The New Retail Thread

H-Mart, the increasingly popular Korean grocery store, continues to expand its presence in the Boston region. A new 25,000 store is planned in the Townline Plaza at 295 Middlesex Street on the Medford/Malden line (it really is right on the line - I think the street and part of the parking lot is in Medford but the store in Malden). There are existing H-Marts in Cambridge and Burlington, a third opened in Quincy last year, and a fourth is in the works for the former Whole Foods space in Brookline, so this would be the fifth Massachusetts H-Mart.

H Mart Planned at Medford Shopping Plaza

H Mart Planned at Medford Shopping Plaza
www.bldup.com www.bldup.com
 
Ripple Cafe is opening a location in Kendall Square, immediately adjacent to the MBTA headhouse (just like their original Ashmont location)! Interesting to see some small local cafes expanding in Cambridge, with Jaho in Central and now Ripple in Kendall. This is a fantastic location for a coffee shop, imo, and the ground floor of this building will have Row34, the MIT Press Bookstore, and now Ripple Cafe.

20230725_183342.jpg
 
cden4 said:
I don't understand why the City doesn't just petition the Legislature to let them handle their own liquor licensing like EVERY OTHER CITY AND TOWN. And if the Legislature says no, drag the hell out of them publicly for it.
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Bit old, but: is this true? My understanding is that the State controls all 357 cities and town licensing the same, by setting the number of licenses available to each city/town. The only difference with Boston is that the per capita number of licenses is much lower than the actual demand, hence the artificial scarcity and insane prices. Attleboro, for example, is controlled the exact same, but the state has allocated enough licensing for them that demand is met.

This excludes Cambridge in the past X years when they essentially were just making up and printing their own licenses illegally without the State's approval. For the record, I applaud Cambridge for this, and find out immensely amusing they were able to get away with it for so long. Rather like the (old) Lower Mills tavern that apparently was able to operate just fine with basically no license for a years.
 
bakgwailo said:
Bit old, but: is this true? My understanding is that the State controls all 357 cities and town licensing the same, by setting the number of licenses available to each city/town. The only difference with Boston is that the per capita number of licenses is much lower than the actual demand, hence the artificial scarcity and insane prices. Attleboro, for example, is controlled the exact same, but the state has allocated enough licensing for them that demand is met.
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I think this is true, based on this depressingly illuminating Globe story from a while back.

Arguably, Massachusetts has the worst of both worlds: our regional planning is toothless, given that our county-based system is impotent/purely symbolic, save for judicial-criminal-penal matters. So NIMBYism/parochial interests reign supreme, profoundly hampering our ability to do long-term housing/transportation planning we so desperately need.

At the same time, the home-rule system described by that Globe story allows the Legislature to lord it over municipalities on stuff like liquor licensing.

That said: looking at the state as a whole (as opposed to solely Boston), apparently, we are badly over-boozed:

"Massachusetts has roughly five times as many licenses to sell alcohol than are permitted in Pennsylvania or New Jersey, and of the 16 states that set alcohol license quotas, only three (Montana, South Dakota and Washington) permit more than Massachusetts."
 
Justbuildit said:
First I’ve seen it written anywhere official, looks like Alamo Drafthouse in Seaport opens next month. No precision beyond “September” but glad it’s still moving forward.
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Interesting - that could coincide well with the opening of AMC Causeway, the theater replacing the ArcLight Cinemas at North Station.

Per this Reddit board (admittedly, not exactly an authoritative source), the AMC Causeway is due to open "by the end of summer" according to workers getting it ready:
https://www.reddit.com/r/boston/comments/136am94
 
itchy said:
Interesting - that could coincide well with the opening of AMC Causeway, the theater replacing the ArcLight Cinemas at North Station.

Per this Reddit board (admittedly, not exactly an authoritative source), the AMC Causeway is due to open "by the end of summer" according to workers getting it ready:
https://www.reddit.com/r/boston/comments/136am94
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Interesting, given tonight’s article in one of the trades re: AMC.

deadline.com

AMC CEO Sees “Serious Liquidity Issues” Even As Box Office Booms; “The Dumbest Thing We Could Ever Do In This Industry Is Run Out Of Cash”

Adam Aron said retail shareholders underestimate the potential for "cash burn" in seasonally weaker winter months and amid ongoing Hollywood strikes.
deadline.com deadline.com
 
AndrewOnTheMBTA said:
I think it opened Sunday. It was busy last night and seems to be off to a good start, and with a LIQUOR LICENSE
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Yeah, it has been busy each time I've walked by. There was even a decent lunch crowd yesterday. Frankly, I'm amazed at how many seats they squeezed into that space. It did not look big to me before and during construction, but they really made it work. And the outside space looks like it triples the seating capacity.

