What's sauce for waterfront goose not sauce for Back Bay gander

City officials who were quick today to support a waterfront restaurant's plans for a patio open until midnight were equally quick to reject a Boylston Street restaurant's plans for a patio open until midnight - even though another restaurant just a few doors down already has a patio open until midnight.

The mayor's office and city councilors Steve Murphy, Felix Arroyo and Ayanna Pressley all endorsed a proposal by the Boston Harbor Hotel to build a patio for up to 64 patrons on its southern side - its second - with weather-appropriate hours of 11 a.m. to midnight.

The mayor's office and Councilor Mike Ross opposed a request from the Atlantic Fish Company, 761 Boylston St., to extend the closing time of its patio from 10 p.m. to midnight.

Abe & Louie's, 793 Boylston, owned by the same company, is allowed to keep its patio open until midnight.

Representatives from the mayor's and Ross's offices pointed to opposition to the proposed new hours from the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay, which doesn't like seeing any patios open past 11 p.m. in that stretch of Boylston. They were unable to say how Abe & Louie's ever got the group to allow its midnight closing, but said it was the exception to the rule.

Atlantic Fish Company lawyer Karen Simao said there are no residences adjacent to the seafood place, which she said has operated for more than 20 years without problems. The Mandarin Oriental Hotel is across the street, but Simao said the later hours would be a benefit its guests, many of them from cities where patios are allowed to stay open later than 10 p.m.

The licensing board votes tomorrow on both patio requests.