Massachusetts Alcoholic Beverage Licensing Blog

North End residents are criticizing a proposal by two North End restaurants to stay open an hour later, saying the change will spark more noise in the close-knit neighborhood.

"I've lived in the North End for 37 years and I love city living," said Mary McGee, a member of the North End Waterfront Residents' Association, as quoted by the Boston Herald. "But even city dwellers have to sleep at some point. It's a quality of life issue. When customers are out in the street, even the best restaurants have no control when someone's talking under your window at 1:30 a.m."

Tresca on Hanover Street and Vinoteca di Monica on Richmond Street are seeking city approval to stay open until 1 a.m. The Boston Licensing Board is considering the applications. Nearly 75% of North End licensees close at 1:00 a.m.

Massimo Tiberi, general manager of Tresca, said the major impetus for extending the hours from midnight to 1 a.m. came from Ray Bourque, co-owner of the restaurant and a former Boston Bruins [team stats] star.

"Ray has lots of friends who attend games who try to come in and have a Tresca meal," Tiberi said. "But we can't serve them in the amount of time between the game ending and our closing."

McGee said she routinely hears boisterous patrons returning to their cars well after midnight and sometimes after 2:30 a.m. following a night of eating and drinking.

The Boston Globe reports that a federal judge sentenced Chuck Turner to three years in prison for accepting a $1,000 bribe, chastising the former Boston city councilor for his inability to "confront the ugly reality of the federal crimes he committed.''

US District Judge Douglas P. Woodlock laid blame for the harsh sentence squarely on Turner, saying he committed blatant perjury with his "surreal'' and "ludicrous'' testimony that he could not recall meeting a government witness who handed him a wad of cash related to liquor licensing.

"Someone like Mr. Turner who undertakes to speak truth to power must face the truth about himself,'' Woodlock said from the bench as Turner broke into a wide smile. "If it had been just a $1,000 bribe unaccompanied by false statements to the FBI and without the ludicrously perjurious testimony, we'd be in a different place.''

Although Woodlock acknowledged Turner's decades of advocating for the voiceless, the judge said it was clear he also "took a little on the side'' and "betrayed the public trust.''

Turner was ordered to report to prison March 25, although his lawyer vowed to appeal his case. During the two-hour hearing, Turner, a 70-year-old Harvard-educated activist, repeatedly shook his head to disagree with statements from the judge and prosecutor, but he declined to speak during the proceeding.

Turner's supporters cheered as he left the courtroom, chanting, "We stand with Chuck!'' Outside, a crush of media and others surrounded Turner as he struck a familiar tone of defiance, alleging a broad government conspiracy perpetrated by President George H.W. Bush's administration to "shut the mouths'' of black elected officials. He warned of "prosecutors gone wild'' and vowed to return to Boston after serving his time to keep up the fight.

"What happened today was as much a miscarriage of justice as the conviction,'' Turner said. "I'm innocent, and I didn't lie on the stand.''

The Boston Globe reports that Massachusetts' top federal judge, Mark Wolf, has said that Boston City Council's authority to oust Chuck Turner from office last month following the councilor's conviction for accepting a bribe is legally uncertain, and Turner's lawsuit to regain his seat might be turned over to the state courts.

Wolf ordered lawyers representing Turner and the city to submit their recommendations as to where the case should be decided by noon Friday.

Wolf is treading carefully because he said the question of whether the council has the legal authority to remove an incumbent has never before been decided in Massachusetts.

"This case involves issues that are fundamental to our federal system of government and, indeed, our democracy,'' Wolf wrote in his decision. "Respect for the role and responsibilities of the state generally make it most appropriate for state courts, rather than federal courts, to decide uncertain issues of state law, particularly if they relate to state or local elections.''

A timely decision is crucial because special elections to fill Turner's seat have been scheduled for Feb. 15 and March 15.

