Pizzeria Posto wants to expand, Diva wants its 2am license back

[ron_newman]

Pizzeria Posto is applying to increase its indoor seating capacity from the current 50 seats to 98 seats, and also to allow serving alcoholic beverages at the 20 seasonal outdoor seats. There will be three public hearings:

June 3 at the Planning Board (City Hall, 6 pm)
June 16 at the Zoning Board of Appeal (City Hall, 6 pm)
June 21 at the Licensing Commission (at the TAB building, 6 pm)

Diva is applying to reinstate its 2 AM-closing liquor license, which it surrendered after a patron was shot outside the restaurant in February 2009. (Short followup post here.) The Licensing Commission hearing will be Monday, June 21 at 6 pm at the TAB building.

Comments

[m00n.livejournal.com]

Getting permission to serve alcohol in an outdoor seating area requires *three* public hearings? No wonder there are so few places that do this...

Or does only one of these three meetings involve discussion of that particular topic?

And do you know if there was a specific reason why Diva's 2 AM closing liquor license was suspended after that shooting? It doesn't seem like their closing at 2 AM really had anything to do with why this incident occurred.

[ron_newman]

Only the Licensing Commission deals with the alcohol issue. The other two meetings are about the seating expansion. Their current seating capacity is the same as the predecessor restaurants in the same space, but adding 48 more seats requires a variance from needing 2 additional parking spaces.

After the shooting incident, Diva surrendered both its entertainment license and its 2 am license. They agreed not to re-apply for the 2 am before March 2010, and not to re-apply for live entertainment until March 2011. I don't know more details, sorry.

Reply Diva 2am

[vonelftinhaus.livejournal.com]

All cities and towns in Massachusetts are only obligated to allow businesses to stay open til 11pm, especially alcohol licensed establishments, any time after that is dependent on the license. Yes true all bars are open til 1am and that is usually how a license exists but if there would be a violation or incident the city could roll back a particular til as early as 11pm. In the removal of Diva's 2am extension I only know that a "theme" night that they were holding, which happened to be on a 2am closing evening, was directly related to the incident- where the shooter and the shootee were in attendence. The licensing board then removed there 2am extension, as punishment, but I am unaware if any other action was taken.

Re: Reply Diva 2am

[ron_newman]

Do you recall what the 'theme' was that night?

At Monday's Davis Square Task Force meeting, the owner and the lawyer for Diva both said that a Ford Escalade had been illegally parked on the sidewalk in front of Diva, and that the car's driver was lying in wait to shoot the victim as he came out of Diva. He denied that the victim was a DJ at Diva or that the shooter was a Diva customer.

The lawyer, Arthur Goldberg, also hinted that Diva would like to re-apply for the entertainment license sooner than allowed by the current agreement with the Licensing Commission (March 2011).

Re: Reply Diva 2am

[vonelftinhaus.livejournal.com]

To reply to your question Ron- now "technically" I do not recall what the theme was but from slight recollection it was a hip hop night. Regardless of the exact theme it did consist of a DJ doing DJ stuff.


To your comment to what was said by Diva's representatives; well the exact fact of who was shoot, who did the shooting and where any of these individuals were any time during that evening I would assume was not ever proven undoubtedly- but it was decided by the board that those events were related enough to Diva that they were penalized.

My opinion is that guns are not cool at all

Re: Reply Diva 2am

[ron_newman]

From what I heard at the DSTF meeting on Monday, Diva surrendered its entertainment and 2 am licenses in a voluntary agreement with the Licensing Commission, which avoided a formal commission action that might have imposed a greater penalty. Had the commission taken a formal action, Diva would have to wait even longer to re-apply.

Re: Reply Diva 2am

[m00n.livejournal.com]

Punishment for what action on Diva's part exactly? Being open until 2 am? Having a theme night? I feel like establishments in this city are regularly vilified merely for being open late and serving alcohol, even if they're being otherwise good neighbors, so I'm especially curious about this one...