Earlier this year, the Boston Licensing Board didn't grant a liquor license to developer Michael Norton's proposed Italian restaurant at L Street and Broadway in South Boston (and then rejected a Starbucks there).
Tomorrow, though, the board considers a request from the owner of Mirisola's, 200 L St., to serve beer and wine with his Italian food.
Guy Mirisola's attorney, Richard Lane, told the board at a hearing this morning that Mirisola's is just the sort of place the board should be granting a license to: A well established, locally owned restaurant that needs a little help - in the form of a beer-and-wine license - to keep up with the chains devouring South Boston.
"This is exactly the kind of guy you want to keep in business," a man who runs "the Italian version of Cheers," with food cooked by his relatives, who were born in Sicily, he said.
John Allison, the mayor's liaison to South Boston, said the mayor strongly supported the request. "There's a short of businesses serving what he is serving in the area," he said. Councilors Bill Linehan, Michael Flaherty and Annissa Essaibi-George also supported the bid.