The time is right to breathe life back into a shuttered restaurant in Uphams Corner, or so Steven Bingham hopes. The Restaurant at 33 Hancock, at the former Ka-Carlos location, has been closed for the last five years, Bingham said. He hopes to offer smooth jazz and a wide-ranging food menu to Uphams Corner’s diverse clientele, as soon as the city and abutters sign off on his liquor license application and the plans he has in mind for his business.

“I want to have smooth jazz, if the neighborhood allows it,” Bingham said of the new iteration of the restaurant. The premises, a block from the Strand Theatre, would seat 120 people, stay open until 11 p.m., and be closed on Sundays. He hopes to serve local food, and cut down the existing bar space to make room for more dining tables and chairs.

Bingham has applied for one of the 75 liquor licenses that recent legislation has made available to traditionally under-served areas of the city over the next three years. His goal is to make wine, beer, and other drinks available for restaurant patrons, but without a bar feel. “It’ll be a relaxed atmosphere, people can come, listen to some music,” Bingham said. “Not like a bar with 20-30 people lined up at the counter.”

Bingham purchased the property, once home to Ka-Carlos, an upscale Cape Verdean restaurant that went out of business following a 2009 triple shooting that fatally wounded two people, at an auction in 2010. Shortly afterward, Bingham unsuccessfully went to the city’s licensing board for approval to open “a family restaurant,” he said at the time. Since then, he has maintained a license to operate the restaurant, but he has kept it closed to the public and has used the facilities to cook food for his two Roslindale day care centers in the morning.

Bingham’s liquor license application has not yet been heard at a licensing board meeting, but he remains hopeful, saying that while an abutter has voiced opposition, the nearby Main Streets organizations and other business groups have been supportive.

“This area’s getting a lot safer,” he said. “Now’s a good time for this. I just want to be neighborhood friendly.”