More hard seltzer on the way for South Boston

The Boston Licensing Board today gave two South Boston convenience stores that already had beer and wine licenses permission to add hard liquor to their offerings.

The owners of both Jamie's, 113 H St., and Llanera, 260 East 8th St., said at hearings yesterday that they wanted to expand their alcohol selections because of customer demand. Both cited High Noon vodka-enhance seltzer specifically as one of the drinks their customers were asking for.

Both said they would not need to reduce any of their food shelving to make way for the new alcohol. Kristen Scanlon, lawyer for Jamie's owner Andy Patel, said the store would make room for the harder stuff by putting out fewer bottles of the beer and wine he now stocks, for example, have two bottles of one particular type of one rather than five. Both agreed to a license condition they not sell micro booze bottles.

Board Chairwoman Kathleen Joyce said she was impressed by the strong support shown by customers. Referring specifically to Jamie's, she said, "the overwhelming amount of support we received in the last day was very persuasive."

However, the board agreed that, in addition to the no-nips condition, the expanded licenses would also require the stores to notify the board if they do increase the percentage of their shelving dedicated to alcohol.

"I do not want to see these slowly expanding and becoming full liquor stores," she said.