Worcester Business Journal

12 Worcester Business Journal | October 26, 2020 | wbjournal.com With tourism taking a hit from the coronavirus pandemic, Sturbridge is working on a marketing campaign to remind people about dining options and what else Sturbridge is open for. e town's restaurants, including a string of them lining Route 20, have made Sturbridge a dining destination between Worcester, Springfield and Hartford. "It's one of those things a restaurateur would look for," Bridges said of the town's absence of a liquor license cap. "We don't lose those opportunities because of the availability of a liquor license." Coming later to the game has been Franklin, which similarly benefits from its easy highway access and location between Worcester, Boston and Provi- dence, along with hosting Dean College and large employers. e town has 31 licenses, though it could have 40 based on its population alone – never mind that it has no cap. "e fact that there's no cap is some- thing we as a community have tradition- ally not used to the full potential as an economic development tool," said Jamie Hellen, Franklin's town administrator. Franklin has made some recent strides, with openings in the past year at GlenPharmer Distillery at the former Incontro restaurant and 67 Degrees Brewing in an industrial building on Grove Street. Up next is a planned mar- keting campaign called ink Franklin First aimed at locals. "Not having a cap is something we can hopefully use moving forward to make the difference between having someone try out their idea or not try it at all," Hellen said. "ere's a lot of peo- ple that are commuting into town. e trick is to find the connection between 4 and 5 p.m. when people get out of work and 8 o'clock." The limits of the state's cap e state's liquor license law considers the range of a community's population in deciding how many licenses a city or town gets. at's why, for example, both Royalston, with little over 1,000 residents, and Charlton, with more than 13,000, are both capped at 19 establishments. at formula is based on the decennial U.S. Census, which was last taken in 2010. Communities regularly seek to go above their cap with requests going before the Legislature's Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure. In each two-year session, those requests oen number 30 or so, said Rep. David LeBeouf, a member of the committee and a Democrat whose district covers Leices- ter and part of Worcester. e committee oen says yes, weigh- ing what LeBeouf said is what's in the best interest of the community, the pro- posed licensees and existing licensees. Requests for raising the cap are oen tied to a particular address or develop- ment area, such as Hudson's Highland Commons. "When you find a successful business, we want to do what we can to support them," LeBeouf said. "ey're a critical Boston 679,413 1,197 Cambridge* 115,665 258 Worcester* 185,195 255 New Bedford 95,117 145 Somerville 80,434 143 Quincy 94,121 120 Springfield 154,596 118 Plymouth* 59,331 112 Fall River 89,339 107 Newton 88,660 104 Barnstable* 44,314 104 Lowell 111,249 103 Peabody 52,865 81 Waltham 62,979 80 Falmouth* 31,177 79 Brookline 59,234 78 Pittsfield 43,058 77 Brockton 95,426 73 Framingham 71,649 67 Haverhill* 63,280 64 2018 Total Town/City population licenses Mass. communities with most liquor licenses *No cap Source: Massachusetts Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission Continued from page 9 Welly's in downtown Marlborough opened to outdoor dining in June when state regulations allowed it. PHOTO | GRANT WELKER Worcester* No cap (235)* 255 185,195 $10,902 Framingham 88 67 71,649 N/A Marlborough* No cap (49)* 64 39,776 $20,426 Leominster 52 50 41,579 $24,497 Milford 35 40 28,789 $41,401 Fitchburg 52 40 40,737 $7,885 Natick 42 37 36,083 $44,949 Westborough 24 33 18,982 $40,653 Sturbridge* No cap (19)* 33 9,537 $27,537 Hudson 25 32 19,868 $20,208 Shrewsbury 46 32 37,037 $15,475 Franklin* No cap (40)* 31 33,022 $12,778 Webster 22 31 16,971 $10,630 Acton 27 28 23,561 $21,446 Bellingham 22 23 17,016 $25,310 Gardner 26 23 20,555 $14,171 Clinton 19 23 13,899 $6,569 Millbury 19 22 13,630 $27,108 Southbridge 22 22 16,894 $11,889 Sudbury 23 21 18,940 $15,307 Total Liquor on premise 2018 Retail sales Name license cap licenses Population per capita Central Mass. liquor licenses Note: For the full list of every Central Massachusetts communities' liquor license total, visit WBJournal.com *No liquor license cap. In these cases, the number given is theoretical cap based on the community's population. Sources: Massachusetts Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission, U.S. Census Bureau Most cities and towns in Central Massachusetts, like their counterparts statewide, are limited by population-based caps on how many liquor licenses they can give to places such as restaurants and breweries. A few, including Worcester, have no cap, while others have sought exemptions to go above their mandated caps. Here are the 20 communities will be most liquor licenses.

• Cover