November 18, 2021
The Boston Licensing Board on Thursday gave Kenneth Blasi permission to buy out his brother Joseph and re-open Blasi Cafe, 762 Adams St. in Dorchester.
The restaurant and bar, which the Blasi brothers each held a 50% share in, has been closed since a two-alarm fire in 2017.
Separately, the board voted to grant a "neighborhood" beer and wine license to Fresh Food Generation, 191 Talbot Ave. in Dorchester, should one be available.
The restaurant, which has 12 employees and 8 indoor seats and 30 seasonal patio seats, started as a concept in the Commonwealth Kitchen incubator.
At a hearing on Wednesday, owner Carla Cassandria Campbell told the board the restaurant is "a farm to plate scratch kitchen." She added, "our goal is community health."
Board Chairwoman Kathleen Joyce today praised the restaurant as "exactly the type of applicant the board is excited to see come before us."
Neighborhood licenses are meant for small, entrepreneurial restaurants in neighborhoods where alcohol licenses had become scarce as the limited number of licenses were bought out - for prices approaching $400,000 - by larger, often national-chain, restaurants downtown and along the waterfront. Unlike regular licenses, neighborhood licenses cannot be resold or used as collateral on loans - they have to be given back to the board should the holders close their restaurants.