Update: Expansion approved.
The owner of jm Curley's and the Wig Store Lounge on Temple Place hopes to expand down the street by opening a new "fast casual" Korean place and a "fine dining" sushi restaurant where diners would be serenaded with music from actual records on a record player - hi-fi records, "so it would be a hi-fi lounge," Curley's attorney, Stephen Miller, specified at a Boston Licensing Board hearing this morning.
Hi-fi lounges are a thing elsewhere and jm Curley owner Babak Bina is looking to bring the concept to the Hub, Miller said.
The new restaurants would go into the space now occupied by Herrera's.
And that posed a problem: In Massachusetts, liquor licenses are tied to single addresses, but Herrera's is separated from jm Curley and the Wig Store by a separate building, the one housing ABCD. Miller said it just wouldn't make sense for Bina to try to buy a new license for the new spaces, "based on the numbers that licenses are selling for now." Because of limits set by the state legislature, Boston liquor licenses now go for prices approaching $600,000.
But, Miller continued, Bina and his team found a way around that: Use a rear passageway connecting the three buildings and the basements of the three to connect the current jm Curley and Herrera's spaces. Voila: Creation of a single contiguous location.
The plans call for part of the basement space in the current Herrera's location to be used for a bar with seating for 21 people.
Miller said that inspectors from the state Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission - the state's ultimate liquor-license arbiter - came to Temple Place and were "confident [the idea] would pass muster."
The board decides Thursday whether to amend the jm Curley license to cover the new spaces.
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Comments
Sigh
By jrkatz
Wed, 10/25/2023 - 11:42am
This man and his businesses have taken so much of my money over the years... Guess I'm gonna have to pony up some more.
Records
By anon
Wed, 10/25/2023 - 11:56am
Who gets to pick the records?
By the way, what happened to the proposed cat bookstore on Charles Street?
I think they gave up on the
By xyz
Wed, 10/25/2023 - 2:55pm
I think they gave up on the cat bookstore when somebody pointed out that cats can't read.
Cats can read
By SamWack
Thu, 10/26/2023 - 7:26am
they just don't bother.
will the
By anon
Wed, 10/25/2023 - 2:08pm
will the pizza and subs also be hi-fi?
But, Miller continued, Bina
By Bob Leponge
Wed, 10/25/2023 - 6:03pm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eruv
This could be the solution to Boston's completely ridiculous liquor license situation.
In fact, who needs a damn piece of string; the city council could just declare that all of Boston is "a single contiguous location" and apply for a single liquor license to cover it.
Licensing board hearings
By fungwah
Thu, 10/26/2023 - 7:36am
might get a little messy...
I wonder if the 21 seat
By Don't Panic
Thu, 10/26/2023 - 12:38am
I wonder if the 21 seat basement bar will get a seperate name? They could call it B'low-Fi lounge!
Sushi platters
By SamWack
Thu, 10/26/2023 - 7:32am
Vinyl records are sometimes called "platters", which suggests the best use they could be put to in this establishment. Would you like our Ol' Blues Eyes Is Back Platter, or our Disraeli Gears Platter?