Restaurant owners hacked off over liquor license proposal
Longtime Boston restaurant owners are warning that a proposed jump in liquor licenses — offered up for only $3,000 each — could cut into their slim profits.
The warning comes as smaller, more specialized businesses scramble for a foothold — including a competitive ax-throwing facility seeking to hack its way into the Hub.
At a public hearing yesterday, officials and city councilors heard from supporters and opponents of a plan that would bring 152 additional liquor licenses at a reduced cost, instead of the six figures they command on the open market.
The council would have to approve the plan and then get the state Legislature to sign off as well, due to decades-old law giving Beacon Hill the authority to regulate the number of liquor licenses in the city.
Restaurant owners were open to bringing licenses to areas that don’t have many eateries, but were concerned about part of the proposal that would add 30 new establishments across the city — also at the drastically reduced cost. That puts existing restaurants who paid market price for their liquor licenses on an uneven playing field, said Goodcheer Enterprises owner Russ deMariano.
“It’s really hard to stay competitive downtown. Before you know it, you could see a lot of boardedup restaurants,” deMariano said.
But At-large Councilor Ayanna Pressley said people voiced similar concerns in 2014, when the city received 75 new liquor licenses, and bars and restaurants didn’t close up.
“People said the market couldn’t handle it. I think over the past few years we’ve proven it can,” Pressley said.
And Matt Paton, owner of Philadelphia-based Urban Axes, told councilors more licenses would help entertainment companies like his set up shop in Boston.
Paton said his business — “like darts, but bigger and more satisfying” — operates out of warehouses where groups of people compete to throw 1.5-pound hatchets at wooden targets, and allows drinking on the premises as an added draw.
Paton, who recently moved to Boston, said he’s purchased liquor licenses on the open market as the company looks to expand to other cities, but at “nowhere near the price you see here.”
“Boston has an abundance of real estate that would fit our model. The liquor license is really our biggest obstacle,” Paton said. “The reason we aren’t here is because it’s a deterrent.”