This is the second in a series of stories about the consequences of Boston’s broken liquor license system. Chompon Boonnak is the kind of restaurateur Boston needs: smart and eager, with a knack for crafting inventive food and a convivial dining room. The menu at his 30-seat Thai restaurant, Mahaniyom, is mouth-watering.
Crispy rice crackers and pork cheek, sweet plum sauce and Thai sake bombs. Oysters with chili spice jam. Pumpkin rice balls doused in creamy coconut milk.
But Mahaniyom is not in Boston; it’s in Brookline. Liquor licenses are a big reason why. When Boonnak thought up Mahaniyom four years ago, he had a startup budget of $300,000.
He initially wanted to open his restaurant in South Boston, his one-time home after migrating from Thailand. But Boonnak also wanted a permit to serve alcohol. Boston — up against a stringent state-mandated cap — had none to give out, and buying one off another restaurant on the secondary market, as is the norm, would have cost twice his entire budget.
So Boonnak headed to Brookline Village, where he acquired a license for an annual fee of around $4,000. Advertisement When he looks back at the city today, he sees other young chefs fleeing for greener — which really means cheaper — pastures, while most of the new restaurants that do open in the city are backed by deep-pocketed investors. What else can you expect, he said, when the right to pour an old fashioned in Boston proper runs you $600,000? “We’re just keeping the.
