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JP dive's liquor license could go to Seaport taco joint

The Boston Licensing Board next week considers a request from the owner of the now shuttered Drinking Fountain on Washington Street to sell her liquor license to Pink Taco, a totally not suggestively named Los Angeles chain that plans to open up at 374 Congress St.

The Drinking Fountain, which had been quenching thirsts for decades, closed last summer.

The board's hearings start at 10 a.m. on Wednesday in Rm. 809 in City Hall.

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Comments

I was so sad to the the Drinking Fountain go. Now I'm even sadder that its liquor license went to a place in Seaport! All the lovable characteristics and characters I loved about the Drinking Fountain for many years had nothing in common with overpriced Seaport.

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that liquor licenses need to be in local neighborhoods rather than concentrated downtown?

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Boston has several different types of liquor licenses, but the one the Drinking Fountain is selling is one of the old-fashioned, can-be-used-anywhere types.

You're probably thinking of the 60 or so "neighborhood" licenses Ayanna Pressley got the city a few years ago. Not only are those limited to certain neighborhoods (Roxbury, Mattapan and Dorchester) and main-street districts, they cannot be resold and have to be turned into the licensing board to be granted to somebody in one of those areas again. The city is trying to get more of these approved by the legislature, with a new proviso that those three neighborhoods, plus a couple others (Hyde Park and, um, maybe one other) would get their own pool of licenses that could only ever doled out in those neighborhoods.

Pressley's move to get the new licenses was because of a Drinking Fountain-like migration of licenses from outer neighborhoods to the waterfront and downtown, back when full liquor licenses were going for upwards of $350,000 on the open market - a price now neighborhood restaurant entrepreneur could possibly afford.

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A transferable license gives the owner the right to sell it, pending approval by the City. Any money that changes hands is between the parties.
A non-transferable license has to be turned in to the City, which can re-issue it to someone else.
The new licenses are non-transferable.

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Perfect example of why we need those.

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