credit: Sharon Malt


Sylvia Thayer, New Hampshire, board member Betsy Peterson, Temple Street, and Mary Spitzer, Hawthorne Place, met the course and group leaders for the spring semester of Beacon Hill Seminars at the French Library and Cultural Center last week. Beacon Hill Seminars offers daytime classes in a seminar format for residents interested in continued intellectual growth. Next semester offers a range of courses, including topics such as King Lear, Gothic art and modern science.

The zoning and licensing committee of the Beacon Hill Civic Association will hold a special meeting tonight at 7:30 p.m. at 74 Joy Street for neighbors to comment on an application filed by Phoenicia Restaurant for an all-alcohol license.

Phoenicia Restaurant, a Lebanese eatery located at 236-240 Cambridge Street that has had a beer and wine license since it opened in 1988, jumped quickly when George Dabib, who owns the restaurant with his brother Enie, heard new all-alcohol licenses were available. His application quickly made it on the Licensing Board’s agenda tomorrow, January 17, at 10:00 a.m., but the quick turnaround prevented him from appearing before the Beacon Hill Civic Association’s zoning and licensing committee.

The committee chair, Tom Clemens, said the agenda for its January hearing had already been closed and printed by the time he was made aware of the application. The board of directors subsequently elected not to vote on whether to oppose the application because many members were uncomfortable taking a position without having their questions answered at a public hearing.

After months of controversy about the dearth of liquor licenses available to city lodgings and restaurants, Governor Mitt Romney signed the bill December 27 increasing the number available in the city of Boston. The bill, which was supported by the city’s Licensing Board, restricts the new licenses to five all-alcohol for hotels only, ten new, non-transferable all-alcohol licenses for establishments upgrading from beer and wine licenses, and 30 beer and wine licenses to be used only in main street districts, urban renewal areas, empowerment zones or municipal harbor plans as defined by the Boston Redevelopment Authority.

“The civic association typically opposes all-alcohol licenses because they can be easily transferred when the restaurant is sold,” said Clemens. “But, the new licenses are non-transferable. That’s what we always wanted, and that is why there is little opposition to this application by Phoenicia. I am hearing that if you have a restaurant that is filling a real need in the community and providing another option for dining, then we should try to find a way to make it work.”

Although tonight’s meeting is not an official hearing, Clemens said all abutters have been notified and he hopes to resolve any concerns about the application that may come up so that the civic association will not have to formally oppose it at tomorrow’s hearing.

Phoenicia’s owner George Dabib said his restaurant is busy at lunchtime and he thinks it will pick up in the evening if he has the license. “A lot of people come in for dinner,” he said, “but then they walk out when they hear that we can’t serve them alcohol.”

The brothers plan to do a full renovation on the restaurant, which currently seats 88, and have applied for outdoor seating. “We’re here for the long run,” said Dabib. “We are not trying to buy a license and then sell it with the restaurant, which we couldn’t do anyway because it is non-transferable. We’re just trying to survive.”

The legislation prompted a flurry of activity from those wishing new or upgraded licenses.

In addition to Phoenicia, the Liberty Hotel, to be located in the old Suffolk County Jail at 215 Charles Street, is on the 10:00 agenda of the Licensing Board tomorrow. It has applied for an inn holder all-alcohol license to be exercised in a restaurant in the hotel with a 2:00 a.m. closing hour.

The civic association decided not to involve itself in that process because the hotel is located outside the historic district and is a self-contained operation.

First in line to receive a beer and wine license was Chris Spagnuolo, owner of Panificio on Charles Street, who has been promised a beer and wine license for a second restaurant he opened five months ago in the Back Bay. Chairman Daniel Pokaski of the Licensing Board said Spagnuolo would most likely receive a license within a few weeks.

The Licensing Board for the City of Boston approved the transfer of the all alcohol beverage license from Ristorante Toscano, Inc., owned by Vinicio Paoli, to DFD Restaurant Group, LLC, owned by David D’Alessandro, River Street, on Wednesday, January 10.

D’Alessandro had received a vote of non-opposition from both the Zoning and Licensing Committee and the Board of Directors of the Beacon Hill Civic Association. He plans to keep Ristorante Toscano, located at 41 Charles Street, a fine dining establishment.

credit: Courtesy photo



Scouts and their dads from the Pack 74 Webelos Den visited the USS Constitution on Saturday, January 6, as part of the den's study of citizenship. The group walked the Freedom Trail through the North End and downtown Boston. Pictured are scouts James Ditomassi, Jack Ditomassi, Beacon Street, Sam Alberti, Revere Street, Ethan Winter, Charles River Square, Brian Zick, Sentry Hill Place, and Jack Saylor, West Cedar Street, with leaders Andrew Winter, John Saylor, Colin Zick, and Chris Alberti.

