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Goody: Fenway Wahlburgers gets a liquor license; Fenway Park gets permission to make it easier to liquor up
By adamg on Fri, 12/19/2014 - 3:27pm
The Boston Licensing Board yesterday gave Wahlburgers permission to spend $325,000 for the liquor license of the old Goody Glover's in the North End for its impending burger joint at 132 Brookline Ave.
The Wahlburgers will have seating for 132 people inside and 84 people on an outdoor patio. In addition to permission to buy the liquor license, the outlet also won permission to stay open until 2 a.m.
With manager Paul Wahlberg at her side, attorney Karen Simao told the board Wednesday that the public need for the restaurant is that it would be a family place where local people could go "multiple times a week to have a burger without it breaking the bank for them."
In a separate matter, the board also approved plans by Fenway Park to extend the rows of seats in which people can get liquor service and to increase the number of hard-liquor stands from eight to ten - with the new stands being movable carts to better serve people at non-baseball events, such as concerts and hockey games.
Fenway Park attorney Dennis Quilty said in-seat liquor service would be extended from the field boxes to the seats just beyond them, where the seats are sectioned off in small enough areas that servers can do things such as check IDs. People who sit in more plebian, longer rows of seats will continue to have to get up and find one of the eight liquor stands should their alcohol needs extend beyond beer.
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Comments
No should be eating burgers
No should be eating burgers multiple times per week, Wahlburger or otherwise.
Hogwash!
Hogwash!
I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.
Okay
They should go to Popeye's, too.
{/snark}
Oh hell..
Why not go the whole hog and splurge at Sonic?
Live a little.
If u r going whole hog
U should head down the street to sweet cheeks. Yum.
I thought he couldn't get a liquor license without a pardon?
He can't
But he isn't the sole owner of these restaurants. His brother Paul appears to be the designated licensee, if that is how it works.
Yeah
and his beef is more with CA than MA (other than be pardoned for said crime) because he wants to expand in CA and he can't. I think...
I thought it was because he
I thought it was because he wanted to be a cop in CA (reserve deputy or something along those lines)
That's only a ploy to get a
That's only a ploy to get a permit to carry a handgun in CA which even with a pardon he wouldn't be able to do so unless given a LEO exemption.
Maybe his brother, Donny, can
Maybe his brother, Donny, can speak to his Dad, Tom Selleck, and see if he'll make a quiet phone call on his behalf.
I've only seen a few clips on the internet about Wahlburgers - I love the plastic baskets and McDonalds style paper liners. The tourists will love it.
Wouldn't it be cool if we could play up the local angle and have Wahlburgers as one of the official food vendors of the Boston Olympics? At the very least, hopefully they'll add a Wahlburgers in the revamped Quincy Market.
It wouldn't be "we" having Wahlburgers as an Olympic sponsor
Those sponsorships go to the highest bidder. Wahlburg would be competing with McDonalds, etc.
Can we talk about...
... the additional $325,000 in capital that it costs to open a restaurant, because of the artificially-created scarcity of supply of liquor licenses?
Licensing board makes Boston a backwater
Boston: backwater.
Real cities: Liquor licenses straight up, water back.
This whole artificially-created scarcity of supply of liquor licenses (and taxi medallions) is proof that Boston is still, indeed, a backwater. It's great that Ayanna Pressley is working on changing the liquor license system but I still don't know how it "works": where does the $325,000 for these licenses go? To the licensing board? Into the pockets of the people who "serve" on the licensing board? Or where? Who appoints these people? How do the people who appoint these licensing board people get away with it?
Blame the state legislature
Pressley wanted the number of licenses lifted completely.
As for where the money goes: When a license is exchanged on the open market, such as this one, the seller gets the amount I quoted. So in this case, Wahlburgers paid $325,000 to the owners of the defunct Goody Glover's to buy the license - contingent on the board approving the sale. In a lot of cases, the liquor license is the only asset left when a restaurant goes under (just ask Todd English).
The licensing board does charge a yearly fee, but it's nowhere near that amount; whatever it is goes to pay for the board and its staffers (I think the amount depends on the size of the restaurant).
For how difficult it is to be
For how difficult it is to be a restaurant, turn profit and pay off debts, it is good that the cost of a license is so expense. It prevents oversaturation of half baked business ideas that would turn over every other day costing employees and retail space.
This sounds like it is going
This sounds like it is going to be more of a drinking joint than a slider shack.For sliders , all you really need is a nice glass of beer or three.