"World of Beer" proposed for Social Security Building - public meeting Wednesday 4/17

[ron_newman]

I got this e-mail from Ward 6 Alderman Rebekah Gewirtz:

I wanted to update you that I have now had two meetings with the proponents of a place called "World of Beer" that wants to go into the Social Security Bldg space [240 Elm Street]. The lawyer for the new owner of the space, Mike Amato, is Rich DiGirolomo. I have told them that I am VERY concerned about this as a possible use since I don't want to see a drinking hole in Davis that allows you to bring in your own food and barely serves any food of their own. They have told me I have the wrong idea and it will be craft brews geared towards an "upscale" crowd. I am highly skeptical.

In response to my concerns, the proponents have now said they are going to partner with a restaurant to come into the space to share adjoining spaces. I'm not sure how that would work. They would like to have a community meeting ON SITE on Wed April 17th at 6:30pm. Can you please help me spread the word far and wide so we can get a large turnout of people who will ask key questions about what they are trying to do?

Comments

[i-leonardo.livejournal.com]

living next to a buncha bars (magoun, not davis) has some distinct downsides: i like having occupied storefronts, but i could do without people deciding that my driveway is a good place to turn a trick, take a leak, or test the car doors to see if i'd remembered to lock them. and these are "upscale" joints, too. for the most part i view it as the cost of living in a city (who wants to be the asshole calling the cops every other night for some dumb thing like drunks peeing on the retaining wall ?) and i can understand the "there's already so many, what's one more" argument, but i can also imagine that neighbors might have reservations, and neighbors are the one re-electing the alderman.

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

Personally, I like the rule that I've been told applies in the two counties around Buffalo, NY: An establishment that serves alcohol must make at least half its money from selling food.

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

Well, if you really truly do keep the chain places out, then the rents the market will bear will go down.

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

So, dumb question maybe, but how come the Aldermen don't have official email addresses?

Partly because governments are trailing-edge adopters, whereas the aldermen have an incentive to be reachable however their constituents demand. And I suppose if you're paranoid, you don't have to worry about the city management spying on your e-mail if you're using Gmail.

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

geared towards an "upscale" crowd. I am highly skeptical.

Seems hard to imagine anything truly "upscale" surviving in Somerville. It's got one of the lowest per capita incomes of the Boston burbs, though I suppose it's moved up since I last saw the figures. People are gonna go there to drink...

[emannths.livejournal.com]

I think Cambridge has a similar rule, though I don't know if it applies to all licenseholders--didn't it become an issue when Lord Hobo opened up?

My sense is that rules like this tend to contribute to high food prices--if you get two beers and a $10 burger there's a good chance that you're going to actually hurt the ratio under that rule. I wonder if you could accomplish something similar by simply requiring all patrons to be seated when served, or some other approach...?

[emannths.livejournal.com]

Don't tell Journeyman, Bergamot, Backbar, Casa B, etc. And those places aren't even near the T.

[ron_newman]

Foundry, Saloon, these don't feel 'upscale' to you? Not to mention the expensive 'Found' secondhand clothing place.

[rethcir.livejournal.com]

Where are complaints about a new "drinking hole" for the new Painted Burro bar? How bout for the Dave's Fresh Pasta bar? Foundry? Five Hourse? I fail to see how this place would be any different than those other than the expensive food served at those places.

I don't think Davis is in any danger of turning into Allston/Brighton any time soon.

[ron_newman]

Other than the food (which I do think matters some), the big difference is that those are all local places, not national chains.

[gmg-1.livejournal.com]

As far as I can tell, that was all based on a survey the city specifically commissioned to look at the suitability of several sites for supporting a hotel. I didn't go back and try and look at meeting minutes to figure out why the city commissioned the survey in the first place, but it certainly wasn't asking the relevant question: "What is the best use for this piece of land?" From the outside, it looks like someone in government just decided that they wanted a hotel there, hence "anti free-market."

[rethcir.livejournal.com]

This. All of the new establishments in Davis over the past say 5 years have upscale prices with the notable exception of Flatbread (coincidentally, a chain)

[rethcir.livejournal.com]

Did she protest Flatbread?

[ron_newman]

Not that I know of. Saving the bowling alley probably mattered more to her (and to the rest of us local residents).

As chains go, they're also pretty small. They're localized to New England, except for one in Hawaii.

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

My sense is that rules like this tend to contribute to high food prices

My assumption is that if the food prices are too high, people don't buy it, and the proprietor is violating his license.

