Jamaica Plain coffeehouse and restaurant wins OK to buy beer and wine license

The Boston Licensing Board today granted Evergreen Eatery, 154 Green St. in Jamaica Plain, permission to buy the beer and wine license from a Fenway Qdoba.

The board also agreed to let the restaurant expand their alcohol offerings to include liqueurs and to eliminate provisions that applied to Qdoba, in a student-heavy area, to require the sale of food to go with any alcohol sales, ensure an employee is stationed on the restaurant's outdoor patio at all times and never operate an actual bar.

Even before he opened Evergreen in 2018, owner Phil Paik was well known in the neighborhood as owner of JP Seafood on Centre Street.

Michael Reiskind of the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council, who urged the board to grant the license transfer request, noted that even residents in the building that houses Evergreen strongly supported the request at a hearing yesterday. Paik is "a longstanding and outstanding business owner in the neighborhood," Reiskind said.

In addition to Evergreen's patio, on which adult patrons will be able to drink alcohol without the presence of an eagle-eyed worker, Evergreen also has what is now a six-seat coffee bar - at which patrons will be able to sip on adult beverages.