Commission Fails to Decide on Future Of Liquor Licenses for 2 Restaurants

Two Harvard Square restaurant owners met with loud community opposition at last night's Cambridge Licensing Commission hearing as they continued their long efforts to obtain liquor licenses.

Representatives from local churches and neighborhood groups told the three-member commission that Ruggles Pizza and Grendel's Den should not be allowed to serve liquor, arguing that the 39 establishments already selling liquor in the Square adequately satisfy public demand.

Both restaurants had been denied earlier requests for licenses. The commission did not decide either case at last night's 4 1/2 hour session, but agreed to reach a decision at next Tuesday's meeting.

Spokesmen for the Harvard Square Defense Fund. City Councilor Francis H. Duehay '55 and members of several churches also testified that the high crime rate in the Square was the result of a high concentration of liquor licenses.

But Anthony Pollilo, Cambridge's chief of police and a member of the licensing commission, presented a study compiled by his department that contested the link between alcohol consumption and crime.

According to Pollilo's report, crime in the Square actually decreased by as much as 50 percent last year.

Grendel's Den was originally denied a liquor license in 1977 because of a veto by the Holy Cross Armenian Catholic Church. A state law allowing a church to prevent restaurants from serving alcohol within 500 feet of its door enabled the church to exercise its veto. But ruling on an appeal of the Grendel's case, the U.S. Supreme Court declared the state, law unconstitutional.

Ruggles Pizza, a new restaurant in the Square, was also denied its November 5 license request because of church opposition and because of community complaints about the proliferation of license in the Square.

Although Ruggles license was not denied because of an outright church veto, the commission still granted the resuturant a rehearing after the Supreme Court's ruling on the Grendel's case.

Lawyers for both restaurants said last night the two cases were not identical. Grendel's license was purchased from another establishment, and is not a new one, noted Lawrence H Tribe '62, Harvard professor of law and attorney for Grendel's.

He added that the license would have been granted in 1977 if the church had not exercised its unconstitutional veto.

Kevin P. Crane '73, the lawyer for Ruggles, said that the restaurants are also applying for two different types of licenses.

Ruggles wants a license to sell only beer and wine, while the license owned by Grendel's would allow the restaurant to sell all kinds of alcohol

Similar Opposition

But the arguments against both licenses were the same Massachusetts law provides for this issuing of licenses "only to serve public need and to protect common good," said Gregory M. Kennan of the Harvard Square Defense Fund, a local community group The Square has enough liquor selling restaurants to serve the need, he added

Joanna Jerison, a representative of Holy Cross Church also testified that a license for Grendel's was not in the public good, citing the restaurant's past health code violations as evidence

In addition, more than 20 long standing Cambridge residents testified that the area around Harvard Square was unsafe and unpleasant, and said that both liquor licenses would contribute to the neighborhood's deterioratio