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Whoa, cool your jets there, pizza man, you can't just roll into the City that Always Sleeps and start serving late-night pies
By adamg on Thu, 04/28/2022 - 1:52pm
The Boston Licensing Board today told a newly arrived pizza place in Oak Square that it would be willing to consider its request to stay open until 2 a.m. - but in another few months, to give the neighborhood a chance to see just what kind of place it really is.
Taskin Dural, who opened his 8 Pizzas at 600 Washington St. only this past December, originally sought to extend his current 11 p.m. closing time to 4 a.m., citing competition from a nearby Domino's, which is open for delivery until 3.
That idea, of course, was DOA. The Brighton Allston Improvement Association worried about the precedent a 4 a.m. closing time would set in Brighton's sleepier end. Dural told the board he would limit the later hours to takeout and delivery.
Dural offered 2 a.m. closing as a compromise, but the association opposed that as well. "The applicant not been there long enough to justify the hours," Conor Newman of the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Service said, summarizing the association's case.
At a meeting today, the board agreed. It denied Dural's application without prejudice, which means he can come back in another two or three months to request a 2 a.m. closing time. The extra couple of months would provide "a better picture of how this would work in their neighborhood," board Chairwoman Kathleen Joyce said.
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Comments
Terrible Decision, Terrible Board, Terrible Association
So it's cool for a national franchise to offer the same services till 3AM, but for a small, local business...screw them because...uh...they have to stick around long enough to justify the hours...but of course they're going to have a harder time sticking around because they have to close earlier than their competition.
Burn the whole system down and start again.
The difference
For better or worse, Domino's has been around here for a long time, something that is always kind of mystifying given how many decent locally owned pizza places there are, but in any case, they've been here long enough to prove they don't cause the sort of problems people in a sleepy burg like this might worry about (traffic and noise). Well, mostly.
Maybe
They’ve been able to stick around that long because they’re one of the few places allowed to stay open late? How many late night options are there that aren’t a Domino's, IHOP, or McD’s?
Only the Licensing Commission operates with a “guilty until proven innocent” mindset regarding these decisions.
Somehow businesses in other world class cities like Albany, New Haven, Providence, etc. can stay open late without the riots ensuing. But I digress…
"Sleepy"
If this were on a back road or otherwise residential stretch I'd be inclined to agree, but what is sleepy about a main thoroughfare, let alone a business flanked by a bar open until 2am and a gas station?
Their pizza has gotten a lot
Their pizza has gotten a lot better and the cheesy bread is good. I find after like 10 pm, it is the only place that still delivers pizza, my part of the city.
A 4am closing time means
A 4am closing time means people aren't really leaving until 5am. That's the start of the workday for some folks. It's probably less disruptive for traffic/noise than a 2am, meaning people are tossing shit in the dumpsters and closing out headed to their cars etc at 3am.
Many local businesses
Have to compete against a myriad of ridiculous, archaic laws and taxes coming from both the state and local levels who then make exceptions for national chains.
Like Pete said, it’s not right and harms local business. Many local government decisions are made under guise of what is best for the neighborhood and these are often just lies.
Proving it
Of course, denying them the ability to stay open later for 2-3 months allows them to prove how it "would work in their neighborhood". How can one prove anything when you're denied the opportunity in the first place? Putting up unnecessary barriers for local businesses when the national chain gets a pass is terrible policy.
Stupid
You know what's in that part of the neighborhood? A gas station, the Y, a fire station, a bar, a Dunks, a parking lot...
If The Last Drop isn't a problem at 2 AM, then how is a takeout pizza place a problem? The closest houses are like a block away and it's not like in this area people at 2 AM at a pizza joint are being rowdy/noisy....it's Oak Square not DTX or something.
So fucking stupid.
You want to talk about neighborhood disruption? Let's talk about all the double parking in front of the Papa Johns just up the street on a blind curve (8 Pizzas has a driveway next to it and the Sunoco would be closed too). Let's talk about the Domino's deliver 18-wheeler that just parks in the middle of Washington Street every Friday night around 11 PM to do its deliveries (instead of using a smaller vehicle that could deliver in the parking lot behind the Domino's building) and forces traffic into the opposite lane.
This has to be corruption
This has to be corruption right?
Dominos slips a few bills into pockets and bam, no competition.
Kathleen Joyce
What a complete piece of garbage. Why doesn't she do Bostonians a favor and just disappear from public life?
Keep sitting on your thumb, Michelle Wu, you complete fraud.
Huh?
Joyce's term began under Walsh and runs into 2026. Does the sitting mayor have the power to fire appointed Board members without cause? There appears to be a provision in the MGL for removal from office for cause:
https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXX/Chapter138/Sect...
Okay
What standing does she have to just straight up end the Licensing Board?
Don't end their jobs, end the jobs.
How about you do some of the job?
If you want to dismantle our government, why don't you figure out where the cracks are? The Licensing Board existence and authority comes out of Chapter 138 (containing the section I linked to) and Chapter 140.
Fair
Thanks for your initial legwork.
Once again proving
Once again proving the licensing board is against small businesses trying to thrive.
This is 100% nonsense... let him have it, and THEN do something if it gets bad.
I swear licensing board would rather see Boston like Smallville where they roll up the sidewalks at 8pm.
We are a 24/7/365 CITY.. let us act like one.
We wonder why we have jokes like "the city that always sleeps"... maybe if we had leadership that allowed us to act like a real city, we wouldn't have such jokes.
But also.. the moon will rise tonight so.. par for the course for Boston apparently.
One tiny thing
The BPDA had nothing to do with this.
It's the Licensing Board. Different folk.
Thats who I meant
So I fixed it.
Thanks
I kind of disagree with you
But the post makes a lot better sense now.
The business can come back and try again. I'm all for feeling businesses out to make sure they are good members of the community. Starting with a 4 AM closing was a bit much to take, though to be fair neither or us live in the area.
I doubt any of you commenting
I doubt any of you commenting on this live in the neighborhood. You certainly don't know anything about it's set up. There are houses right behind the pizza place. It is not a busy thoroughfare, especially not at four in the morning. There are a lot of restaurants right around there, including four pizza places much closer than dominos that are not open until 4. This is the fourth pizza place in this spot in the past ten years. I think the guy has bigger competition issues than dominoes. I am not interested in a 24 hour oak square and certainly don't think the precedent should be set with a new business owner in a constantly flipping spot. But I only live up the street and you all know so much more than I do.
I miss the 80s. And I know
I miss the 80s. And I know every generation there says they miss the 90s, the 80s, the 70s, the 60s, etc. My prime single 20s were the 80s. Grew up in what brokers now call JP/Rox on Bragdon Street. We partied. We danced. We drank. We saw House Music's birth can kept it going at after hour undergrounds in the South End. We all went to Chinatown and pizza undergrounds at 3 a.m. to eat and we were happy. Guns, crack, and gangs were around. But we still felt safe. We ate pizza at 3 a.m. Can't do shit now. I feel bad for the young people now. No wonder they're pissed. Bring back pizza
The BAIA is not
A small group of conservative folks has run this organization forever, but it's not clear where they got their would-be authority from.
If a presenter is not from the neighborhood, he/she will have much less time and leeway to make their case. And if they don't look like most of the people in the room, let's just say they won't get the warmest of receptions.
When it comes time to vote on the evenings' projects, the woman who runs the meetings kicks everyone out who's not a paying member. Literally.
So while community members can say they really want to be able to order pizza at 3:00 and they vouch for the place and the owner, too bad. A little cabal gets to say what happens and when in Brighton.
Conflicts of interest be damned.