Fancy wine store not kosher on Chestnut Hill Avenue in Brighton? Board to decide

UPDATE, Thursday: The licensing board decided to pass over this issue for now, deferring action until a later date.

The Boston Licensing Board votes tomorrow whether to allow a Wine Gallery wine and spirits store at Chestnut Hill Avenue and Embassy Road, in the new building that replaces a block destroyed by fire in 2012.

The proposed store would be a "boutique store" selling specialized wines and craft beers and cheeses to go with them - and would hold tastings and other such upscale events - Joseph Hanley, attorney for would-be owner Marina Feldman, told the licensing board at a hearing today. He added the shop would also stock kosher wines for the area's Jewish community.

The proposal split the neighborhood along the traditional liquor-license fault lines in general, but also exposed differences in the neighborhood's Jewish community.

It was in part opposition from orthodox Jews concerned about a nearby religious school that led the mayor's office to oppose what a representative conceded was "a very good proposal."

Sgt. Michael O'Hara of District D-14, raised the specter of more drunken teens. He said the store, halfway between the student hangouts at Cleveland Circle and the bars of Brighton Center, which report an influx of students with fake IDs following crackdowns in Cleveland Circle, would just prove too tempting for kids dying to try out their new fake IDs.

Hanley said the shop would rebuff students by closing at 9 p.m., by not selling kegs, 30-packs or cigarettes and by using a license scanner. "It's probably not going to be the first choice of an Eagle, a sophomore or junior or whatever," he said. He added the store's proposed manager used to work in Brookline, which he noted has its own issues with drink-seeking students.

Susan Heideman, who lives in a condo at 163 Chestnut Hill Ave., said her condo association voted to support the shop, which she said would meet the discerning needs of young professionals and empty nesters "with interests in good food and fine wine" not presently met by the liquor stores of Cleveland Circle and Brighton Center.

Feldman, who used to live on Strathmore Road and who is herself Jewish, ran into opposition from some members of the Orthodox Jewish community in the neighborhood, because of its proximity to a religious school and families with young children.

Daniel Segal, a representative of Royal Wine, and himself orthodox - he noted he's a member of Young Israel in Brookline - said opponents were "very, very orthodox" and really outliers in the overall orthodox community in the area.

Plus, he said, at one meeting, he discovered that while orthodox men were vocal in opposing the store, their wives understood the benefits of having a store they could walk to for their kosher cooking and sacramental wines, rather than trying to figure out how to get all the way over to the Butcherie on Harvard Street in Brookline. Many of the families in the area, he said, don't drive.