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Tacos until 1 a.m. win approval on Newbury Street
By adamg on Thu, 03/24/2022 - 10:34am
The Boston Licensing Board this morning granted La Neta, 255 Newbury St., permission to stay open until 1 a.m.
At a hearing yesterday, the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay opposed the move, saying anything past midnight would prove a potential problem to Commonwealth Avenue residents whose buildings back up against the commercial buildings along the northern side of Newbury Street.
Board Chairwoman Kathleen Joyce, however, said she had "no problems" extending inside dining at the restaurant from the current 10 p.m. closing time to 1 a.m. The restaurant's outdoor patio will continue to be shut at 10 p.m.
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Comments
They need permission? What a
They need permission? What a regulated state m…
Where do you live?
On the prairie?
not even fair…
Tacos: 1
Back Bay Neighborhood Association: 0
Suck it neighbors. Did they really think they could beat Tacos in this one?
I wish these people would can
I wish these people would can it and move to Shelburne Falls, or Colrain, any of those towns out in the hills. It’ll finally give them the quiet they want, and we can have a functioning city.
In some ways, Newbury Street is sleepier than Shelburne Falls
Shelburne Falls has a diner that opens at 5 am. Good luck finding food that early on Newbury Street.
Big Taco
Never loses.
Holjapeños...
Sadly, Big Taco WAS defeated by the American Legion Hwy Neighborhood Associations, denying us the sweet defeat of Taco Bell treats.
Maybe it was for the best.
Enough
Enough with your knee-jerk, faux working-class-hero ignorance. You are tiresome.
If it weren't for the Neighborhood Association, Newbury Street wouldn't be what it is today. Beacon Street would be a canyon of 1970's high-rises and we wouldn't have one of the largest and best-preserved 19th-century historic districts in the country. So give NABB a little credit; they're the reason you're all worked up over some lousy tacos. If it weren't for them and the work they have done to preserve and improve this neighborhood over the past 65 years, you wouldn't give a damn about Back Bay and the taco joint wouldn't want to be on Newbury Street.
You’re just upset…
Because you lost to a TACO.
In all seriousness I hope the neighborhood survives this travesty. I had a taco place open up in my neighborhood once. Next thing you know the burritos moved in and the Enchiladas started sneaking around. There was even one of those chimichanga groups flexing their muscle. Good luck!
It makes the neighborhood
It makes the neighborhood when empanadas move in.
And no worries
The neighbors on Comm Ave will complain loudly, if the noise is bad enough, and this will be revisited.
No worries, indeed! Wait
No worries, indeed! Wait until there's actually a problem that exists, then try to solve it, instead of the other way around? Sounds great! That's how things should work. If this plan is "no worries" then why was the NA opposing the later hours at all?
baby steps
Slowly but surely, NIMBY/puritan defeats will accumulate, supply will be allowed to meet demand, and Boston will stop being the city that always sleeps.
We're not Puritans
We're just like you, with smaller apartments.
This was not a big issue. It was a tiny one. The big one is the hideous apartment building the Harvard Club wants to build in its lot on the west end of Newbury Street, which will require the first special zoning variance ever granted in the historic architectural district. Want to place bets on that one? I'm betting on NABB.
Yep, in the greater scheme of things
This was pretty small potatoes (or taco shells, I guess).
I framed it the way I did because this is something that's been going on for years, and not just in the Back Bay - the eternal struggle over whether we should join other cities that don't roll up the sidewalks or whether we should remain the City that Always Sleeps.
Or the city that never sleeps
At least downtown. Ever live behind a restaurant that empties trash, picks up trash, has employees and deliveries coming and going at all hours of the night etc. etc. etc.
One more reason downtown should divest itself of the suburbanites living in places like W. Roxbury, Hyde Park and JP that feel that downtown should be an entertainment district for them.
Ooh, deep-cut name there
Downtown? Please. Who do you think led the (successful) fight to block a taco place at Boylston and Tremont from staying open until 4 a.m.? Hint, it wasn't people living in Hyde Park.
For that matter, people in Roslindale had nothing to do with the board shooting down the idea of 4 a.m. tacos on Comm. Ave. near BU - and we certainly weren't the people positing that you shouldn't be able to get tacos at 12:30 a.m. on the north side of Newbury Street.
