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Possible last call for tiny Roslindale bar seeking to sell its liquor license to some planned Seaport joint

Boston Restaurant Talk reports the Boston Licensing Board will hold a hearing next Wednesday on whether to let B.K.'s Pub on Washington Street in Roslindale sell its liquor license to Borrachito and the Garret Bar at The Superette on Seaport Boulevard, with Borrachito being your basic New York-style taco place and the Garret Bar a "speakeasy" behind that that those in the know will enter by opening what appears to be the door to a walk-in freezer, but, oops, we've said too much.

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Comments

Instead of New York style tacos, let's have Mexican tacos.

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Breakfast tacos!

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Much like Babylon Bee.

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It's been closed for 2.5 years already. BK's seems to pull in people of all sorts at all ages, probably to their detriment I suppose. Anyways, if this is how the license owner wants to cash out their asset, it is what it is.

I know of course that the two licenses have different owners (probably), it's just weird to sell the license for the active bar and the idle one gets kept.

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I've lost count of how many small neighborhood bars/restaurants have closed and their liquor licenses gone to the seaport, south end or similar "downtown" neighborhoods. This illustrates why the interesting owner operated restaurants are opening in the suburbs and we're getting stuck with bullshit venture capital backed restaurant groups and chains in the city.

Mayor Wu and the city council need to get together with all of the state legislators for Boston to put up a united front against Beacon Hill and whoever is in the governor's office and fix this arcane and artificial marketplace.

The restaurant scene could be so much better all across the city if it wasn't for this absolute horseshit.

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The most powerful of the Boston state legislators, Moran, is primarily a front man for the liquor interests who like this system. He's not going to buck against his paymasters to do something as basic as help his constituents.

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The liquor interests (i.e. beer, wine & liquor producers, distributors & sales people) would love to see a higher density of full service restaurants spread all over the commercial corridors in our urban neighborhoods instead of just the downtown core. If Moran really is in their pocket he should be trying to dismantle the system to get more full service places all over town.

The only people who want the status quo are those who own the liquor licenses that are now essentially their retirement fund or those venture capital groups & chains who view it as an asset to leverage for financing (and maybe the occasional city councilor who likes the bribery they can get to help the sale).

Screw those people because it negatively impacts the entire population. My plan (if we get normal licensing) that I've described here before is that the city says that selling them is over and sets up a depreciation schedule that will be in place over the next 15-20 years. You can only turn your license back in to the city from now on. If you do it now the city will give you $400k. Then, every year, it drops a bit over that schedule.

Let's say it's twenty years. If you're not making $20k in liquor sales a year off of that license then by all means turn it in. But I'd be willing to bet money that what it would really do is illustrate the hypocrisy of those who are making bank off of the license but also trying to preserve their special status asset at the expense of us all.

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"But Moran counters that Boston’s lawmakers should maintain control because they have a particular understanding of the city’s neighborhoods and “their own special charms and traditions.”

In a letter Saturday, signed by 14 of the 23-member Boston delegation, he said requiring legislative approval “allows the citizens in those neighborhoods through their elected officials a voice in determining if additional licenses are desirable.”

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/07/25/boston-lawmakers-walsh-spar...

You think an entrenched insider like Moran is dancing to a different tune now that Wu is in charge? Please...

"On the other hand, Moran and others press the case that Boston is unique within the state, that its political ecosystem stipulates that state lawmakers, not just city officials, should be included in the decision-making"

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If he opposes getting rid of the current artificial market then I just put him in the group of people that need to be overcome to make a rational system that would vastly improve the restaurant scene in the city limits and the quality of life for residents as a result.

Most of the problems are not because of some unique characteristics of Boston (again, look at other cities that don't have this issue and have better restaurant scenes). The problems are because of the state control, artificial market and grossly inflated value of what should be nothing more than a routine license from the city issues within the same state parameters that nearly every other place operates under.

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I understand the issue. My point is that this guy, an elected politician of significant seniority is the outspoken leader against reform. He's also a top recipient for donations from the alcohol industry. Now, I think he is mostly fighting to maintain control vs. having any real opinion about how the cap hurts small bar and restaurant owners in the city, but the net effect is the same. This is the guy you need to flip to change the system here in the city.

It's a bit like how a lot of people with access love the zoning system where everything is variances. Once you fix those issues with a simpler building code, a lot of people will have to take their fingers out of a lot of very helpful pies.

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for something like Lyft and Uber to go after liquor licenses like they were taxi medallions.

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delete

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