App-based liquor store and delivery service planned for South Boston

UPDATE: The board approved a license.

The Boston Licensing Board votes tomorrow whether to grant a liquor license to a start-up by MIT graduates who see a business in letting people buy craft beers, wine and hard liquor through their smart phones.

DrinkIn, Inc., which last year started delivering alcohol via bicycle for a Cambridge liquor store, has big plans for a warehouse at 371 Dorchester Ave., where it plans to set up tablet-based showroom and an online ordering system for residents within a roughly 15-minute area to fill their booze needs via all-electric vehicles driven by trained staffers who will carry no cash.

Pablo Bello, one of the founders and the CEO, said there's growing demand in the Boston area, especially among the 25-40 set wedded to their smart phones, for both artisanal alcohol not stocked by many traditional liquor stores and the ability to buy it through a phone app.

Even people who come into the store will have to make purchases on a tablet - with their orders filled from a store room out back, he said, adding the store will not stock growlers, kegs, nips or lottery tickets.

Bello said the company has strict protocols to ensure they don't deliver alcohol to the pre-21 set and to keep drivers safe, starting with a database of customer records tied to their government-issued IDs. Drivers will also be barred from delivering to the obviously inebriated, he said.

In addition to requiring credit cards and use of an app - or a Web site - to make orders at oime, customers will not be allowed to give drivers cash tips.. And drivers will only make curbside deliveries, reducing the risks of robberies inside buildings or in darkened parking lots, he said, adding all delivery vehicles will have large "no cash" markings.

Bello said that if the board grants DrinkIn a license, it will hire 14 workers initially and will move its development team, now based in Cambridge, to Dorchester Avenue.