Turner, convicted in October for taking a $1,000 bribe from a Roxbury businessman seeking a liquor license from the city, is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 25. If he is sent to prison, he would automatically be removed from office.

But the City Council -- citing new rules adopted following Turner's indictment that permit them to remove a councilor for "unbecoming conduct'' by a two-thirds vote -- had expelled him in December.

"It appears that the council's authority to remove Turner before he is sentenced is uncertain,'' Wolf wrote.

Last Monday, Turner and some of his constituents sought an injunction preventing the special elections and restoring him to his seat on the council, arguing that state law does not give the City Council the authority to remove him.

Turner had filed a lawsuit in December arguing that the council violated his rights when it expelled him. Fifteen of his constituents joined in the suit, contending they are disenfranchised because they no longer have district representation on the council.

The Sun Chronicle with a unique story on a Mansfield Japanese restaurant getting into some hot water for its free squirts of Sake.

Sake Steak House in Mansfield Crossing has reined in part of its popular "hibachi" dining performances after the restaurant received complaints from the parents of a 19-year-old customer.

Mansfield Police Chief Arthur O'Neill concluded that, in addition to serving an underage customer, the hibachi routine of spraying sake, a Japanese rice wine, into the mouths of customers, violated the state prohibition on offering free drinks and holding a contest or game involving alcohol.

O'Neill sent his complaint to Mansfield selectmen, the town licensing authority, who on Wednesday night announced they would hold a public disciplinary hearing for the restaurant "as soon as possible."

"I read the report and I am very disturbed by it," Selectman Jess Aptowitz said. "I think this is very serious." Spraying sake from squeeze bottles into the mouths of diners, often to the chant of "sake! sake!" has become a popular part of the "hibachi" experience.

"Hibachi," which in the United States also refers to small portable charcoal grills, in this context describes performance teppanyaki cooking where diners are seated around a chef who flips food and juggles utensils while cooking for them.

In addition to drinking, sake is also used in cooking and is an integral part of hibachi staples like the flaming onion volcano, where the alcohol is set alight.

On Wednesday afternoon, Kevin Shi, manager of Sake, said the incident involving the 19-year-old had been a result of poor judgment on the part of the chef working that night, who has since been let go.

"I think it was a big misunderstanding between the chef and the customer that night," Shi said. "We have corrected the problem."

Unlike other states with more liberal alcohol laws, Massachusetts prohibits alcohol promotions, such as happy-hour free drink specials. The state does allow businesses to offer free alcohol in wine tastings. Shi told the Sun Chronicle that since the complaint in late December, Sake Steak House is making sure that any free tastes of sake from chefs are of tiny amounts consistent with a wine tasting.

Interesting piece in the Patriot Ledger about how a new auditing service helps restaurants keep track of how much alcohol it is selling, and also potentially wasting. The service is designed to help businesses reap additional profits.

After more than 20 years in Westborough, B.J.'s Wholesale Club will close its doors later this year when it opens its new store in Northborough. Selectmen there have unanimously approved an all alcoholic package store license for the new location, scheduled to open in early fall just a few miles away from the Westborough facility.

After the meeting, BJ's Vice President Peter Hopley confirmed that the Westborough BJ's at 290 Turnpike Road will close at about the same time the Northborough location opens.

The new store will be part of the $100 million Northborough Crossing project. Located at the intersection of routes 9 and 20, the project will include a Kohl's store as well as New York-based supermarket Wegmans.

BJ's, a membership warehouse store that sells food and general merchandise, has 194 clubs in 15 states. The company announced last week that it would cut hundreds of jobs and close five stores in the Georgia, Florida and North Carolina.

Haverhill Fire Chief Richard Borden has lost his attempt to close the Blue Finn Grille and force the owners to install an expensive fire sprinkler system. Restaurants like the Blue Finn Grille that seat fewer than 100 diners are not typically required to have sprinklers.

