Roslindale market gets OK to become neighborhood center for ouzo and other hard Greek drinks

The Boston Licensing Board voted today to let Home Market, 165 Belgrade Ave. in Roslindale, expand its current beer and wine license to include all alcoholic beverages, after hearing from the store's new owner that she would focus on Greek spirits, rather than simply trying to compete with the more common liquor already for sale at Punta Cana right across the street.

Board Chairwoman Kathleen Joyce said Rose Letang, who bought the store about a year ago, proved a public need for expanding her current stock of Greek beer and wines - customers keep asking her for harder stuff and some have even walked out when she explained she couldn't sell it. And because she will focus on the niche market of Greek alcohol, Letang won't "duplicate what's across the street," Joyce said.

At a hearing yesterday, Letang said she would continue to sell non-alcoholic foods, drinks and other products, that she has enough shelf space to stay a "one-stop" shop for customers seeking a single place to pick up the day's essentials.

Home Market has long had a beer-and-wine license. In 2021, the owner of what was then Silva's Brazilian Market on the other side of Belgrade Avenue, which had its own beer-and-wine license, sold the store to Dominican owners, who changed the name to Punta Cana and dropped the non-alcohol offerings. They later won an upgrade to an all-alcohol license.

The area currently has two stores focusing on Greek food offerings: the Roslindale Fish Market on Poplar Street in Roslindale Square and the Greek International Food Market at Washington and Grove streets in West Roxbury. Effie's Kitchen, also on Poplar Street in Roslindale Square, offers Greek takeout.