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Neighborhood group opposes Japanese food until 2 a.m. near Berklee

Update: 2 a.m. closing time approved - for both this place and an Indian place a couple doors down.

The Boston Licensing Board decides tomorrow whether to let Tori Japan, 1110 Boylston St., where Teriyaki House used to be, stay open until 2 a.m. to serve the ravenous needs of nearby college students who think nothing of staying up until all hours.

The Fenway Civic Association, though, says that's just too late for a restaurant that, as close as it is to Berklee College ,is equally as around the corner from more permanent residents who need their sleep.

At a hearing today, the association's Alex Sawczynec also said letting Tori Japan stay open until 2 a.m. "would set a precedent" that would encourage the other restaurants in the stretch between Mass. Ave. and Hemenway Street seek later hours, too.

Tori Japan owner Tony Wu said that while he would keep the doors open to walk-in customers should he get a 2 a.m. closing time, he said his experience with his current 11:30 p.m. closing time is that virtually all students would rather stay in their dorm rooms and order via a food-delivery service rather than head out for a sit-down meal or takeout.

"Fenway Civic doesn't want to be unreasonable," Sawczynec said. "We would support Mr. Wu being open until 1 a.m."

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Comments

As long as it doesn't have live music, or allow students to play their trumpets and saxophones inside the restaurant?

(It's true that not all nearby residents are Berklee students. Some are New England Conservatory, Boston University, MIT, or Northeastern University students instead.)

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You know how they are, tromping about in their Doc Martens, laughing out loud, yelling "swell!" and "so's your old man!" and, some, dare I say, even breaking out their instruments for late-night hootenannies, right here in River City!

Yeah, that location is close enough to several other schools that Berklee students (who technically now include New England Conservatory students) would not be their only customers, but if I had to guess, Berklee students would make up most of the clientele.

Note: Berklee bought Boston Conservatory, not New England Conservatory. No, I am not musically inclined at all.

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Berklee absorbed Boston Conservatory, not New England Conservatory.

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Thanks, I stand corrected.

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i raced to berklee.edu lol

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Do you live in the City? Many bars serve food and call themselves restaurants just for this reason. The food part of these establishments are an afterthought for the real reason why they are in business. Nobody would allow a bar with a 400-500 capacity.

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Why, many establishments have mechanical bulls, and the servers dance on the bars and if anyone comes in wearing a necktie they cut it off and pin it to the wall!!

Absolutely none of that is the case here, though, as you'd know with five seconds of googling. Tori Japan fits a maximum of 10 customers and doesn't serve anything harder than ginger ale. I've seen florist shops that are more of a danger to the community's peace and quiet.

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can hardly hold 50, let alone 500

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If they don't have live entertainment, they're not going to interfere with anyone's sleep.

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It's the delivery drivers. There are a lot of complaints in my neighborhood about late night noise from delivery drivers who block traffic, double park, and block each other in, which results in a lot of people shouting and leaning on their horns. Just saying . . .

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Just saying...

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... instead?

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but the walk out customers at closing time that cannot leave without acting like a bunch of drunken assholes. It’s not the live entertainment or the canned music that creates noise for the neighbors, it’s the drunken patrons. If you have experienced Faneuil Hall or West Broadway at closing time, you would see the shitshow.

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It's such a drag getting into Boston on a late night flight, everything in your fridge is spoiled/thrown out and there is absolutely nowhere to get a bite. Come on Boston, enough already, it's just food.

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This has been a problem for so long in Boston. I remember back in the day one of the only choices for late night delivery was Nan Ling (RIP). I live around the corner and don't see how a sushi place on Boylston is going to interrupt the lives of the olds who live nearby. FCA needs to back off. There are plenty of other areas where they can (and do!) shout "get off my lawn!" A hole in the wall sushi place being open "late" shouldn't be one of them.

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I consider that block a valuable restaurant row for many locals - not just students from NEU, Berklee, etc. I would let them all stay open until 1 am.

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Ironically Berklee controls most of the block in partnership with Hamilton Reality. Boloco, Berklee Bookstore, Pavement, Boston Burger, JP Licks, and the new Japanese restaurant (that’s the subject of this post). Some of you might remember how that block looked 20 years ago. Harold Brown at Hamilton and Roger Brown at Berklee (no relation) worked with Mumbles and the BRA to make substantial improvements and stabilize the retail/pedestrian experience.

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I’m emailing her with this and this is where she needs to be making a difference @Corean Reynolds

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As much as I respect Fenway Civic, it doesn’t represent the entire neighborhood, it only represents a small but well organized voice.

I’m willing to bet that if you took a poll amongst all of the people who live in the neighborhood they, like me, would support allowing this restaurant stay open until two. They’re not bothering anybody.

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In a lot of ways, I wish we had a much more powerful city government that doesn't decide winners and losers for things like hours but allows what is allowed and restricts where bad behavior warrants. Then places like this would stay open until 2 AM because it's what's allowed in the area by the city. And then people who don't want to live near restaurants open at 2 AM would move out to I-dont-give-a-fuck-where and I could afford to buy something downtown.

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Don’t we pay someone at City Hall to ensure late night Boston is late night?

Surely, a small restaurant on Boylston is not going to cause more noise than when all the bars, Fenway Park concerts, and MGM Music Hall let out in the “West Fens.”

There are several storefronts owned by Berklee that are now empty after the pandemic. Let’s try to keep the small independent owned businesses that we have.

The Fenway is 59% young people and telling them they can eat until 1 am, but not 2 am is plain Puritanical.

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