Maybe it was too good to be true. Craft beer gardens popping up in the city on places like plazas, greenways and under expressways. Sunshine, craft beer, laughter, outdoors. Well, it could be coming to an end.
According to the Boston Globe, local restaurants don’t love the idea of these beer gardens and a new bill filed via Sens. Nick Collins and Ed Kennedy would put a cap of 14 on the number of one-day licenses for outdoor drinking events/pop ups per individual or business per year. Basically, the way the current law is written, you can get up to 30 one-day licenses, which allows the beer gardens to stay open for a month. When the month is up, another applicant can pick up a new round of 30 one-day licenses on the brewers' behalf. A loophole! Sneaky brewers!
Evidently local brick and mortar bar/restaurant owners don’t think this pop up business is fair –- especially since it’s cutting into their business, not to mention owning a liquor license in the City of Boston isn’t cheap. And neither is rent, so why should these beer gardens just be allowed to pop up easy breezy is the sentiment behind the restaurant owners’ thinking.
So could this be the end for pop up beer gardens? Looks like it, but we’ll have to wait and see.
You can read Jon Chesto’s full article in the Globe here!
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