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Berkshire Business Journal SEPTEMBER 2024 I VOL. 3, NO. 9
A vexing bottleneck
Why does it take so long to get a liquor license?
STEPHANIE ZOLLSHAN
When Elizabeth Zucco and her husband, Richard, sought a license transfer in April 2023 for their new restaurant, Bei Tempi, it took over a year to get final approval from the state Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission due to a discrepancy with the previous owner of the building and license. By Ellie Davis and Matt Martinez
BEN GARVER
Bartender Augustus McGrath mixes spirits at BB’s Hot Spot. The establishment got its liquor license in May, after a five-month approval process that involved an issue with the lease. “We were all set to go, and then the lease threw everything off,” co-owner Louise Brizan said.
PITTSFIELD — Elizabeth Zucco knows the trick to running a successful restaurant business, regardless of menu or location: liquor sales. “The property is what you make it, but I know alcohol is profitable,” Zucco said. “That’s what really paid our bills for the last 20 years.” For the past 22 years, Elizabeth Zucco has been the co-owner of Zucco’s Restaurant on Dalton Avenue with her husband, Richard. Together, the couple just opened a new bar, Bei Tempi, in what used to be the Crossroads Cafe at 195 Onota St. Alcohol sales are so integral to the Zuccos’ business that when they encountered obstacles obtaining the liquor license for Bei
Tempi, they delayed opening. It took Zucco less than five minutes to get approval for a license transfer from the Pittsfield Licensing Board in April 2023 — and over a year to get final approval from the state Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission, or ABCC, due to a discrepancy with the previous owner of the building and license. The Zuccos are among the latest Pittsfield business owners to get caught in a back-andforth with the ABCC over a liquor license transfer. Other area restaurants have operated their first few months dry because of complications. Issues with paperwork, immigration status and more can hamstring an applicant. It’s a statewide issue, a bureaucratic web of regulations, in a
state that didn’t allow alcohol to be sold in package stores on Sundays until 2004 and where happy hours are still banned. But in Pittsfield, the problem is more stark: No new liquor licenses can be created by the city; there are none to give. Roughly 40 years ago, municipalities in Massachusetts had the opportunity to take a one-time deal with the state to have no limit on liquor licenses, according to the ABCC. Great Barrington, Lee, Lenox, North Adams and Williamstown took this deal, but Pittsfield did not. This means hopeful applicants in Pittsfield must purchase transfers from former businesses owners, which makes it more likely the process will get held up by unresolved issues from the LIQUOR, Page 10