Face it: People living in Boston Proper can be every bit as snoozy as those of us way out here in the boonies (and hey, at least Roslindale has a 24-hour Dunk's and gas station). Maybe we should just finally admit we're a small town with big-city delusions.
Where should the
Where should the entertainment district be? Are you saying there shouldn't be an entertainment district, or that people should party in residential areas?
OK, in re-reading the comment I was responding to ...
I kind of got it wrong, in my zeal to defend the hinterlands from the sort of argument that calls for rescinding our Boston citizenship.
But I still wish to argue against the comment:
The issue isn't that people in Roslindale demand that all the good clubs and restaurants be only downtown - we have our own restaurants and a couple of places for live performances and, heck, a brewery and a beer hall. It's nice not having to shlep downtown for that stuff.
The question is what sort of person moves to downtown or the Back Bay or the North End and doesn't realize they're going to be living in the middle of an alleged big city?
Isn't one of the things that makes a World Class City world class is the fact they don't roll up the sidewalks at 10 p.m. like, OK, I admit it, they mostly do in Roslindale?
People who want a luxury condo but absolute peace and quiet should maybe consider, I dunno, Newton or something. But leave the rest of us out of it.
The commissioners - not the citizens
I was referring to the people on the commission (and our elected officials) - very few of whom live downtown.
As for quiet - we enjoy the hustle-bustle most of the day. But we live in a residentially zoned neighborhood on Comm Ave. If the restaurants close at 10 pm or even 11 pm - fine. But when you push it to 1 am you have people emptying trash and bottles at 1 am, then you get a couple of hours sleep, then the bottle emptying trucks come at 4 am, the trash trucks back into the alley at 5 am and the delivery trucks at 6 am. I don't believe any of this is legal - but the city views the Back Bay as an ATM and doesn't care if we literally can't get 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep. After 30 years, I sleep through most of it - but the bottles and back-up beeps are tough to sleep through (fortunately we have mostly well-behaved restaurant neighbors).
In the meantime, the city is run by people that live in essentially suburbs that say they live in the city of Boston by an accident of history and 19th century population trends. These bureaucrats have no idea what it's like to actually live in a mixed urban environment which exists for the residents AND the businesses that contribute to the vibrancy we want - without the excessive nocturnal noise.
Back-up beeps should be banned overnight
The permit for the restaurant should specify that any delivery trucks serving them must disable their back-up beepers between 9 pm and 8 am.
Go a step further
Do what much of the civilized world does and ban anything bigger than a Sprinter van in the city unless it's hauling items that individually are too large to go in a van. We don't need 18-wheelers in the city making noise, blocking paths, running over cyclists, etc. in order to deliver milk crates of restaurant supplies or retail goods. Vans are often equipped with back-up alerts, but they can use cameras instead.
BTW, a lot of delivery folks are using a lower-pitched rumbling alert rather than a high-pitched pure tone beep. The manufacturers call them "white noise alarms," but this doesn't describe it particularly well. The Amazon vans often use these, and they're definitely audible inside residences a few hundred feet away, but they're unlikely to wake someone up or get picked up on someone's phone/video call like the beepers. The obnoxious pure-tone things should just be discontinued on any size vehicle.
Restaurants that don't serve alcohol
should not require city permission to be open whatever hours they choose.
Had you ever visited this restaurant
you would know that the approval is spot on, and particularly that part about serving the industry after shifts. Really happy that the Board's rationale served the public good here.
La Neta is step down on Newbury not unlike a pizza shop--you can sit inside on stools at a few tables, but clearly caters to the in and out crowd. Though my sit-down quick lunch with feisty margarita was exactly as expected. And there is a street bump out for "patio" dining that still stops at 10P.
Hard to imagine the noisy clatter of closing from a place like this will offend, they likely begin breakdown after the patio closes and given the limited menu not much is going to disrupt late into the night.
But most importantly--we need to continue breathing life into our restaurants and provide space for these taxed workers to enjoy food and socializing after a shift. Too few places for a quick bite and late night drink in this city for the staff leaving work after producing/serving that delicious meal you enjoyed.