Maybe the New York Times was prescient

Sure, we all snorted when the Times said we're all calling South Boston SoBo these days, but next spring, the neighborhood could get an Italian restaurant called the Sobo Bistro. And on East Broadway, no less.

Michael Norton has already gotten zoning-board permission to convert an old electrician's shop at E. Broadway and L Street into a restaurant. On Thursday, the Boston Licensing Board figures out if it has a spare beer and wine license to grant him to open his restaurant sometime this spring.

At a board hearing this morning, Norton said he will open the restaurant even if no license is available - and would then seek to obtain one later.

The proposed 60-seat restaurant would be next to the Tasty Burger, in which Norton has been an investor.

His lawyer, Kristen Scanlon, answered the required question of public need for the license by saying the restaurant would be a needed food-based establishment in a neighborhood she said was still dominated by bars.

Alone among city officials, City Councilor Bill Linehan opposed the license request, saying Norton should meet with the local neighborhood association to go over issues such as hours and trash collection. Also, Linehan only wants the restaurant to be allowed to be open until midnight on weekend nights; Norton is seeking permission for midnight closing seven days a week.

Board Chairwoman Nicole Murati Ferrer expressed frustration at the request, saying that while she's a strong proponent of the neighborhood approval process, holding up a license request that's been pending for some time is unfair to the applicant - especially since the local association won't meet again until January. Liaisons from Linehan's office and Mayor Menino agreed to try to set up a meeting between Norton and officials from the neighborhood group - and abutters.

The neighborhood came out in strong support of the concept of a restaurant in the vacant space at a zoning board hearing, but that was before Norton clarified he would run the restaurant himself, rather than seeking to have another concern run it.

Norton said his immediate abutters are a gas station, Tasty Burger, an empty funeral home and some vacant single-family homes being converted into three-family buildings. He said he did send the owners of those properties notices about today's hearing.