Several Beacon Hill neighbors came to the rescue of an 86-year-old West Cedar Street woman last Thursday by chasing a mugger who had stolen her billfold and bringing it back to her.

Ruth Barclay, who was unharmed but quite shaken by the incident, said she had left CVS on Charles Circle about 5:00 p.m. to walk home, using a walker because of knee replacements. She secured her purse and purchases on the walker, but had neglected to close the purse’s zipper.

She walked up Charles Street and turned into Putnam Avenue, where she saw a woman standing. As she reached her, the woman asked if she could be of help.

At first Barclay refused help, saying she was fine. But then she remembered how kind Beacon Hillers are, and so she accepted the offer of help to help move the walker over the curb. “Then, I saw her take a good look at my purse, tied onto the walker with the billfold in full view.

The woman then said to Barclay, “Sorry to bother you” and reached over me toward the walker, taking the billfold from the purse.

Barclay asked her to take the money only, leaving the billfold with its cards and papers with her. But, the woman ignored her and took off, running down Revere Street toward Charles. Barclay started screaming.

At that moment, Lisa Llewellyn stepped out the door of Rouvalis, where she works. “I stepped out in front of the store and saw it happen,” she said. “I instinctively ran down Revere after the suspect, and, bless her heart, Barclay followed me with her walker.”

At the same time, Susan Alberti of Revere Street, who was waiting on the corner with her son, also ran after the suspect. Christian Slubowski, who lives on the corner of West Cedar and Revere Street, was at home studying when he too heard Barclay screaming. He put his shoes on, ran out of the house and started chasing the purse snatcher, although he soon discovered he was actually running after a third woman who by then had join the chase.

By the time the suspect had run around CVS and headed back on West Cedar Street by the laundromat, there were about seven men and three women surrounding the suspect. Slubowski described the suspect as “in a really bad way.”

A CVS employee ran across Charles Circle and solicited the help of two MBTA transit police, who held the woman and brought her purse to Barclay. “I looked inside the purse, saw my wallet and the police got it right out,” said Barclay. “The woman had not had time to remove its contents.”

Barclay decided not to press charges against the purse-snatcher, whom she described as between age 30 and 35 and well-dressed, but with disheveled hair and smelling strongly of alcohol. “I think I looked calm, but I was shaking inside,” she said. “I have already had one heart attack, why would I want another one over this?”

“Imagine having three Beacon Hill women and seven men helping me,” said Barclay. “I was surrounded by people who were so nice to me. They were so very helpful.”

Marriage matters

There is good news and bad news about the recent legislative maneuvers to move forward the same-sex marriage ballot question.

The good news is that if voters vote, the matter will be decided and there will be little recourse to change it. We would predict, given our knowledge of the Massachusetts electorate and the outspoken support for gay marriage that such traditionalists as Speaker of the House Sal DiMasi exhibit, that such a ballot question would not pass. Most voters, regardless of sexual orientation or how baffled they might be about the new openness about gay sexuality, will say, “Fine, if gays want to marry, it’s no sweat off my back.” They’ll affirm the Supreme Judicial Court’s decision, and then simply go about their business without giving it another thought.

The bad news is that by giving same-sex marriage a chance to get on the ballot, we’ll be subjected to a lot of meanness from the rabid right and a lot of pontificating about morals from people whose own moral history might not be as pristine as one might wish. Then we’ll have to hear how, mysteriously, our own marriages are in jeopardy from same-sex marriage.

We would have preferred to be spared the vitriol and hypocrisy, but it doesn’t look as if we’ll have that opportunity.

Newborns

Have you taken a look at the sign in the median on Cambridge Street in the block between West Cedar and Grove streets? The sign is intended to identify Mass General as a safe haven for the three or so Massachusetts parents who abandon babies each year.

But the sign’s prominence and wording seems to be a directive to new parents in general: Leave Newborns Here, it says, just as a pamphlet might tell those same parents to have their baby seen by a doctor at one month old. So if you are a regular new parent who loves their baby and wants to care for it, do not follow the directions on that sign.

The asphalt strip

Barletta Construction has done a pretty good job at the Charles/MGH T station and Charles Circle. But there is one tiny flaw that bothers pedestrians every time they step over it.

Late last summer on West Cedar Street, the bricklayers, who did a fine job elsewhere, unaccountably stopped just short of where they had obviously removed some city bricks and filled in the gap between their nicely laid brick and the heaved-up city sidewalk with asphalt rather than laying another line and a half of brick. It could be laziness, union rules or poor judgment, but it’s a bad job and should be fixed immediately.