Bibim Presents Plans to Community

[courtney o'keefe]

I took the opportunity to attend a community meeting in Ward 6 to learn about a new Korean restaurant, Bibim, looking to occupy the 243 Elm Street space in Davis Square. Also in attendance this evening, were the owners Young and Ed Kim, their attorney, architect, spokesperson, as well as, Alderman At Large Jack Connolly and Director of Economic Development Ed O'Donnell. Ward 6 Alderman Rebekah Gewirtz was said to be attending another meeting scheduled for the same time.

The restaurant is also hoping to obtain a full liquor license at next week's Licensing Commission meeting as it seems the Davis decision is dependent upon this approval. Rising rent prices are making the retrieval of alcohol licenses for eateries a necessity. They, currently, do not have a license at the Allston location.

Represented by former City Attorney John Gannon, mother and son owners Young and Ed Kim will be doing a complete renovation of the space to accommodate a seating capacity of 92. The owners do have plans to ask for additional outdoor seating in the future.

Architect, David Barsky, is planning on using rustic materials such as thick cut, bark-edged tabletops and cut stone as accents to bring a 'natural' feel to the dining room. To open the space to the outside, fold up windows are being considered for the storefront rather than the traditional open "door" style seen on other establishments. Columns will be used to buffer eating space from the front door and, overall, Barsky does not want to use many partitions making the restaurant open to staff for easier service to customers. Sculptures and paintings will also be used to decorate the restaurant as Young is also an artist, herself.

Although most attendees spoke in support of the restaurant, some seemed concerned about the owners' lack of experience with alcohol. Ed Kim reassured them with the news that he has just completed a bartending course and that he will staff the location with properly certified employees.

The next stop for the Kims and their team is before the Licensing Commission on March 17th at 6:00 PM for a hearing on whether they will be awarded the liquor license they need to open. The meeting will be held at the TAB building-167 Holland Street.

Facebook: http://WWW.Facebook.Com/Bibim.Allston

Comments

[ron_newman]

Thanks for the prompt report! If you edit this post to put http:// before that Facebook address at the end, LJ will turn it automatically into a live link.

[courtney o'keefe (from livejournal.com)]

All set...thanks, Ron

[ron_newman]

Because this is a restaurant replacing another restaurant, it does not need any zoning approval -- just the liquor license. They are applying for one of the city-owned "economic development" liquor licenses. O'Donnell confirmed that being a family-owned local restaurant is helpful when applying for these licenses.

Ward 6 alderman Rebekah Gewirtz was at a different meeting a couple blocks away, about Crunch Gym's plans for the ex-Social Security Building.

[keithn.livejournal.com]

So apparently Davis Square is in need of "economic development" today, but was not in November. If Bibim gets this liquor license then the favoritism and arbitrariness of the liquor board will be completely transparent. It would be one thing to be arbitrary and capricious if you were up front about it, but in this case, the liquor board will have misled and sacrificed its credibility.

If Gewirtz is in favor of Bibim, I hope she is at the licensing meeting to try to reconcile her statements... but no need to go contradict yourself if you can quietly let it slip through, right?

To be clear - I support the Bibim proposal. But I don't see how the city can approve it given past statements by our officials.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

Out of curiosity, is this a situation where a beer&wine license isn't an option? (Not making an argument one way or the other, I'm just curious since for some eateries, it seems B&W would do the job financially.)

[cden4.livejournal.com]

I'm guessing that the owners want to be able to have soju available as an alcohol option with meals, so for that they would need a full liquor license.

[ron_newman]

Yes, because they want to serve Korean cordials. (I don't remember the real Korean name of these)

[ron_newman]

There is explicit favoritism, in favor of a family-owned business as opposed to a chain. O'Donnell said this was part of the guidelines for granting these city-owned licenses. That's fine with me.

(also, to be clear, O'Donnell's office makes recommendations, but they are advisory and not mandatory. The Licensing Commission makes the final decision)

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

Okay, I was curious because I feel like I recall in the past there were issues where a place would have happily taken a B&W but they weren't available so they had no choice but to apply for a full.

[gruene.livejournal.com]

Soju is famous for being miscatagorized as wine in some states (NY & CA, at a minimum) and therefore a popular mixer in establishments that lack a full license. Sadly, (or perhaps fortunately), I do not believe Massachusetts is such a state.

[vonelftinhaus.livejournal.com]

Just curious as I know the city obviously issues beer&wine licenses- but does the city issue cordial licenses also? not that it is something they are considering or is an option

[ron_newman]

The categories of licenses are defined by state law, and there are only two: full liquor license, or beer and wine only.

[vonelftinhaus.livejournal.com]

I asked as I wasn't sure of it ever being the case in Somerville ( if a previous establishment was allowed in the past )- and believe Boston does issue that type of license. I believe from reading the law it is really up to the municipality, but I must say the cordial license is a very slippery slope as it is really determined by the amount of sugar within the product not by the alcohol %.

http://www.mass.gov/abcc/pdf/faqfinal_2013.pdf

I got this info from the link above:

6. What are the four categories of retail liquor licenses?

Liquor licenses fall into one of four categories:
1. All Alcoholic
2. Wine Only
3. Malt Only
4. Wine and Malt

In certain cities and towns that choose to
accept a specific state law, certain businesses that hold a wine and malt beverages
license under Section
12 of M.G.L. Chapter 138 as well as a common victualler’s license may
be given a permit to sell also cordials and liqueurs. T
his cordials and
liqueurs permit must be granted by the Local Licen
sing Authority with the approval of the ABCC.

[ron_newman]

I did not know that this existed! I wish you had been at the meeting so you could suggest this option to both the restaurant owner and the city.

[bluesauce.livejournal.com]

There's two of them though, Ron. That's how chains start. Better to kill the problem now while it's small, before it's allowed to grow.

[wintahill.livejournal.com]

Thank you for posting this update on the meeting, Courtney.

I would be happy to see this restaurant come to Davis Sq, even though I am not big on Korean food myself. A new restaurant of any type is certainly better than a vacant store front in my opinion. It is pretty frustrating to see liquor licenses that are supposedly meant for economic development in needy areas of the city one week so quickly be considered for a new "unique" restaurant in Davis Sq the next week. The taxes and rents in Davis Sq are very high though, so I agree that a liquor license would probably be necessary for them to make it in that location. The Davis Sq Action Group was all up in arms about the Beerworks proposal adding 220 new bar seats to the square, but I have not heard a peep from them about the potential 92 new seats from this project literally across the street. Not surprising at all unfortunately. I will probably never spend a dollar in the new Bibim if they do come to the square but I certainly would not want to block them from trying to open a restaurant here if they choose to, I am sure many Somerville residents and others will enjoy it quite a bit. That does not scare me or threaten my personal vision for Somerville in any way. ;-)

This article from Wicked Local has a little more detail on the meeting and as the commenter there points out, despite what the lawyer for Bibim says, there already is a very nice Korean restaurant in Union Sq Buk Yung. And no Buk Yung does not have any liquor license at that location and they seem to be doing OK.
http://somerville.wickedlocal.com/article/20140312/NEWS/140318588/?tag=1