Closed Burlington Restaurants Look To Sell Liquor Licenses

BURLINGTON, MA -- Recently closed Besito in the Burlington Mall and Lester's Roadside Barbecue on Cambridge Street are in the process of selling their liquor license through brokers. A third license, formerly held by Uno's Pizza & Grill, is in the process of transferring it to Frank Pepe's, a pizzeria that will take over the Uno's space in the Burlington Mall.

The Lester's license is for beer and wine, while the other two are full liquor licenses. In his first public comments since Lester's closed last month, owner Doug Shaffer told Burlington Selectmen high rents and an influx of chain restaurantsin Burlington had forced the barbecue joint to go out of business. Those new restaurants led to a 70% drop off in business at Lester's over the course of six months.

Because the number of liquor licenses are capped by the state legislature on a town-by-town basis, they can fetch steep prices on the secondary market. In 2011, for example, liquor licenses in Boston were sold for as much as $450,000.

Separately last week, Selectmen revoked a liquor license it had granted to Burlington Beer Works. Burlington Beer Works had previously cited the departure of Busa Liquors, Roche Brothers and Bauer Hockey as the reason for their decision to abandon plans to open a brew pub in the Crossroads Shopping Plaza. The company received approval for a liquor license in 2016 to take over the space that has been vacant since Outback Steakhouse closed in 2015.

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Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).