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Chinatown restaurant seeks to extend closing time to 2 a.m.; city councilor, some residents opposed

By adamg on Thu, 09/12/2024 - 11:09am

Friendship BBQ, 40 Harrison Ave. in Chinatown, is seeking to extend its weekday closing time from 11 p.m. to 2 a.m.

The restaurant had a hearing before the Boston Licensing Board yesterday on the proposal for later hours, but through his attorney, owner So Lim Ting asked for a deferral on the vote to let the city Office of Neighborhood Services hold a meeting for nearby residents first. Attorney Carolyn Conway said he had met with a Chinatown-wide neighborhood council.

Attorney Carolyn Conway said the restaurant could easily show the required "public need" for the later hours because as the current closing time approaches, "they're getting people showing up at the door wanting to have a later meal."

An aide to City Councilor Ed Flynn, who represents Chinatown, said Flynn opposed the later hours because of the lack of an abutters' meeting but also because of neighborhood concerns about trash and noise. Conway said the concerns were about the neighborhood in general, not Friendship BBQ specifically.

Neighborhoods: 
Chinatown
Topics: 
Dining
Free tagging: 
Chinese food
Harrison Avenue
Boston Licensing Board


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Comments

By Lee on Thu, 09/12/2024 - 12:12pm.

Even the poor ones who work long hours feeding these afternightclubbers.

By Username Unknown on Thu, 09/12/2024 - 1:51pm.

Suddenly the folks in Chinatown are concerned about trash and cleanliness and think restricting this one business will cure the issue? There is no area more filthy and trash strewn than Chinatown. Always has been. Why don't the folks that live there and do business there care about their own neighborhood?

I frequent this area often and can't help but wonder why no one seems to care about its appearance? The buildings are filthy with 100 years of grime, the streets are coated with grime and trash, many of the businesses are so old and worn out, rodents running rampant, so many abandoned buildings. It's been like that for 100 years.

By Lee on Thu, 09/12/2024 - 2:28pm.

So I guess there is no argument against your claims that residents are slobs.

It would have nothing to do with property owners and management or city policies. It’s just those despicable residents and small businesses that allow vermin such as yourself come piss all over the neighborhood.

By Username Unknown on Thu, 09/12/2024 - 3:27pm.

Shouldn't business owners take pride in the appearance of their shop and the area around it?

It's simply and observation of the conditions of a neighborhood that seems to never change.

You can't blame the city for everything.

By Lee on Thu, 09/12/2024 - 5:49pm.

….. “property management and owners tells it all.

I like Chinatown and find it admirable the way the business owners and residents manage to keep the grime and trash levels down as much as they are able despite high density, lots of foot and motor vehicle traffic, property owner neglect and inadequate trash removal.

The urban street life, festivals, various products and services offered, above board as well as illegal, are attractive to many people. Including slumlords whose mentality you seem to share.

By Username Unknown on Thu, 09/12/2024 - 9:32pm.

So somehow you seem to know that every building in Chinatown is owned by an absentee landlord. So no one that lives there or has a business there owns a property?? Not one? even you don't believe this.

It seems you also agree about it being grimey and trash strewn. I mean it isa what it is but my question is why and why has it always been like that. By your thinking every property has been owned by someone other than the folks that live there for 100 years. As much as I love one of my favorite places, Pho Pasteur, one can't help but notice how run down it is and the ever present layer of grime that coats the place.

By Lee on Thu, 09/12/2024 - 10:45pm.

… ignorance of Chinatown.

By Don't Panic on Fri, 09/13/2024 - 1:25am.

I think the griminess you describe is caused more by the lack of public trashcans and narrow sidewalks than by who lives there or who owns the property.

I've been in Chinatown when the businesses/restaurants there are closing and opening and have seen employees clean up out front. Are you talking about the alleyways behind businesses?

By MyManMyMelo on Thu, 09/12/2024 - 7:08pm.

I dont get it if the city is promoting nightlife should t there be some sort of ordinance or executive order that makes it clear these things should be approved swiftly.

Per hest of the populace and the mayor?
Lemme get this straight:

- We are spending money to hire a nightlife czar

- We’re spending legislative hours looking for more restaurants and more bars.

- We’re spending money bringing in art installations from artist around the world

- We’re looking into social open container districts

All of this in an effort to make the city more appealing, more vibrant, and especially it’s downtown areas

But Ed Flynn can work against all of that simply because he’s an old fart and talked to 10 or so people who get to stifle an entrepreneur who is legally zoned?

By Don't Panic on Fri, 09/13/2024 - 1:28am.

owner So Lim Ting asked for a deferral on the vote to let the city Office of Neighborhood Services hold a meeting for nearby residents first.

That makes perfect sense. What's the rush?