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Foiled in bid for beer-and-wine license, South Boston restaurant wants to try BYOB
By adamg on Wed, 02/16/2022 - 11:25am
Update: Approved.
The owner of Lenox Sophia, 87 A St. in South Boston, today asked the Boston Licensing Board to allow guests to bring in their own bottles of beer or wine to go with his "casual fine dining" fare.
The board had earlier voted that Shi Mei's restaurant qualified for a regular beer-and-wine license, but that it had none to give him. Faced with a high five-figure cost of acquiring one on the open market, Mei went before the board today seeking a BYOB license, which the board can give out in unlimited numbers, but which few restaurants have ever applied for. The total number of regular alcohol licenses in Boston is set by the state legislature, which has created that expensive open market as Boston has boomed.
Under the board's BYOB regulations, restaurants with fewer than 30 seats outside Boston Proper, the Seaport and the South End can let patrons bring in up to 64 oz. of beer or 750 mL of wine per person.
Lenox Sophia has 20 seats.
Mei said that either he or one of his two servers would provide stemware for guests. He promised to cut off any patrons who appear to be "overenjoying themselves" with alcohol.
The board could vote tomorrow on whether to grant Mei a BYOB license.
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Comments
This kind of licensing nonsense is what drives
innovative indie chefs like this guy to open their restaurants in Cambridge, Somerville, Newton and beyond. Keep up this bullshit, and we'll have nothing but deep-pocketed, middlebrow chain outlets within city limits. Do you really want to be Dubuque (except with oysters), Boston?
There has to be a way to wrest control of liquor licensing back from the State House. The current setup, which dates to the bigoted Brahmins losing control of City Hall to those upstart Irish and Italian immigrants, is ruinous to restaurant innovation and retention of talent here.
Harder than it may have used to be
I'd say "Dig up dirt on a state pol and expose them", but post-Trump, it's evident that shame is no longer a cudgel.
Eater
I was thinking this same thing last night as I marveled at how more than half of the Eater 38 is in Cambridge-Somerville.
Yup!
Generally speaking, newer startup restaurants and those that are more innovative are going to seek out more favorable economics to manage risk. Lower-cost neighborhoods tend to attract new top chefs in every city, whereas Gordon Ramsey can open up in Boston's most expensive zip code and not really sweat the risk.
When I'm looking for good new restaurants, I tend to avoid the pricey parts of Boston.... they need to be generic enough to attract sufficient volume.
The Rent is Too Damn High!
Even if Licenses were readily available, the cost to rent space is so high that it can only be carried by large corporate places or long established local chefs with serious backing.
Preaching to the choir with me
The restaurant scene here is abysmal compared to what it could be if it wasn't for the artificial liquor license landscape.
It is still so shocking to me
It is still so shocking to me that a public license, whether liquor license or hackney license, can be monetized and sold by private citizens or corporations. Unfair.
AHHHHHHH
every time I read another story about how difficult it is to open and run a restaurant or business with liquor licenses or long hours in this city, I want to yell