Gourmet food store with kosher wine and craft beer approved across from Boston College over opposition of school, secretary of state

The Boston Licensing Board today approved a packie license for a proposed gourmet food shop in the block of stores next to the Boston College Green Line stop over the strong objections of both the school - which serves beer and wine at on-campus events, including football games - and Secretary of State Bill Galvin, who lives just up the street.

Board members agreed unanimously that Andrew Arbeeny's proposed Mattie's Provisions and Spirits, 2193 Commonwealth Ave., would meet a "substantial public need" in an area of Brighton not well served by other neighborhood liquor stores and that they were satisfied that Arbeeny had outlined a series of measures to ensure booze-frenzied BC younglings don't turn the place into a one-stop gateway to drunkenness.

Even aside from requiring all employees take state-recommended courses for sussing out the underaged and dealing with inebriates, board Chairwoman Kathleen Joyce said, Arbeeny had agreed on several steps to block wet-behind-the-ears BC undergrads from getting their mitts on his alcohol: Arbeeny agreed not to sell nips, single bottles of alcohol, kegs, tobacco or lottery tickets and would not allow third-party delivery of his products - something that got one delivery service in trouble last year after BC students began using it en masse.

Arbeeny also agreed to open later on Sundays so as to not tempt any children going to the family mass at St. Ignatius Church across Commonwealth Avenue

At a hearing yesterday, Arbeeny added he would have another BC deterrent: As a small, 900-square-foot shop mostly given over to high-end food products, his alcohol would cost more than at certain other Brighton liquor stores his attorney could name, but didn't, because he wouldn't be getting a bulk discount from distributors.

"It seems like an upscale gourmet cheese store," board Chairwoman Kathleen Joyce said, adding that alone makes it different from other Brighton alcohol purveyors, the closest of which is a mile away from a neighborhood that houses not just BC students and classrooms but actual permanent residents - including Galvin, who lives just up Lake Street.

Galvin said he "vigorously" opposed opening a booze mart in what he called "basically a food court for Boston College" in a neighborhood that already has to deal with the detritus left on front lawns by drunken BC partiers, mere steps from a Catholic Church. He read a letter of opposition from a pastor at that church.

Bill Evans, current BC police chief and former Boston police commissioner, also opposed what he called "an unnecessary evil."

"It's basically almost on our campus," he said. "It's not a good fit for our university."

And, while he added he has great respect for the the Grealish family, longtime Brighton residents who own the block and whose family Arbeeny is a part of, he noted that Arbeeny himself lives in Scarsdale, NY. Arbeeny's manager for the shop, however, is a Massachusetts resident - as required by state law.

Through an aide, state Rep. Michael Moran, though, supported the proposal, in large part for his own admiration for the Grealish family.

The Brighton Allston Improvement Association has also backed the proposed shop. At a recent hearing before the Zoning Board of Appeal - which also approved the market - one BAIA official, who lives on Undine Road, said it would be unfair to punish her and other adult residents because BC can't control its students.

At their voting meeting today board members considered the "public" good rather than just the BC good, and concluded the Lake Street area could use a gourmet shop with alcohol.

Board member Liam Curran pointed in particular to Arbeeny's plan to stock kosher wines, which he said could not find regularly stocked in other Brighton packies, none of which are within a five-minute walk of Lake Street, anyway.

While Galvin and Evans both noted eight liquor stores in Brighton - plus some more just over the line in Newton - Curran said the proposed shop's location is different than ones in other neighborhoods where the board has grappled with, such as South Boston.

"The distances [between the proposed market and others] are much greater than what we usually talk about," he said.

"It's unique enough and compelling enough of an application to approve," board member Keeana Saxon said.