Selectmen to petition Legislature to grant moveable liquor licenses
If the Legislature approves the request, the town may be able to offer businesses liquor licenses that are not tied down to specific pieces of property.
Board of Selectmen Chairman Patrick Tropeano said the Board will make a “respectful request” to the Massachusetts Legislature to grant the town extra liquor licenses that are mobile, rather than only valid at a specific piece of land, as they are now.
Tropeano said the town gets a certain allotment of licenses per population, but any extra licenses must be made at special request from the Legislature. He said having these licenses would be a good thing for the town, as Wareham is “like restaurant heaven.”
“It’s a good thing for us to have these [restaurants] around,” Tropeano said. “But they don’t want to come here, if there is no license.”
Multi-restaurant owner John Salerno, who is currently in the process of getting a license for the Glen Cove Inn & Restaurant at 167 Onset Ave., said he also thinks the idea is a good one, because it would make opening up food and beverage businesses in town a lot easier.
“There’s growth in the town, and that’s not a bad thing,” Salerno said. “I am not saying [the Selectmen should] get 20 or 30 [licenses], but if you are going to the State and have to identify a specific need for them, that doesn’t give them any flexibility.”
Salerno, who also owns Salerno’s Seaside Function Hall and Marc Anthony’s Pizzeria in Onset, echoed Tropeano’s sentiments, saying Wareham has “always been a restaurant town.”
“Just looking at this [as a possibility] is a good idea,” Salerno said.
Under the current provisions, restauranteurs must ask Selectmen to request location-specific liquor licenses from the state. However, if those restaurants move physical location, the liquor licenses are not transferred to that location with them. They may remain at the old location, if the location is a complex, like a mall, or they go back to the Legislature.
If the Legislature approves the Board’s request, Tropeano said, the licenses granted to the town would be regular licenses that aren’t tied down to a property. It is possible, though, the Legislature will deny the Board’s request, because the licenses would first have to be granted by special act, and then be voted from special licenses into regular licenses.