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In a city with a shortage of liquor licenses, one East Boston restaurant's travails could be another's salvation
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Comments
Ridiculous
Absolute garbage that the corrupt hacks on Beacon Hill force the city to jump through these elaborate hoops to get local establishments the licenses they need to survive.
Imagine the uproar
Imagine the uproar if they did drivers’ licenses that way: if you want to drive a car in Massachusetts, you need to buy the license from someone who is willing to give theirs up.
Anti-Irish bigotry
The current state control of the number of Boston liquor licensees originated as a way for the Puritan/Yankee/English-American establishment to control what they thought were the "evil drinking" ways of the Irish immigrants and Irish Americans.
It was a bigoted law, passed almost 100 years ago, during an era when Irish job seekers encountered "Irish need not apply" on business signs and help wanted ads in the newspapers. As a result of the bigotry of the time, there were some Irish that even went so far as to deny they were Irish, especially if they had a last name that could pass for English.
How long is the state, the city, and the public going to tolerate this overtly bigoted law?
Boston is the only city in the Commonwealth where the liquor licenses are restricted this way. It's time to let Boston control it's own destiny. Perhaps Healy and Driscoll, who I'm guessing both have Irish roots, can take the lead.
Which has since morphed ...
Into a way to protect the current owners of Boston liquor licenses, similar to the way taxi licenses used to work, back before ride-sharing companies destroyed that market.
The key opponent to expanding the number of liquor licenses in Boston is not some anti-Irish suburban nob, but state Rep. Mike Moran of Brighton, who says he loves Michelle Wu but doesn't want the power of having more liquor licenses go to her head. Since he's the majority leader in the house, he gets to decide these things.
There's more to that story.
Of course there was vicious anti-Irish bigotry. But the argument for taking licensing authority away from the city wasn't the "drunken Irishman" stereotype, it was sold as an anti-corruption measure. The state legislature was trying to cut out the grift: Take away liquor licensing authority and city officials won't be able to command bribes in return for issuing licenses. Now the fact that the city government was Irish and the state government was Yankee played into it without a doubt, and what was put forth as high-minded anti-corruption might have had an element of "why should those Irish guys be getting the grift; we want some." But it wasn't on its face a specifically anti-Irish measure.
Ironic given current opportunities
The current system offers plenty of chances for graft. Imagine two restaurants, one with a license, one without. The Board is empowered to revoke the license from the first and grant it to the second. Suppose the second restaurant owner does some sort of favor for a couple of board members, they might be able to find a reason to effect a change in who owns the license. Not saying that is the situation in this particular story, seems clearly to not be the case, but the Italian place might well have the capital requirements to offer such a favor, given the sale of their non-community license.
These neighborhood licenses
These neighborhood licenses should be "use it or lose it". If an address is vacant for 6 months the license should be stripped and given away.
Question for the more legally minded uhubbers
The board approves people and then they sit on their hands until possibly forever waiting for a license to become available.
Would these people have standing to start suing the state? Could they make a case that the law as is causes them harm as restaurant owners, and is an undue and unfair burden because people running restaurants in EVERY OTHER CITY IN THE STATE don't have to sit and WAIT once their township approves them?
If you're a functioning
If you're a functioning alcoholic like me, your body can still get the alcohol in it while sitting down and blending in with others eating in a place that doesn't have a liquor license. You gotta know how to do it and how to look and act. Cheaper, too.
Ridiculous
I love how Italian Express capitalizes on selling their liquor license for big profits, kept the building empty...now magically is coming back and is looking to get one of the cheap liquor licenses that's pretty much free.
What a joke....
Why exactly should that license go to Italian Express anyway....why not one of the restaurants like Smoke Shop in the neighborhood who's been waiting for a license a lot longer or any one of the small local businesses in East Boston who haven't had the shot yet.
i remember going in during
i remember going in during the height of covid (where not only was making mandatory but most people at least pretended to follow it - especially restaurants) and not a single employee inside was wearing a mask.
and i'm sorry, when you own the building, there's a special place in hell for restauranteurs who close with absolutely no notice, especially ones who are 'such vital members of the community.'
they are welcome to buy the license they sold back for the going rate.
good.
john tyler deserves everything that is about to come to him. what an absolutely scummy individual. he literally locked out the staff of mavericks - which was actually successful.
https://www.reddit.com/r/boston/comments/u881ym/former_management_of_pop...
then he swindled a second restauranteur to spend a ton of money to renovate the space and then locked THEM out before they even opened. then there was a third one and apparently fourth? the only common denominator is john tyler.
not a surprise at all that their latest venture failed. as long as john tyler's name is on the building, no one in eastie wants to set forth in that building.
take the building too.