Mayor doesn't want later-night Boston to start at one Allston taco shop

City officials and the Allston Civic Association won't back a Brighton Avenue taco shop's efforts to stay open an hour later on weekend nights.

Representatives of the mayor's office - which just this week announced a task force to look at how to wake the City that Always Sleeps - and city councilors Mark Ciommo and Steve Murphy opposed Amelia's Taqueria's bid to be allowed to stay open until 3 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights.

At a Boston Licensing Board hearing this morning, they noted opposition from both the civic association and the Brighton Allston Improvement Association. There's just no need for a taco place open at 3 a.m., even with new late-night weekend hours on the T and the mayor's new task force, they said.

Allston Civic Association President Paul Berkeley said letting Amelia open that extra hour would break open a logjam of "a hundred other people" with food-serving licenses who would demand the same hours.

Berkeley said 2 to 3 a.m. on weekends is when hell breaks loose in Allston as all the bars let out and the crowds mix, grow angry with each other and begin to brawl. "There's a lot of drunks on the street between 2 and 3 in the morning in Allston" and the last thing the neighborhood needs is another place for them to mix, he said.

Amelia's owner Amir Shiranian, however, said his place has only two tables, so it's not going to be a place for people to hang out. He said he has had no problems with police since he opened last year.

And he noted two other establishments in the area, including Redneck's, already have 3 a.m. licenses. After Berkeley pointed to problems at Redneck's, Shiranian said it's unfair to punish him for Redneck's problems, and if that place is really so troublesome, maybe it should have its license changed.