place to go and the owner seems like a really nice guy. But it's not like there's an oversaturation of sports bars in Allston/Brighton.
Sunset Cantina and the bar
Sunset Cantina and the bar above it are sort of sports bars....lots of TVs with lots of sports on. That's the thing with Boston though, every bar has a shitload of TVs showing sports, even the Kells. It may not be a sports bar, but it's a bar that shows sports.
Also, the Atlantic beer garden is neither downtown nor in the fenway, and it's a sports bar.
No
Sports bars may be like obscenity ("know it when I see it"), but Sunset Cantina and Big City upstairs are NOT sports bars. Hell, Sunset doesn't even have big enough TVs for everyone at their bars to see them let alone the tables. There's more sports memorabilia on *my* walls than Sunset's. And finally, I've NEVER heard anyone say "let's go down to Sunset...I hear they'll have that *obscure college football team*'s game on".
Atlantic Beer Garden is closer to the right kind of place. But then again, I doubt the regulars at Atlantic Beer Garden are going to hem-and-haw about whether they'd better go to Allston instead now.
In the same way, there's a TON of sports bars around The Garden...but they're not really part of the discussion since they have nothing to do with someone trying to figure out where to watch a game in Allston. That'd be like saying "why open a Tavern on the Square in Allston when there's already one in Central Square across the river?".
All Im saying is, if you want
All Im saying is, if you want to watch a sports game on TV, you never need to walk more than a block.
Now, finding a bar or lounge FREE of sports TVs....that's an adventure!
So people say "not another damn sports bar" because sometimes, you want to go out to socialize and not have a TV calling for peoples eyes.
Never been to White Horse?
Never been to White Horse?
$100,000 of 'Good Will' ?
Are they paying that amount to the Kells or to the Licensing Board? If the former, I am highly amused by the idea that the Kells has any 'good will' whatsoever, let alone $100,000 worth.
To the Kells
One of the things the licensing board always does is ask applicants who want to buy somebody else's license how much they're paying.
Somebody who wants to buy an existing restaurant at Logan (don't remember the name, but I can look it up if anybody cares) learned that the hard way yesterday when they sent a manager and a bartender who could not provide any financial details whatsoever. They were told to go away until they could provide that information - and replace the manager with somebody who is a US citizen and Massachusetts resident.
Tavern on the Square -
Tavern on the Square has become the McDonald's of upscale faux sports bars in Boston. The food is bad and the atmosphere is worse. This chain is making Boston an even lamer city.
I wish there were some crying
I wish there were some crying smilies. Wahhhh!
McDonald's would be an improvement over the current Kells, so it's a win all-around. Just like james44, I won't be patronizing the new Tavern on the Square either as I stick to places with quality beer lists. (Deep Ellum being a personal favorite in the area.) Anything that improves Allston Rock City, even just a little bit, is a good thing in my book.