The City that Always Sleeps: After fending off a 24-hour health club, Allston group worries about a Taco Bell open until 3:30 a.m. on weekends

The Boston Licensing Board could decide tomorrow whether to let a proposed liquor-serving Taco Bell Cantina not just serve drinks until 2 a.m. but then stay open another 60 to 90 minutes in the old Great Scott spaces at Harvard and Commonwealth avenues - unless the company agrees to seek a deferral to meet with the Allston Civic Association, whose president called service and hours like that a potential menace to the neighborhood that an understaffed police district might be unable to contain.

In practical terms, the board might not actually have any liquor licenses to dole out, thanks to a long penurious state legislature that limits how many liquor licenses Boston can dole out, so it might be a moot point, at least in terms of alcohol sales, so the not-your-fathers Taco Bell might have to open early next year just serving food.

At a hearing today, Taco Bell Cantina attorney Tom Miller described something more upscale than you're used to: A 34-seat "fast casual" restaurant featuring art by local artists - in homage to Great Scott, he said - and serving food that is "something a little more healthy and customizable" than the "pizza, donuts and burgers" that is all that now passes as food in the Harvard Avenue area late at night. Why, the place would even have vegetarian options, he said. Also, if the board does have a license to grant: Liquor.

Anthony D'Isidoro, president of the Allston Civic Association, however, asked the board to defer any action until after Miller and his client can meet with the group and have a frank and open discussion about the idea of 3/3:30 a.m. closings at a place that might be able to serve liquor until 2 a.m.

D'Isidoro noted the group successfully got Planet Fitness to scale back its proposed 24-hour operations at a nearby location "big time."

D'Isidoro said he is not opposed to the idea of a Taco Bell offering booze until 2 a.m., especially not in a spot where Great Scott used to do the same. The problem, he said, is the transition from alcohol to just food at 2 a.m. - the latest state law allows liquor sales. Now, you've potentially got all these people, who may have been drinking for hours, and who may not want to give that up in a restaurant that remains open for another hour or 90 minutes.

"It will simply add to the burden of enforcement to Boston Police," he said, adding District D-14 in Brighton is already short staffed.

Miller, however, said Taco Bell Cantina has considerable experience and systems in place to ensure drinking is cut off by 2 a.m., or earlier, if that's what the board decides.

"People are not coming here to hang out," he said, adding, if anything, an early-into-the-morning Taco Bell would prove a boon to public safety, because people would "come and grab a bite to eat in a more sedate way" than just everybody pouring out of local bars and into Ubers all at once he said.

Miller said he would confer with his client to see if they'd be amenable to meeting with the association before the board holds a vote.

Although Taco Bell Cantina hopes to open the new location in early 2024, Miller added that the franchisee does not want to start any renovation work until after it has at least a food-serving license in hand.

If the board does not have a liquor license to award the restaurant, the franchisee could wait and try again or go on the open market to buy one - at prices that now approach $500,000.