In 2014, City Councilor Ayanna Pressley succeeded in making her pitch for restricted, less expensive liquor licenses as a tool for economic development in Boston’s outlying neighborhoods.
The number of liquor licenses in Boston has barely risen since Prohibition – a 1930s era holdover of a Yankee-controlled State House that distrusted Boston’s Irish-dominated city council. That limit has meant that liquor licenses can go for as much as half a million dollars on the open market, and bars and restaurants tend to be clustered in affluent neighborhoods like Back Bay and the North End.
Cheryl Straughter is the owner of the brand-new restaurant Soleil, in Roxbury’s Dudley Square – and a recipient of one of the cheaper liquor licenses. Soleil – French for “sun” – is her granddaughter’s middle name.
“It also, for me, is a reflection of our community,” Straughter said. “A lot of people don’t see Dudley as a warm and bright place to open a business.”
Straughter said she believes in Dudley. She lived in the neighborhood as a young girl, and remembers the bustling commercial center it used to be. But in recent years, Dudley has fallen on hard times.
Now, there’s a push for revitalization, from the sparking rehabilitation of the Bolling Building, to the cheap neighborhood-restricted liquor licenses, intended to motivate restaurateurs like Straughter to open businesses here.
