Pops Restaurant’s Request for Extended Hours Spurs Heated Debate

Have you ever lived next to a restaurant?

It can be a big bummer. People romanticize the idea of living in chic urban neighborhoods like the South End, and while there are plenty of pluses, coexisting in close quarters with businesses can get unexpectedly complicated, particularly if they’re open late.

On the other hand, it could easily be argued that living with the sights, sounds and smells of business is part and parcel of residing in the city… don’t like it? The suburbs aren’t that far away.

But when inner-city property values are high, residents feel entitled to a certain amount of consideration, and rightly so. If they don’t get it, they can make it hard for a local business to succeed.

It was in this light that Doug Noble, owner of at 560 Tremont, didn’t fare well last night at the Eight Streets Neighborhood Association meeting. Noble was on hand to ask the group for support to extend the venue’s hours from  midnight to 1 a.m. Abutters expressed dismay that the restaurant would be asking for much of anything after what was characterized as an overall shoddy track record with community relations.

Noble brought his attorney Michael Overson along to address the group and help explain why Pops is looking to extend its hours. Overson cited the difficulty of competing with other, larger food venues as one good reason why the restaurant could really benefit from the one-hour extension. , located just across the street, is open every night until 2 a.m. Additionally, he noted how awkward and alienating it can be to close up shop when customers are still enjoying food and drink.

But the outlook for Noble and Overson’s request was grim straight away, especially since ESNA clearly seemed to feel its authority had been undermined: Pops brought the request to the licensing board without speaking to the community first. The board had reached a decision, but wouldn’t reveal what it was until Noble checked in with his neighbors and got feedback on a community level.

The word ‘disturbing’ was used multiple times.

As the debate transpired, it was revealed that ESNA (and UPNA as well) perceives Pops as a needy neighbor that hasn’t done a very good job holding up its end of the bargain: abutters complained of leaky plastic trash bags placed outside without bins (a code violation), the use of the back door to noisily drag garbage into the alleyway late in the evening, cigarette smoke and a pesky exhaust fan. The excessive volume of the early morning cleaning team as well as that of the night staff breaking down the venue at closing time was also cited by several in attendance as completely unacceptable.

Noble defended himself by explaining that communication with his previous business partner—now out of the picture—had soured in the last year and that many existing issues hadn’t been properly brought to his attention. He also insisted that those issues which had been voiced by both ESNA and UPNA just over a year ago—approximately a half-dozen specific problems—had been addressed and, if not satisfactorily, nobody had informed him.

A particularly vehement pair of neighbors said to be representing the 554-556 Tremont Trust insisted that, between tenants in their buildings, ESNA, UPNA and neighbors on Waltham Street, they could easily secure thirty signatures in opposition to Pops extending its hours.

One resident accused Noble of talking out both sides of his mouth and cited numerous times that he’d observed the patio seating at Pops to be well in excess of its zoned 17-patron capacity. When Noble's lawyer asked him why he hadn’t said anything to Pops’ management on any one of the aforementioned occasions, the gentleman adamantly stated it wasn’t his responsibility and that the venue needed to do a better job of self-policing.

“This is a unique, compact, urban environment,” another resident said. “What may work on one side of the street might not work right across the way… That space has always had a restaurant in it, and in nineteen years as a resident I’ve never experienced so many problems with any of the previous tenants.”

“I would characterize this as an overwhelming lack of respect for neighbors,” he continued, adding that the increase of vermin and a ‘husbandry of trash’ qualified in his thinking as ‘profound issues.’

Also on hand was a representative from the Union Park Neighborhood Association, who said she felt as if her community had been ‘stonewalled’ by Noble and his team via unreturned phone calls and a lack of clear communication. She, too, complained about improperly stored trash and resulting rodents in the alleyway behind the restaurant.

“This is not Pops’ personal trash alley,” she asserted.

Two motions were filed at the end of the evening, one to oppose the request and another to ‘do nothing’ and wait to see if Noble takes any steps to address raised concerns.

The group voted for the latter tact and will revisit this situation with Noble in attendance at May’s meeting.