Supposedly this accounts for the invention of the "Buffalo wing", as it was tasty and inexpensive, so bar patrons bought a lot of them...

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

OK, I just looked at http://www.massbenchmarks.org/statedata/data/median99.pdf; Somerville has come up in the world. It's still below average income in Mass., but not nearly as much as it used to be. OTOH, there are only a few suburbs with lower income.

Generally, I'd estimate that if college students form a noticable fraction of the clientelle, it's unlikely to be "upscale".

[wintahill.livejournal.com]

Yes, they did. And these requirements held up the opening for quite a bit. I believe it does contribute to higher food costs overall if your license depends on some arbitrary percentage of revenue coming from food sales. More information can be found here if you are interested. http://www.beerscribe.com/2009/03/31/cambridges-b-side-lounge-to-become-the-lord-hobo-licensing-problems-ensue/

I agree that I do not want to see Davis turn into another Harvard Sq, packed full of chains but all chains are not inherently bad. A huge factor is the cost of rent, many local small business just can not afford to open up shop in high rent areas such as Davis. The Social Security building has been vacant for how long now and we are against someone fixing it up and putting a tax generating business in there?

Davis just got a new wine bar affiliated with Dave's Fresh Pasta, why not a craft beer bar then? Craft beer is very popular right now and it does attract somewhat of a different clientele then the Bud light folks you will see at the Joshua Tree. If you don't believe me check out the American Craft Beer Festival over in Seaport in June. You will see thousands of people paying almost $50 a head to sample a wide variety of craft beer from all over the country. http://beeradvocate.com/acbf/
Craft beer is mainly produced by small time brewers regardless of the bar or store it ends up being sold in. Heck, in Somerville alone we have Pretty Things, Slumbrew, and Night Shift all producing some great local beers.

Ron you asked what would this new business provide that Redbones does not? As other posters pointed out competition and more capacity. Ever tried to pop into Redbones for a beer after work? The two bar areas they have a very small and are often packed between about 5-8pm. It would be nice to be able to sit down and enjoy a beer after work, which is many times not possible at Redbones during peak hours. I see nothing wrong with having a bar that mainly sells alcohol, forcing everyone who wants a liquor license to be a restaurant is absurd. If any establishment serving alcohol does become a problem, like the nearby Diva lounge there are ways for the city to deal with that.

[el-cubano-15.livejournal.com]

Seems like Meadhall, but w/ live music. Another reason to walk over to Davis...

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

honestly, while I love redbones, in terms of BBQ quality it's OK, not amazing (just better than anything else around, mostly). competition would do them well.

[ron_newman]

I was referring to competition in beer selection, not in food quality (especially if World of Beer doesn't serve any food).

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

ah, i guess? Redbones beerlist is fairly ok, but I consider it at best an ok backup spot.

[davelew.livejournal.com]

Looking at city-wide data is much too coarse for a pedestrian area like Davis Square. You can get much better data from looking at block-by-block data, like here: http://www.city-data.com/neighborhood/Davis-Square-Somerville-MA.html

It's interesting that some areas (like the 530 households in the neighborhood bordered by Willow, Highland, Boston and Broadway), have average incomes in the $120K per household range, which matches the average income of some of the wealthiest suburbs. With rents and property prices where they are, Davis Square is upscale-- as Foundry, Saloon, Painted Burro and other restaurants have recently discovered.

[davelew.livejournal.com]

So a locally owned bar is OK, but a regional chain is a "drinking hole"? If the problem is the ownership, people should just say that, not complain about chains using coded language about the demon whiskey.

[ron_newman]

It's a national chain, not a regional. They aren't in New England at all yet.

[davelew.livejournal.com]

OK, I stand corrected. They're a chain with around 50 locations, mostly in the Midatlantic, Southeast and Midwest. On the other hand, each location seems to act like a local beer connoisseur's bar. If you look at their bar in, say, Easton, OH, you can see that they serve beers from Brew Kettle, a local Ohio microwbrewery. Switch to Raliegh, NC, and they don't serve Brew Kettle beers, but they do serve beers from Big Boss, Foothills, and other small local North Carolina microbrewers. Each World of Beer bar location that I've looked at has had some unusual local beers. They seem to go to a lot of effort to source their beer locally, and to be part of their community.

Personally, I'd rather support a national chain that sells locally made products (like, for example, Somerville Brewing Company's Slumbrew) than a locally owned bar that sources all of its products from multinational chains like Budweiser, Miller, and Coors.