Mission Hill market gets OK to add hard liquor to its beer and wine

The Boston Licensing Board yesterday approved plans by the owners of Tipsy's, the former Figueroa's at 739 Parker St. on Mission Hill, to add spirits to the beer and wine they already sell.

In approving the alcohol expansion, board members said they listened to residents who said the trek up and down the hill to Fuentes Market a couple blocks away and on the other side of Tremont Street was too inconvenient and, to some, too dangerous, especially at night.

Also, unlike certain other neighborhoods, Mission Hill "is not saturated" with stores offering alcohol, board Chairwoman Kathleen Joyce said.

Kristen Scanlon, attorney for the Patel family, which owns the market, said customers had been asking for harder drinks for a long time now, and that having them available steps away "makes people safer" because "they don't have to walk to Brigham Circle or across Tremont Street."

Scanlon said the store would continue to stock Goya and Indian food products, along with other food offerings and hygiene products and that roughly 50% of the store's shelving would remain dedicated to non-alcoholic offerings.

Opponents, including the owner of a neighboring building, cited trash, the possibility of unruly patrons and the loss of the sorts of fresh foods nearby residents need.

Thomas Feeney, attorney for the owner of 737 Parker St., said that last week, rats attracted by trash left out by the store "gnawed through a dishwasher hose, which flooded our building."

Emily Jones, of Mission Hill Neighborhood Housing Services, said the neighborhood needs more nutritious food and basic supplies, not more liquor, and said the store's footprint is already more like 70% alcoholic, rather than the 50% Scanlon claimed. She said that the baskets the store has for produce are typically mostly empty.

"Fuentes is right down the street," so there's no reason for more hard liquor at the expense of more basic foodstuffs, she said.

Nick Mascolo, a Mission Hill resident, though, called that "extremely disconnected from reality." He said his own calculations showed the store's shelving to be split 50/50 between alcohol and other offerings, and said the Patels "are very nice people."

Yanis Benyamina said the Tipsy's is "a reliable, well run convenience store" and that while, yes, Fuentes is right across Tremont, "the demographic at night can be kind of scary."

Scanlon said the Patels go outside several times a day to keep things clean. Dhruv Patel suggested that the trash problems - especially in September - are caused not by his customers but by careless students. Fenway High School is around the corner from the store.

As part of their license request, the Patels agreed to not sell individual bottles of beer or tiny bottles of liquor. Board members also urged the Patels to continue meeting with neighbors to work out their issues