West Roxbury restaurant owner: His ethnic patrons don't want to know from wine

Ghassan Samaha, owner of Al Wadi on VFW Parkway in West Roxbury, explained to the Boston Licensing Board today why he wants to begin offering hard liquor along with the beer and wine he's already licensed to offer: His restaurant has a lot of Italian, Irish and Russian patrons, and when they hear the hardest stuff they can get is wine, they'd rather drink water.

He added Al Wadi is the only full-service restaurant along the parkway, from West Roxbury to Legacy Place, that doesn't have a full-service liquor license.

The board decides tomorrow whether to extend Al Wadi's license.

Samaha also told the board why he no longer operates a patio at the neighborhood's only Lebanese restaurant: Mosquitoes from the nearby marshes along the Charles River. "There are a lot of mosquitoes," and not only did they hinder patrons in the evening - they'd buzz into the main dining room as well - he said.