BCAT News

The Board of Selectmen voted to change the town’s alcohol policy on Monday night to make it easier for smaller, family-owned, restaurants to open in town. 

Prior to the vote, in order to receive an all-alcohol license an establishment had to have at least 120 seats. There was also a minimum of 40 seats for a beer/wine license. During the March 8 meeting, then Chairman Joe Morandi and Selectman Bob Hogan, the two members of the alcohol sub-committee, said the numbers were too high and prohibited locally owned restaurants from obtaining licenses and the town is trying to attract just such establishments in the Town Center. 

“We’ve talked about trying to get small restaurants in the Town Center,” Morandi said. “To have a full license you’d need 120 seats and nobody is going to open a restaurant that big in that area.”

This week Hogan added that he had heard from property owners in town who verified that the current minimum seat requirements were limiting their ability to attract locally owned restaurants to their properties. 

“When you have a number like 120 as a minimum you are potentially restricting a number of clients who might like to come to Burlington,” he said. 

Other members of the board said they agreed with the proposal to reduce to the seating minimums. 

“During COVID we have come to realize how important our restaurants and hotels are to our operating budgets, not to mention the convenience of making these types of venues available to our residents and the folks that work here,” Selectman Mike Runyan said. “I think we’re long overdue to make some adjustments.” 

The big question was what the new minimums should be or if there should be a minimum at all. One proposal to reduce the minimum for a beer/wine license to 10 seats prompted a question about what types of establishments the board was hoping to attract. 

Morandi said nobody would open a sit-down restaurant with only 10 seats because it would not be big enough to cover the overhead costs. Having a minimum that low, he said, would open up the possibility of sub shops and pizzarias getting liquor licenses, something he did not see as the vision they were striving for. 

“I’m looking for sit-down restaurants with servers,” he said. 

Morandi proposed new minimums of 30 seats for all-alcohol licenses and 20 for beer/wine licenses. Other members of the board agreed with these numbers and voted unanimously to change the policy to those levels.