Town Meeting Presentation on Full Alcohol Licensing
(presented at the 2003 Annual Town Meeting)
Thank you, Mr. Moderator. Sara Oaklander, TMM, Precinct 8. I am also chair of the Business and Economic Development Planning Group.
To build on the comments made by Jennifer Page, BEDPG has developed some information that might be of value to Town Meeting Members as you decide how to vote on this question.
As members of the Business and Economic Development group spend time looking at the question of how to revitalize our business districts, we frequently hear residents and business owners speak of their interest in having more places and a greater variety of places to dine in Belmont. And it is a fairly commonly held assumption among these folks that full alcohol licensing is essential if we want to attract a greater variety of restaurants to Belmont.
In an attempt to determine if this is, in fact, the case, we did some research and learned that full service restaurants -- both casual and fine dining -- are often faced with substantial build out costs. This means that they must maximize revenue sources in order to be profitable. And the sale of alcoholic beverages is often the key to favorable profit margins.
The proposal before us would provide for full alcohol licenses for restaurants with 130-250 seats. Currently in Belmont, a maximum of eight beer and wine licenses are available to restaurants with between 39 and 125 seats. In order to give us all some frame of reference regarding restaurant size, we gathered some data on area restaurants with regard to seating capacity.
For starters, I will tell you that in Belmont we have Kashish in Belmont Center, which is licensed to seat 65; New Asia on Trapelo Road which is licensed to seat 100; and Patou - soon to be in Belmont Center where the B&D Deli used to be - which will be licensed to seat 120.
In neighboring communities, there are many popular restaurants of varying sizes and types that have full alcohol licenses.
- Tuscan Grill in Waltham seats 65.
- East Coast Grill in Cambridge seats 80.
- Flora in Arlington seats 102
- Stellina’s in Watertown seats 115.
- Bertucci’s at Alewife seats 146.
- Ground Round at Fresh Pond seats 160.
- Red Sauce in Watertown seats 175.
- Not Your Average Joe’s in Watertown seats 180 (the Arlington location is smaller).
- Jasper White’s Summer Shack seats 225
- Papa Razzi in Newton, Burlington, Concord, and Cambridge each have upwards of 200 seats.
From our research we learned that, in general, casual dining restaurant chains require between 165 and 375 seats and all serve mixed drinks as well as beer and wine. On the other hand, many finer dining restaurants -- often more unique, one-of-a-kind establishments -- are typically smaller in size yet also depend on revenues from the sale of mixed drinks.
There is considerable debate in town regarding how beneficial it would be to have more restaurants in Belmont. Those of us who think restaurants are a good thing for our town may not agree on what kinds of restaurants we would most like to attract. And then there is the question of whether there is anything the town can do to attract a particular kind of restaurant.
These are all things we are still learning about as part of our effort to revitalize Belmont’s business districts. Although there are no guarantees, full alcohol licensing may indeed be a tool we could use to attract to Belmont the kind of restaurant that would otherwise not locate here. This has certainly been the case in other towns. Such a restaurant could be a successful anchor business in an area that is being redeveloped. For example, in 1996 the South Pleasant Street Land Use Committee recommended alcohol licensing as a way to attract a quality restaurant to South Pleasant Street which, in turn, could draw and anchor higher quality retail and even office development in the same area.
One other related piece of information that might be of interest to some of us as we consider this question. We contacted the police department to find out what the impact of beer and wine licensing has been on the town. We learned that although problems were anticipated, in fact implementation has been smooth with no problems in town and full compliance on the part of the restaurants.
The Business and Economic Development Planning Group believes that approval of this motion to allow the town to vote on three full alcohol licenses in Belmont is a step in the right direction as we seek to achieve the town’s goals of enhancing our business districts and attracting desirable new businesses. We are aware that there is ongoing debate about restaurant size as it relates to full alcohol licensing. Should we determine down the road that the capacity restriction of 130-250 seats does not effectively serve the town’s interests, that aspect of the bylaw could be revisited.
Thank you.
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