The only question I even want answered is the last one. Unfortunately, the answer is lame. When it comes to food and drink, Boston just kind of sucks.
Black Seed Cafe and Grill on Tremont Street asked the same “why?” last night before the Boston Licensing Board. They’re petitioning to keep their doors open until 3 a.m., according to a Universal Hub article. If past attempts suggest anything, this is a pretty big deal for our great city’s administration, and our state’s. The state mandated last call is 2 a.m., making Black Seed’s battle even more uphill.
Still, our mayor preaches about the Boston brain drain and the importance of keeping young talent in Boston. In a February 20 letter to BostInno, a Boston-based news, business and science website, Menino wrote down a few of his ideas for keeping young professionals and college graduates in Boston. My favorite one was, “Ask CEO’s what they need to recruit talent. Then deliver results.” Man, awesome copywriting. But more importantly, what does that even mean?
Apparently, that means that they’ll do stuff like accept a company’s request to be moved to the Innovation District – by title, not geographically – and plant a tree in the office with Innovation District soil.
“The small gesture sent a big signal that we care about the little things,” Menino scribes.
Phew, I don’t know about the readers but I’m about to go sign a five-year lease.
Moral is, young people can think rationally. For many, nightlife is important. There are too many cities with better nightlife with cheaper rent. Keep me on the east coast and I could fill out my word count with examples. Another hour or two for bars would be a better signal than a tree and a nametag.
But it’s yet to be seen how the brave little drink-serving hero of this story will fare against the Great Giant of Unreasonable Expectations.
At least it won’t be doing it alone. There are plenty of disgruntled 20-somethings in this city, so much so that the CEO of Karmaloop – an uber trendy streetwear line – has set up a nonprofit called Future Boston Alliance.
Future Boston is setting out to reform some of Boston’s policies and make it a better city for young people. This organization made a YouTube video calling out Boston’s administration for having a rigged system and an “old school defensiveness” – a blanket term the group uses for Boston’s staunch administration and resistance to change – that young people do not have.
With Black Seed Cafe and Grill going against the Board and Future Boston pushing for a more hip environment, it’s possible that we could see some effort from City Hall to cater a better nightlife. But another hour for bars may be pushing it. That “old school defensiveness” Future Boston poked at is still in full force.
The Universal Hub article gives an example too funny to exclude: The police nabbed a McDonalds in Brighton for serving customers inside after 11 p.m. The establishment’s 24 hour drive through license mandates the restaurant close its dining room at a certain time, yet there were still patrons eating their five-piece nuggets at 11:30.
The police noticed, and they sure cared. Why?
