As confirmed in the December 16 Zoom meeting of the Board of License Commissioners, several Newton establishments will lose their licenses to serve alcohol at the end of December because they failed to apply for renewals on time or satisfactorily complete their applications. As a result, their licenses will expire at 11:59PM on December 31, 2025, and they will not be able to sell alcohol come January.
Several other businesses formally notified the City they would not be renewing their alcohol licenses: Pink Carrot (27 Boylston St.), Grape Leaf Mediterranean Grill (4-6 Lincoln St.), and Shogun Restaurant (1385 Washington St.).
The businesses that failed to renew on time or submitted incomplete applications will be required, under state law, to apply for entirely new licenses rather than renewals.
The list of establishments whose alcohol licenses will lapses as of January 1 includes:
- Spiro Hospitality LLC (Limani, 33 Boylston St.)
- Newton Lodge of Elks (429 Centre Street)
- Ding’s Kitchen (10 Langley Rd.)
- Newton Hotel Management LLC (Crowne Plaza, 320 Washington St.)
- UMass Amherst-Mount Ida Campus: Shaw Hall and the Campus Center
In addition, the Boston Marriott in Newton, due to recent management changes, also failed to apply for renewal on time. As a stopgap, it has applied for a series of one-day alcohol licenses for various events to be held at the hotel in January. The Board of License Commissioners will hold another meeting on December 26 to continue review of applications.
The staff of the City’s Health Department, which administers licensing, cited some instances of failure to submit any renewal paperwork at all, missing certificates of inspection, incorrectly signed ABCC forms, and incomplete change-of-manager filings as reasons why renewals could not be processed.
Dina Conlin, chair of the Licensing board, emphasized that Health Department staff made repeated efforts to contact applicants and secure compliance, but applications that remained deficient were formally rejected by a unanimous vote of the board, causing the licenses to expire automatically at year’s end.
Several applicants expressed apologies, accepted responsibility for these lapses, and promised to submit renewal applications in complete form and on time in the future.
Affected businesses will be prohibited from serving alcohol in January until they successfully obtain a new license. This will likely impact the businesses financially, as alcohol can be a significant source of revenue, even when some consumers choose to refrain from drinking as part of their New Year’s resolutions – a phenomenon commonly known as Dry January. As a result, January may be even more dry than usual.
