Garage Eateries Seek Later Hours

If John P. DiGiovanni gets his way, five restaurants in the Garage will be open through 2 a.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights by next semester.

DiGiovanni, the president of Trinity Property Management, which owns the Garage, will go to the Cambridge License Commission on May 11 along with the owners of Ben & Jerry’s, Boston Chowda and Formaggio Delicatessen to request “extensions of hours” for the establishments to stay open late.

“We’re trying to respond to the marketplace,” DiGiovanni said. “We’d have a number of places where you can get food until 2 a.m.”

Two restaurants in the Garage, Felipe’s Taqueria and Crazy Dough’s Pizza, already have licenses to stay open until 2 a.m. Only Felipe’s, however, is open past midnight on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.

“It’s been great,” Felipe’s co-owner Tom Brush said yesterday. “Really solid, steady business. It’s been hard to close.”

Felipe’s inherited its 2 a.m. license from Real Taco, the taqueria it replaced earlier this month.

But Luciante Ferrante, a co-owner of Formaggio Delicatessen, was uncertain whether the deli would have enough business to support the later hours.

“To be sincere, I don’t [think the later hours will be sustainable]. But we’re going to try,” she said.

Ferrante said that the extension of hours had been DiGiovanni’s initiative.

Formaggio currently closes at 9 p.m.

Ferrante said that no matter what the Commission decides, Formaggio will close in June for renovations.

“We’re going to change the menu and add a grill,” she said. “We’re going to change and then try for late hours.”

Boston Chowda District Manager Robert Webb said that Boston Chowda will also close in late May for an expansion.

“Boston Chowda will only have a quick remodel,” he said. “We’re going to add a [new concept called] The Dog House, which will be shaped like a dog house and will serve hot dogs, corn dogs, french fries, lemonade.”

Webb said that only The Dog House, which will have its own employees and cash register, would stay open until 2 a.m. if the Commission grants the request. Boston Chowda will still close at 8 p.m.

An employee at Ben & Jerry’s yesterday was unaware that her store plans to request longer hours.

The Harvard Square Defense Fund opposes the extension of hours on the grounds that late night establishments create crime.

G. Pebble Gifford, the president of the Harvard Square Defense Fund, said the Fund would present police records as evidence that the extension of hours would be problematic.

“The Hong Kong [restaurant] has a police call every week,” she said, referring to the Mass. Ave. restaurant and lounge that is open until 3 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

“People will pour out at 2 a.m. and break windows,” Gifford said. “The Square is also a residential neighborhood.”

Gifford added that if the Commission approved the three Garage requests it would have to approve every other request for late hours.

“You can’t do one—it’s all or nothing,” she said.

But Brush said that even though Felipe’s, unlike the other Garage establishments, fronts on a street, it has had no problems with late night patrons.

Yesterday, Cambridge License Commission Executive Officer Richard V. Scali said that he had not yet heard any opposition to the request, although he said he expected the Harvard Square Defense Fund to protest the proposed change.

He added that on May 25 the Commission would hear a request from the Grafton Street Pub and Grille at 1230 Mass. Ave. to extend its hours until 2 a.m.

Scali said that the restaurant asked for the extension in the fall but the Commission had not yet ruled on it. Currently, Grafton Street closes at 1 a.m.

DiGiovanni said that if the Commission extends the hours of the Garage restaurants it would take 30 to 60 days to implement the change.

“Seniors who graduate won’t be able to enjoy it,” he said.

—Staff writer Joseph M. Tartakoff can be reached at tartakof@fas.harvard.edu.