New Liquor License Law Could ‘Change The Skyline Of Boston’ For Black-Owned Restaurants

“There’s going to be more options in Boston besides Irish bars,” said restaurateur Royal Smith.

City officials in Boston are on a mission to pass legislation that would shift the landscape of Black-owned restaurants in Black and brown communities with a new liquor license law.

The legislation, first introduced in April 2023, officially passed through both chambers of the State House in late July. However, because the bill has two different versions, its fate is still in the air. Royal Smith, a Boston Black Hospitality Coalition member pushing for the law to go into effect, is also the operator of District 7 Tavern in the city’s Roxbury neighborhood. Baystate Banner reports that he is optimistic that legislators will do the right thing by officially allowing restaurants to obtain liquor licenses.

“I’m excited to see the form it takes,” he said. “This, really, is truly going to grow the city. It’s going to provide neighborhoods that people want to go to.”

Still, Smith is awaiting Gov. Maura Healey’s official approval. If the Massachusetts governor signs the liquor license law, “each year, for three years, five restaurateurs in each of 13 zip codes predominantly in Black and Brown communities” in the city will be able to get new liquor licenses for their businesses. If passed, roughly 200 new liquor licenses will be available to establishments in those parts of the city.

The following zip codes are affected: Charlestown, Dorchester, East Boston, Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain, Mattapan, Roslindale, Roxbury, the South End, and West Roxbury.

“Regardless of where you live in the city, you should be able to go downstairs or down the block and be able to get a good meal and get a cocktail if you feel like it,” said state Sen. Liz Miranda, the person responsible for sponsoring the bill in the Senate. She also represents the 2nd Suffolk district, home to parts of nine of the zip codes that the legislation would affect.

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“This is about dreams becoming reality and about economic, racial, and geographic equity,” she continued. “I think sometimes people get stuck on the word liquor, and if you don’t like liquor, you think that this is going to cause a lot of problems in our community, but it is not.”

The neighborhoods in question have seen a decline in access to sit-down restaurants. Business owners find it hard to sustain their businesses without the benefits of alcohol sales.

They cannot maintain transferable liquor licenses, which cost roughly $600,000 on the secondary market.

For Smith, it’s all about bringing more opportunities to Black and brown neighborhoods across the city of Boston, which is home to 2.1 times more white residents than any other race or ethnicity, per a 2022 Census report.

“There’s going to be more options in Boston besides Irish bars,” said Smith. “We just want to make sure that for anybody that is affected by this bill, we’re not just opening places to close them. We want sustainability.

He added, “Ultimately, if this thing is done right, this thing will change the skyline of Boston.”