Selectmen Approve Liquor License for New Inn and Restaurant

The Lexington Board of Selectmen approved the liquor license for the Inn at Hastings Park during Monday night's meeting. 

The Inn at Hastings Park is the brainchild of Lexington resident Trisha Perez Kennealy who is in the process of converting a home at the corner of Mass Ave and Worthen Road into a high-end inn and restaurant. 

The inn will have 22 rooms. The restaurant "Artistry on the Green" will have 54 seats. 

This week's vote came after a lengthy discussion during the August meeting where some members of the community and Selectman Peter Kelley raised concerns about possible noise issues and the possibility of disturbances in the residential neighborhood where the business is located. 

Kelley also raised concerns, both this week and in August, that the scope of the application of the liquor license had expanded since Perez Kennealy presented an overview of the project to Town Meeting. He argued this week that if business owners are allowed to get approval for a liquor license after expanding the scope of a project beyond what Town Meeting approved that would degrade the integrity of the Town Meeting process. 

"We cannot allow the liquor license to be for more than what was originally proposed," he said. "It is essential this board keep this license to what the public presentation stated."

Specifically, Kelley argued that his interpretation of what was said at Town Meeting is that the liquor license would be limited to the restaurant portion of the establishment and not the inn. 

The plan put forward by Kennealy and her attorney Patricia Farnsworth is that restaurant patrons who are not staying at the inn will only be able to purchase alcohol in the restaurant. Guests of the inns however will be able to purchase alcohol through room service and in a living room area in one of the three buildings. They also said guests would be allowed to take drinks and food outside to a porch and a patio. 

Other members of the board, including Deborah N. Mauger, that people listening to the same presentation may come away with different interpretation of what was said. Other members argued that the statement that liquor sales would be limited to the restaurant for patrons meant that restaurant customers would not be able to buy drinks in the inn, not that alcohol would not be sold to inn guests in the inn.