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Bouncer bitten, smacked in head with pole by woman upset she and pal couldn't scam a meal at city's only 24/7 diner
By adamg on Tue, 06/05/2018 - 3:04pm
While the rest of Boston is busy earning its reputation as the City that Always Sleeps overnight, patrons at the South Street Diner on Kneeland Street get their bill when they're served their food. It helps owner Sol Sidell turn over the seats in the small eatery and prevents dine-and-dashing.
Around 4:11 a.m. on March 19, two women sat down and got their food and bill. But they pointed to some guy sitting in the diner and said he'd be picking up the tab. When the man begged to differ - and said he didn't know the two women - Sidell took away their food, wished them good night and ordered them out, he told the Boston Licensing Board at a hearing on the incident this morning.
Outside, Sidell and police say, the women began arguing with the two bouncers the diner employs in the early morning, in part to screen customers for table service. The argument turned physical and one of the women bit the male bouncer several times on the hand, then picked up one of the metal stanchions South Street uses to keep people in a line and hit the bouncer in the head with it - just as a worker inside was calling police.
The two got into a car and drove off, but not before a worker got their license plate number. A BPD officer testified another officer caught up with one of the woman at Beth Israel Hospital, but was unable to get her side of the story because she was under sedation and restrained - in part to protect hospital workers, such as the ER nurse she allegedly spat at.
The board decides Thursday whether to take any action on the incident.
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Comments
How did police know to look at the hospital?
How did police know to look at the hospital? Was the woman also injured by the bouncers fighting back and protecting themselves?
south Street
As far as I'm concerned, anyone who screws with Boston's only all night diner and gets roughed up in the process gets their just reward.
They weren't looking at the hospital
They were looking for the car.
That means that they broadcast the license plate number.
Some cop ended up at the hospital for whatever reason and spotted the plate and car.
Sounds right
They didn't specify how the cop ended up at Beth Israel, but said it was a B-2 officer, rather than somebody from A-1 (which is the district that covers the South Street Diner). So possibly they broadcast the plate number and a B-2 cop at Beth Israel spotted it parked outside.
Good question on why she was at the hospital
but it sounds like once she was there, she was aggressive towards the staff, who then perhaps called the police, and that might have completed the circuit (as it were).
Maybe the car?
Maybe the police found the car at the hospital.
The ER would have called the police
The hospital ER would have called the police to report the assault on the nurse.
Compliments
Does the licensing board ever compliment a business for how well they handled a situation?
Also, how does turning over seats prevent dine 'n dash?
I read that as they do it for
I read that as they do it for two reasons: (1) it prevents dine-and-dash because the person has to pay before eating, and (2) it turns over tables a little faster because people aren't sitting there waiting to get the server's attention, ask for the bill, and then pay.
Is this correct?
So you order your food, pay, and then they give you a seat?
Beacon Hill's Paramount does
Beacon Hill's Paramount does this for breakfast on weekends: stand in line, order, pay and then you're seated and served.
It doesn't say that
"patrons at the South Street Diner on Kneeland Street get their bill when they're served their food." See? It's right there in the first paragraph.
Names?
Any names? These people shouldn't be out in public.
No names announced at hearing
They're probably in the police report, but I'll be honest: I don't feel like going down to BPD HQ and spending $5 for a copy.
Wait
You expect one of us to go down to the police station and pony up the 5 bucks?
That gentleman over there
That gentleman over there will be paying for my copy. And if you say otherwise, I swear I will bite your hand to tatters.
Why is this the only 24/7 diner in Boston?
It seems ridiculous that every truck stop interchange in the USA has more 24 hour restaurants than the Hub of the Universe.
The Hub of the Universe is a
The Hub of the Universe is a small town. When the Puritans first arrived, they sailed right past it because it was too small. Then. Think about it.
More
It's really relative. I lived in Atlanta, where there's a Waffle House at almost every exit. Its really pick which one you want to eat at 3am. And typically it is no wait (depending on which one you went to). If you didn't like WaHo, IHOP was pretty plenty down there too, and most were open 24/7.
But a locally owned place, that was open later and/or over night. Not many. And/Or just as many as there are in Boston.
Its just down there, chains rule. We don't embrace chains like other regions do, so sales tend to dictate store amounts and locations. But local places .. we have a ton.
Even still, I will admit.. we used to have more. DeliHaus, IHOP in Kenmore, Bickfords, Blue Diner and a few others. But we still have a few.. SS Diner being one, IHOP on Soldiers Field Road, Chinatown, Stuff out in the burbs. And a smattering of pop up places that open on weekends or have irregular overnight hours. You just have to be in the know, because you wont find a WaHo or IHOP sign at every exit. Its just how it is, until a chain like WaHo or "Egg and I" open here.
hey at least McD's finally realized a market here for overnight food and several stores have drive thru's open! (It used to not be like that)
Bickford's!
I was trying to think of Bickford's over the weekend, couldn't remember the name. I used to get coffee at the Drum Hill Bickford's late at night with friend's in high school, maybe something else cheap because we didn't have much money. Damn, I miss that place.
My kingdom for a Steak n'
My kingdom for a Steak n' Shake at 3 am.
oh yes
I forgot about Steak & Shake being open all night too. I seldom went because WaHo was walkable from my house, and S&S required a car because it was on Paces Ferry. (and after being sloshed, driving isn't wise)
So another chain we don't have here.. It just cements my idea that we don't embrace chains.. chains that could give us 24/7 service..
It's not
Adam just doesn't like us in Brighton where we have the last remaining IHOP in town, which is open 24/7 and I would argue counts as a diner.
Oh, I know the IHOP well
But, no, that's no diner. Sorry, them's the rules.
And, yes, I wrote "24/7" to avoid any discussion about Victoria's Diner, because it's only open round the clock two days a week.
Oh come on...
The rules? Has the President ruined the rule of law that far??
Colorado decided in Gunther Toody's v. Melody Lane that IHOP is a diner.
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/contractsprof_blog/2018/04/court-answer...
I'll see you in court, Gaffin.
Nobody's mentioned Bova's on
Nobody's mentioned Bova's on Salem St, which isn't a breakfast place, but sometimes you just need a canolli or a loaf of bread at 3am.
I wonder, did anyone on the
I wonder, did anyone on the Licensing Board express troubledment that the diner still uses metal stanchions to organize patrons? Years ago even the WWF switched from smacking each other with metal folding chairs to plastic folding chairs. Why hasn't this diner switched to plastic stanchions already?
People suck
That's all I really have to say about this one.
The 'Hub' (no one from Boston calls it that)
not a 'small, Puritant town'; it is a large, very urbanized, densely populated (3rd most densely populated big city in the U.S., after NYC and S.F.), and oneof the top 10 largest metro areas in the U.S.It's also a very diverse city and metro area (for example: did you know metro Boston has one of the largest Jewish populations in the world? It's one of the top 10.) The MBTA is the 4th largest,most heavily used transit systems in the U.S. It is one of the top 10 largest GMP (gross metro product) in the U.S.Why it doesn't have more 24 hr diners? Don't know. Ask the business people who would actually open and operate such an establishment.
Simple answer
Culture.
And what Cybah noted above concerning chains that do 24/7 service.
Culture?
My grandparents used to complain that the all night diner was a vanishing breed.
Grandma worked third shift for the phone company and said that there were plenty of all-night diners in the 1950s.