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City councilor objects to liquor license for Dorchester Wahlburgers nowhere close to opening
By adamg on Wed, 09/14/2016 - 5:42pm
Oh, don't worry, it's not that Councilor Frank Baker doesn't love Wahlburgers as much as everybody else - how could he not? - it's just that given how scarce liquor licenses are in this town, he doesn't think it's fair that the Boston Licensing Board give them a license for a South Bay Mall add-on where construction has barely started.
An aide to Baker raised the objection at a Boston Licensing Board hearing today after chain attorney Stephen Miller told the board it would be at least a year from now before the newest Wahlburgers could open - giving them a license when so many other people could put one to use earlier wouldn't be fair, she said.
The burger chain, bankrolled by Donny, Marky Mark and the other Wahlbergs, is requesting one of the 20 neighborhood-specific all-alcohol licenses the board got the right to issue on Sept. 1, for their proposed burger joint with 255 seats - 102 of them in an outdoor patio. The board will not take any action for at least a couple of weeks, so that it can hear from other applicants for the licenses.
The intent of the legislation that gave Boston more liquor licenses was to help restaurant entrepreneurs get a start in a city where regular liquor licenses routinely go for $300,000 and up, not for chains, but the law only specifies neighborhoods, not start-up status, so the Wahburgers proposed for the South Bay extension would qualify, since that's technically Dorchester, one of three neighborhoods specifically named by the legislature (the law also allows licenses in the city's Main Street districts, which include places such as Roslindale Square and Cleary Square in Hyde Park).
Unlike regular licenses, which the board has five of to award, the neighborhood-specific ones cannot be resold - if the owner goes out of business or retires, he or she has to give it back to the board.
As Paul Wahlberg listened, Miller said the family "Is just looking forward to coming home, to move into Dorchester."
Miller added the chain would have no objections to a request from the mayor's office to set a midnight closing time, rather than the 2 a.m. it had requested.
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Comments
Ugh, Boston doesn't need more
Ugh, Boston doesn't need more burger chains. especially ones run by a racist thug.
Marky Mark will bring
Marky Mark will bring Sylvestor Stallone, Claude Van Dam, Arnold Swartzanegger and many other useless talented movie stars to Boston city hall and make sure their voices will be heard and fight for a liquor license for their hometown Dorchester hamburger joint.
Frank ain't gettin a
goo vibration.
Wahlbergs vs the Baker boys
Dot brats vs Dot rats
walbergers comes home
Please don't. I ate at the Hingham 1 a year ago. It sucked and it's robbery without a gun. Thanks Frank
I'm thinking this is
I'm thinking this is bankrolled by the Hinghamites, to keep the Dot rats out of "The Shipyard"
Dot rats aren't on the Walburg's jock
Are you kidding me?
Maybe the tween girls like anywhere else but none I know are star struck by them or driving to Hingham for a burger. Come on now.
Full disclosure:
I knew a couple of the non-famous siblings growing up and they were good kids.
Haven't heard a bad thing about Paul as a chef but the chain is what it is, not my cup of tea.
As for the racist thug owner another post mentioned, let's remember only Marky commuted those acts, not his brothers.
Shitty move by him but I don't begrudge the rest of them their success in the least. They worked hard for it.
And while I don't condone his behavior I'd certainly hate to be judged for the rest of my life upon my worst behavior as a kid.
I wouldn't say Dot rats are
I wouldn't say Dot rats are on their jock, but plenty of OFD'ers go to Wahlburgers
Perhaps, Lmo
But there's a lot more than geography that separates current (and past) Dot rats from many OFD'ers.
I equate that term mostly with people who bailed from Dot when the going got a little rough. They have some nostalgic pride in a place they couldn't get out of fast enough.
Good riddance.
I don't. Anyone who is from
I don't. Anyone who is from Dot, will refer to his/ her self as a Dot rat, regardless of where they currently reside. Same for OFD, people from Dot who grew up there and have never left, refer to themselves as OFD.
Dot rat yes, OFD no in my experience
I'm a proud Dot rat that has lived many places and have never used the term OFD. A bumper sticker especially would never happen.
I moved back for a while and did use the term DBC (Dorchester By Choice) as it was specifically non-OFD. When I heard the term I loved it's implications.
I didn't move to the South Shore and don't go out of my way to socialize with people from Dot (whether they use term or not) but only one person in my circle (almost all of whom eventually moved out of Dot) uses the acronym in social media handles. No other references I'm aware of.
The term (and Dot) wasn't known in any of the places I moved to so it couldn't be a quick signifier even if I wanted it to be.
On the South Shore ( and around NE less so) it could be quickly used to set yourself apart from the natives.
Maybe this is some weird notion or prejudice of mine, who knows, but that's been my experience.
Frank Baker
Thank you.
Chains
I thought walburgers couldn't get a license, aren't they a chain? Their website lists 7 states. I thought this was for small entities, not chains
That was the intent, but ...
The law only lists neighborhoods (and Main Street districts), says nothing about blocking chains.
"Has only five licenses to give out"
Again, I'm reminded of Trump and the "they don't look Indian" video. Except this time, Mark Wahlberg is Trump. Does that really feel like a stretch?
Stenography contract is the Council’s largest cost each year...
>"Stenographic Services:
>
>"I reported back as President and Chair of the Council’s Rules & Administration Committee that we would be renewing the Council’s contract for stenographic services with Ellen Fritch & Company for the next year.
>
>"The Council requires stenographic services to turn around meeting minutes and indexing by certain legally-mandated timeframes.
>
>"In accordance with the public procurement process, the Council released a call for bids and received two bids, which were reviewed at a public meeting last week.
>
>"One bid was from our current stenographer, Ellen Fritch, and the other was from California Deposition Reporters (CDR).
>
>"Ms. Fritch provided an all-inclusive contract price of $55,000.
>
>"CDR provided a bid with pricing by the hour and premium fees that would apply to the turnaround times required by law.
>
>"Moreover, they did not complete the bid document with prices for indexing.
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>"The stenography contract is the Council’s largest cost each year, aside from Councilor and staff salaries."
--Boston City Council meeting notes - September 14th, 2016 sent from info at michelleforboston.com
Go to mark 16:14 at
http://www.cityofboston.gov/citycouncil/cc_video_library.asp?id=11091
see also
https://www.youtube.com/user/BostonCityCouncil/videos?sort=dd&view=0&she...
and
https://www.facebook.com/michelleforboston/videos/1132778646815392/
ESL English Second Language folks, hard of hearing folks, the Deaf Community are at a disadvantage for greater civic participation. Make available the Searchable Full Transcript to all !
South Bay is so-o-o-o
South Bay is so-o-o-o Dorchester.
Boston backwards again?
Frank's argument seems very counter-intuitive (and very Boston like)
Someone (forget it's WB for a minute) wants to build a restaurant, but Boston won't tell them if they can get a liquor license until they've spend tens (hundreds) of thousands actually building the establishment? So if the city eventually says "no" an investor (small business owner) has now wasted their money and goes under.
How would this encourage any business owner to ever invest in creating a restaurant?
(it's a little easier for renting rather than building, as most places have a lease escape clause if they can't get the liquor license, but still...)
Coming home?
Wahlburger's coming home? That's a joke, given that the first thing they did when they got any money was move out of Dorchester.