Burrito battle: How a downtown restaurant was almost shut down over donated food for a city event

and one just opened for us on Boylston Street - this makes me want to go there more often - thanks for running a great operation and for what you do for the city John!

right hand is not talking to the left hand in this instance. Better communication among city depts might help solve this embarrassing situation.

Menino may have told him they needed a permit. Just sounded like incoherent mumbling though.

Hooray for ISD. The rules probably said that Boloco needed a permit, and ISD didn't let the fact that Boloco was helping out Menino get in the way. Someone at ISD is going to get yelled at, though.

If this isn't the Administration that specializes in NOT knowing how the City works, than I shudder to think what one would look like. How inconsiderate after all these years of imposing on business this way

I wonder if it really is that easy for two disparate city departments to communicate about this sort of thing. I'm not sure what their procedures are, but if you're the Boston Bikes program - which I think maybe has 1 or 2 people in it besides Nicole Freedman - and you're doing an event on short notice in addition to all your usual duties, who are all the different folks you need to call in such a large organization? Police detail, whoever gives you the microphones etc, the mayor's office obviously, the offices of any other officials there, whoever handles scheduling city hall plaza, the press, the mayor's press office, and probably some other permitting stuff I don't know about it. My point is - if I'm in that situation - I don't know if I'd think to call the health inspector to make sure they don't try to fine one of my vendors without going through me.

To be clear, John is completely right to be ticked off, and it's possible I'm giving too much slack because I don't actually know their procedures. But I'd guess the solution is not increasing the number of people you need to contact if you're a city department hosting an event - better to have an easy way to handle permits up front, or communicating more clearly to your vendors. Sounds like all this was a bit last minute.

Anyways, a quick apology or something for Boloco surely would not go amiss.

Try opening a cab company without running afoul of Menino`s merry band of miscreant "inspectors".

The funny thing is you don't even get to see the inspectors to you find a building that meets requirements from 1933 that doesn't exist in any neighborhood in the city and grease all the local community groups.

Anyone who does business in Boston gets what they deserve.

I was furious about the city's treatment of Boloco when I read todays paper. This is another example of the City's red tape hampering business I thought, then I read Bolocos CEO's tweets disparaging Boston's Union Workers and I couldn't believe it. Whenever I'm at at a Boloco I always see a crowd of other Union Workers enjoying a burrito or waiting in line for one during their lunch break. That Boloco would use this opportunity to take a swing at the workers of boston just makes my blood boil! What do we have to do with a dispute with the City Permit Department? It's infuriating to hear yet another Fat-Cat millionaire placing every one of his problems at the feet of the working man. I will never step foot in a Boloco again and would urge every Union Member or person concerned with workers rights to stay out of any Boloco location. I have never been moved to write a letter to a corporation or an op-ed page but I am so sick of Union workers being blamed for everything from the deficit to (now) burrito shops having a hard time securing a permit that I am contacting my union and will copy and past Bolocos anti union comments on our website and can only hope it will inspire workers to stay out of this anti worker millionaire's establishment.

Boloco loco cheap bastard wants a political favor and gets his cheapass slapped down by someone who is doing there job.

Pissed over $30 - what an ass.

....Chief Inspector Mike Mackan. Biggest layabout blowhard in the city. 1010 Mass Ave "business" practices can be summed up by this hack alone.

Hi Everyone

An apology is due by a general reference I made on twitter to "union rackets" without further explanation.

Needless to say, labor has been instrumental in so much of what makes this country and city great and its middle class strong. For Boloco, union members are not only our valued customers, but have literally helped build our business as we've expanded across Boston, using predominantly union labor.

Sadly, a couple of labor organizations have taken to protesting our and other Boston retail businesses over a particular disagreement for a number of years--often with signs and statements that are inflammatory, untrue, and have nothing to do with their complaint itself. And yes, their actions have been very harmful to our and other small businesses in Boston.

My reference to "union rackets" in my tweet was to that situation in particular, and I in no way meant to criticize the labor movement or "unions" generally, or union members, who are such an important part of our community.

I should have chosen my words more carefully. Unions had nothing to do with the incident reported in the Globe. While damage has been done (we will respond to each and everyone of you who have voiced concern and more) I sincerely do apologize for this.

John Pepper
CEO and Co-Founder