However, Borden contended that the building had sprinklers at some point in the past, when it was owned by someone else. The chief's position was that those sprinklers were illegally disconnected and therefore must be put back regardless of the seating capacity of the restaurant on downtown Washington Street.

Lawrence Superior Court Judge Robert Cornetta has issued his ruling in the case. The judge said he visited the building Nov. 4 and found no evidence that there were ever sprinklers in it. His ruling says Borden claimed that some old sprinkler piping found in a building next door also serviced the Blue Finn Grille building.

"There is absolutely no physical evidence on site showing that sprinkler piping (found next door) penetrated the restaurant building's exterior masonry walls and serviced the restaurant's building," Cornetta wrote in his ruling.

Following the Fire Department's latest setback, City Councilor David Hall is calling for the firing of Chief Borden. Other city leaders have said they are concerned about the department's problems and that Borden's performance must improve.

Federal judge Douglas Woodlock has sentenced former state Senator Dianne Wilkerson to 3 1/2 years in prison for taking $23,500 in bribes in a scandal that rocked the Massachusetts State House and Boston City Hall.

The Boston Globe reported that Woodlock said he recognized Wilkerson's service to the community but he called her "financially embarrassed and fiscally incontinent" and said she had imposed her own "Wilkerson tax" on the community by accepting the bribes.

He rejected her plea for a lesser sentence, saying a message needed to be sent that political corruption would not be tolerated. "It's clear the sentencing imposed for criminal conduct here -- and in other industrial states, frankly -- hasn't been sufficient," he said.

He ordered Wilkerson, once a rising star in the state Democratic party, to turn herself in March 11 to begin serving her sentence at the federal prison in Danbury, Conn.

Wilkerson, in a lengthy plea of mercy during the sentencing hearing, offered no specific explanation for what she had done. She also said she had always acted on her constituents' behalf and the bribes she had taken did not affect her actions.

"If it was possible to do something criminal without being criminal, that would be me," she said.

Outside the courthouse after the sentencing, Wilkerson said she accepted responsibility for her crimes but believed that corrupt federal prosecutors went after her and former Boston City Councilor Chuck Turner, who was also convicted of a bribery charge, because they were outspoken politicians who challenged the status quo in Massachusetts.

The Sun Chronicle (Attleboro) reports that Toby Keith's yet-to-open Patriot Place bar needs new a liquor license because of state law created after The Station nightclub fire took 100 lives on Feb. 20, 2003, in West Warwick, R.I.

Keith's "I Love This Bar & Grill" was scheduled to open in August at 275 Patriot Place with a capacity for more than 1,000 guests, but has yet to open its doors and use the all-alcohol restaurant license selectmen had granted months earlier.

Because the building remains unfinished and without an occupancy permit, Toby Keith's cannot do a standard renewal of that liquor license and has applied for a new license, town officials have said.

Under the Massachusetts Fire Safety Act, the fire and building departments must sign off on certain inspection requirements before each annual liquor license renewal.

Still under construction, Toby Keith's cannot meet that requirement. "We've never had this happen before," Sandra Herrmann, administrative secretary in the selectmen's office, who handles liquor licenses for the board, told the newspaper.

Selectmen have scheduled a public hearing at 7:20 p.m. Jan. 11 at town hall on the reapplication filed by Toby Keith's.

"The premises is not open due to construction delays. Planned opening has been pushed back to January 2011," the application states.

Casbarra said the town's final fire and building code inspections for issuance of an occupancy permit will likely be done in late January or early February. Toby Keith's can't open until the occupancy permit is issued. The business will seat 333 persons indoors, plus 68 on a patio, with a total capacity for 1,200 guests on the premises.

It will have a guitar-shaped bar befitting country western singer Toby Keith's style, and may have a mechanical bull for intrepid guests to ride.

The Boston Globe reports on liquor stores near the New Hampshire border than expect a boost in sales now that the sales tax in Massachusetts has been repealed, thereby making Mass. an attractive option again for customers that may have been frequenting NH stores.