Opening night has been pushed back time and time again due to construction delays. This is normal: we're opening a month from now, we're opening a month from now now, we're opening two weeks from now, we're opening two weeks from now - really! The final snag came this week when the owners were told they needed a zoning variance to serve as a dine-in resteraunt. Someone complained about parking - the owners demurred from saying exactly who - and it could be anyone. There are a limited number of non-permit parking spaces nearby so any of the local businesses could be rightly worried about the competition. The upshot is that the resteraunt will open (Two weeks! I'm promised) but only as a take-out until the variances get approved. I wish them the best of luck.

My information about the doings in Ball Square is limited by how often I talk to my landlord. He was born and bred around here and knows simply everyone, and I mean everyone. When my car got booted he spent ten minutes talking with the tow truck driver asking after friends and family. A quarter of the shops are owned by the guy who owns "Sound Bites" including the burned out Urban Gourmet (which burned down in the middle of the night two months after he bought it from the Mom & Pop owners and two months after the new cooks drove away all the regulars including me). It could be that guy who protested the permit. It could be the liquor store owner a block away. It could be any of the other store owners or even a persnickety home owner. I'm not privvy to the who.

I do find the whole thing intruiging because local politics is a very ditry/zero-sum thing. The favor of the local zoning council and alderman really do make or break a business. Scary.