Stoneham Woman Loses Her Bid to Relocate Cafe in Beacon Hill

During a long and sometimes emotional meeting Wednesday night, the Beacon Hill Civic Association's Zoning and Licensing Committee heard and voted on requests from JP Licks, Villa Mexico Cafe and DeLuca's Market.

All three establishments were asking the board not to oppose variances they need to open restaurants. Although the zoning committee does not have the power to grant or deny these variances, it can oppose them when they go before the city. Any opposition from the neighborhood board carries significant influence at the city level.

Villa Mexico Cafe: Denied

The Mexican restaurant currently in Grampy's gas station, at 296 Cambridge St., was seeking a variance to move into a storefront around the corner, at 12 Grove St. The board voted not support this request after hearing from neighbors who were concerned that commercial properties would start creeping up the Hill, and that smell from the restaurant would disturb tenants. 

Owner Julie King and her daughter Bessie King, both of Stoneham, are required to leave the gas station, which has been slated for redevelopment into office buildings, by the end of this month. They have been offered a lease on the ground floor of 12 Grove St., a building owned by Mitch and Carrie Wilson.

King was proposing to open a restaurant nearly identical to the one she now operates: a take-out place that does not require the use of stoves or ovens. Food would be cooked on an appliance and fumes carried out by what Bessie King called a state-of-the-art vent, leaving very little smell. 

The space, however, has not been used in a commercial capacity for some time, and its commercial permit has lapsed. What remains is a policy to keep the interior of Beacon Hill residential.

The north slope of Beacon Hill used to be filled with ground-level storefronts, but that has changed over the years, said moderator Tom Clemens. Many of these spaces still exist but the zoning board's policy has been to discourage variances except for neighborhood uses such as grocery stores, drug stores, laundromat and shoe stores, for example.

“There’s a serious concern about encroachment of commercial spaces back into those areas," Clemens said. There remain other empty storefronts for which this might set a precedent if a variance is granted, he said.

Richard Lynds, a lawyer for Villa Mexico Cafe, said that it is within the zoning board's power to take each application on a case-by-case basis. 

Many customers came out to support King. "I think we as Beacon Hillers are blessed to have Villa Mexico in our neighborhood. It is a quintessential family-run business," said David Nincic of Mount Vernon Street. "With Villa Mexico we have five years of history. I think we should really look at this as the case as someone who’s been a fantastic neighbor to us for five years. I think it would be a tragedy to see them leave."

But many nearby abutters did not share Nincic's support. 

"I’m terrified that these existing buildings are going to be renovated and filled with food places. We have a rat problem," Judy Avery, who lives on West Cedar Street but owns property near the proposed location, said. "Whatever they say about their cooking, when I cook Mexican in my basement my tenants on the top floor can smell it no matter what they say. Not where my tenants are going to smell it, where the rats are going to come into their houses."

Nincic, however, said that he does not smell Mexican food when he enters Grampy's, "so it’s hard for me to imagine smell will be permeating the building."

Other neighbors aired concerns about the lack of parking, the effect a "taco shop" would have on property values, the increase in foot traffic and the possibility that the lack of seating would encourage customers to eat on neighbors' stoops. But King was quick to defend her customers as considerate people.

"These customers are not the kind of customers who eat on the little steps in front of the houses. These customers are like you: nice people, decent people. They pick up their food and go home," she said. 

Some attendees suggested the Villa Mexico consider other locations on the Hill, but Lynds said that available space is hard to come by and that King is running out of time since she cannot afford to stay closed for long. 

After a robust discussion, the board voted 12-3 to oppose the variance.

“We’re very disappointed," Bessie King said afterward, through tears. "We just wanted a chance.”

JP Licks: Approved

The board voted unanimously not to oppose a variance request by JP Licks, the popular Jamaica Plain-based ice cream shop that is looking to set up a branch at 150 Charles St. But the board's support comes only on condition that the store close by 11 p.m., with the understanding that JP Licks can come back to the board asking it to reconsider the store's request to close at midnight.

JP Licks is looking to open a store with 20 seats in the Charles Street Garage complex. The store does not serve sandwiches or do any grilling; it offers only ice cream, coffee and related products.

Neighborhood support for the store was split. While some worried that a late closing time would attract patrons from nearby bars, or just college students having a late-night snack and making noise, others said the ice cream shop would brighten an otherwise dark area of Charles Street at night.

"If there's a magnet [there] it just brings them over," a West Hill Place resident said.

It's unlikely that JP Licks would attract bar patrons since JP Licks closes well before the bars do, said Joseph Hanley, a lawyer representing JP Licks. 

Furthermore, added JP Licks owner Vincent Petryk, in his experience at other stores, "most people, when they get out of bars, are not interested in ice cream." Petryk said that his stores have helped revitalize sections of other neighborhoods they've gone into. 

Another worry concerned double-parking, but Petryk said that people don't tend to pop into ice cream stores like they do coffee shops, that it tends to be more of an experience, a recreation. People can also park in the Charles Street Garage.

Chris Pedersen, who owns Charles Street Liquors and the UPS store across from 150 Charles St., said he was excited about prospect of JP Licks opening in that location. Beacon Hill resident Jeannette Herrmann agreed: "I think having ice cream on the Hill has always been good for us in the past and would be good again."

DeLuca's Market: Denied

The most heated topic of the night concerned Virgil Aiello's request for a variance to open a cafe at DeLuca's Market. 

Aiello's store, DeLuca's Market at 11 Charles St., has been closed after being ravaged by a fire in July 2010. After a series of meetings at city boards and with neighbors, it still appears to be far from opening. 

Neighbors with a long history of complaints against Aiello came to the meeting to express frustration, and sometimes anger, that they have not been shown a complete proposal for the refurbished market Aiello wants to open.

But Aiello's lawyer, Terry Dangel, countered that all the appropriate paperwork has been filed, and the necessary plans have been submitted. Neighbors, however, said that plans are unclear and they want a complete understanding of the project before the zoning board moves forward with any agreement with Aiello.

Although long-standing grievances ranging from trash, property boundary violations, fire egress blockage and rat infestation were mentioned, Dangel said the only issue that should be discussed is whether to grant DeLuca's a permit for food service.

"All grocery stores operate on very small margins," he said. "Virgil wants to have a (20-person) seating area in the front of store. Almost every modern market has a sitting area: an area to have coffee, an area to have sandwiches. As Beacon Hill becomes younger again, the people who live on the hill work late, work hard, and they want to buy something that’s prepared."

But residents said they cannot support a restaurant at DeLuca's until they know the entire scope of the project. 

One aspect of it involves an ell-shaped section of the building at 17 Branch St., which Aiello wants to expand into. But neighbors say this has long been a residential space and any expansion into it requires a variance.

But to their surprise, Dangel presented a document from the city claiming that the space has been used for commercial storage by a South Hamilton, Mass., man since 2007.

Many at the meeting expressed doubt that the document was valid. But if it is, it would mean that the permit for commercial use of the space has not lapsed. Before the fire, Aiello had gutted the ell, which neighbors claim was apartment space.

In any case, Dangel said, the market has a right to open with or without the neighborhood's support or approval as long as his place passes a building inspection. To that end, Aiello is getting DeLuca's outfitted with sprinklers and making it handicapped-accessible.

Aiello only needs permission to open a cafe in the market, Dangel said, and to get that green light he is prepared to enter into a Good Neighbor Agreement that will address all the abutters' concerns. The previous Good Neighbor Agreement lapsed 25 years ago, according to Dangel.

In the end, the board voted 8-3 to oppose any permit until Aiello presents a complete plan for the market and enters into a Good Neighbor Agreement.