Tacos ’til Two

Sometimes a little student participation can go a long way, especially as far as burritos are concerned. Before Monday, Felipe’s Tacqueria, an extremely popular Mexican restaurant in the Square, looked to be in jeopardy of losing its license to stay open past midnight because the restaurant stayed open past the mandated time of 2 a.m. on three separate occasions. In a disciplinary hearing on Monday, the Cambridge Licensing Commission (CLC) chose to let Felipe’s keep its license, slapping it instead with a requirement that the restaurant close its doors for two days on which it would not normally close. The CLC also delayed Felipe’s application to stay open until 4 a.m. for six months.

The CLC made the right decision. Though Felipe’s violations were without a doubt regrettable, suspending the restaurant’s 2 a.m. license would be an extremely harsh penalty. Such a penalty could have had a chilling effect on other Square businesses, which had already started observing the CLC’s rules so dutifully that they were closing at 1:45 a.m. in order to ensure all customers had left in time.

Though involved interest groups wanted a harsher penalty for Felipe’s, they should recognize the wisdom of the CLC’s decision. The Harvard Square Defense Fund, a group of older Cambridge residents, had lobbied the CLC in its last meeting to rescind the restaurant’s license because they were worried about students roaming around late at night around the Square. Members of the fund had suggested that students walk to Central Square for food instead. As Harvard students, we all know that we can sometimes get a little rowdy late on Friday and Saturday nights. The fact that Felipe’s employees sometimes have to push students out of the door come closing time testifies to this fact. But we want members of the fund to know that we are offended by the implication that students pose a real safety danger to residents of Cambridge. Noise is certainly an issue, but Felipe’s is situated such that only a very few private residences are affected. And those apartment tenants, located above shops on Mount Auburn St. to the east, were sold their places at prices that took the noise problems into account.

Helping to push the interests of students at Monday’s meeting were Undergraduate Council (UC) Liaison to the City of Cambridge Jeffrey Kwong ’09 and a group of five other undergraduates. Kwong should be commended for publicizing the progress of the Felipe’s license process and using House open lists to drum up student support. The lobbying Kwong led seems to have done the trick. We look forward to an all-out effort to secure Felipe’s a 4 a.m. license six months from now—a move that could have the potential to transform opportunities for late-night food in the Square.