Re: the liquor license - I feel so bad each time I walk by Smoke Shop. It's been mostly pretty dead. Even on nice Thursday and Friday evenings, there are a number of empty tables. Considering the location and the view, it should be packed. I'm not a huge fan of their food, but I'd definitely stop by for a couple of drinks and an appetizer. They've got to be hemorrhaging cash. If something doesn't come through quickly, I don't know how they survive.
 
H Mart at St Mary's opened last week. i think they will make a lot of money at this location. Good for them! I can't believe it's only their 4th store in Mass

h mart.png
 
Lrfox said:
Re: the liquor license - I feel so bad each time I walk by Smoke Shop. It's been mostly pretty dead. Even on nice Thursday and Friday evenings, there are a number of empty tables. Considering the location and the view, it should be packed. I'm not a huge fan of their food, but I'd definitely stop by for a couple of drinks and an appetizer. They've got to be hemorrhaging cash. If something doesn't come through quickly, I don't know how they survive.
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Looks like they’ve applied for the license (item 36 at the link below).

www.boston.gov

Licensing Board Virtual Transactional Hearing

JOIN THE ZOOM MEETING
www.boston.gov www.boston.gov

Couple other nuggets of openings and closings in there too.
 
BBQ in Boston simply is not good. I don't know what the problem is, but people can't seem to figure out how to make good BBQ here. I also think that BBQ is not something that people tend to think of for a nice sit-down dinner. To me, if you're going to do BBQ, it should be fast casual. It can still have alcohol, but it needs to be affordable and casual.
 
cden4 said:
It can still have alcohol, but it needs to be affordable and casual.
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Curious which downtown Boston restaurants that serve meats like ribs, brisket etc. (i.e. generally not cheap items) would you consider to be "affordable?"
 
I'll agree that places like Redbones and Blue Ribbon are both underrated and, in fact, legitimately pretty bad (Which is confusing. While truly stellar BBQ is an art form, you kinda have to work at it to create actually "bad" BBQ -- sort of like pizza, chili, mac & cheese (can be anywhere from "fine" to "amazing," but is rarely garbage).

The Porch in Medford is decent, though. Some of the offerings by Scott Brothers are also nice. Only been to Smoke Shop in Cambridge once, but it was very tasty.

I've heard good things about Sweet Cheeks Q and Pit Stop in Mattapan, but haven't yet sampled the goods.
 
Justbuildit said:
Looks like they’ve applied for the license (item 36 at the link below).

www.boston.gov

Licensing Board Virtual Transactional Hearing

JOIN THE ZOOM MEETING
www.boston.gov www.boston.gov

Couple other nuggets of openings and closings in there too.
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Great stuff, thanks!

Does anyone know what this means? Holder of an Common Victualler All-Alcoholic Beverages License has petitioned to Pledge the License to: Eagle Bank. It's related to Umbria Steak House in the North End which is pretty new. Does this mean they're giving up already?

"Tir Na Nog" opening in the Financial District is interesting too.
 
Lrfox said:
Great stuff, thanks!

Does anyone know what this means? Holder of an Common Victualler All-Alcoholic Beverages License has petitioned to Pledge the License to: Eagle Bank. It's related to Umbria Steak House in the North End which is pretty new. Does this mean they're giving up already?

"Tir Na Nog" opening in the Financial District is interesting too.
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pretty sure it means the restaurant is using the license as collateral on a loan
 
Lrfox said:
Great stuff, thanks!
"Tir Na Nog" opening in the Financial District is interesting too.
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Look closer and you'll see that's merely the LLC name; the actual name the restaurant will be going by is The Chemist...
 
BronsonShore said:
pretty sure it means the restaurant is using the license as collateral on a loan
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That would make sense. It's a pretty valuable asset. Umbria has a pretty rough 3.5 star rating on Google, but closing less than a month after opening would be pretty surprising.

DBM said:
Look closer and you'll see that's merely the LLC name; the actual name the restaurant will be going by is The Chemist...
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Thanks, I read too quickly. Found this on the space. I'm glad to see its being occupied.
 
A general observation from my recent trip to Portland: MA is doing cannabis dispensaries all wrong. The dispensaries in Portland don’t obscure the street view of the interior with half-hearted art “galleries”. Instead, they show the interior, which looks no different than any of the other shops. The prudish desire to hide the vice deadens the street scape, for no real gain.
 
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