Table of Contents
Black Horse Tavern may open at 7 a.m. on Thanksgiving, but it cannot pour a drink before 11 a.m. after the Select Board divided over a holiday breakfast at a restaurant on the route Winchester High School students walk to the football game.
The board voted 3-1 on Nov. 2 to modify the tavern’s common victualler license for one day, allowing it to open for food service at 7 a.m. on Thursday, Nov. 26.
Michelle Prior, Michael Bettencourt and Vice Chair Bill McGonigle voted yes. Chair Anthea Brady voted no.
A second motion, which would have let the restaurant sell and serve alcohol starting at 8 a.m. instead of 11 a.m., failed on a 2-2 tie. Prior and Bettencourt supported it; Brady and McGonigle opposed it. The tavern’s existing alcohol license, including its 11 a.m. start, is unchanged.
Students’ route at issue
In an Oct. 7 email to the town manager’s office, James Covino wrote the tavern has opened at 8 a.m. in past years when the high school plays the game at home. He asked for hours of 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
An Oct. 28 letter from the Winchester Health Department and the Winchester Coalition for a Safer Community, sent with the support of the Board of Health, opposed alcohol service before 11 a.m.
The letter said hundreds of students, including football players, cheerleaders and marching band members, traditionally walk from the high school to Knowlton Stadium, passing the tavern at Thompson Street and Waterfield Road.
Permitting drinking during that procession, it said, “sends a conflicting message to the very young people our prevention efforts seek to protect.” The letter supported longer food hours, calling food and alcohol service separate issues.
During public comment, a speaker said the family-owned restaurant has operated in Winchester for 16 years and opens at 8 a.m. for breakfast on Thanksgivings when the game is played at home.
“We want to be clear that alcohol is not the focus of this event,” the speaker said. “The focus is breakfast, community, tradition.”
The speaker said there had never been an issue.
Dueling ‘bad look’ claims
Prior, who made both motions, said the request comes once every two years and cited town staff research finding no police, fire or public safety incidents tied to the event.
NewsMatch is our biggest fundraising campaign of the year. Your donation could be doubled, or even tripled. To make the most of your donation, hit the button now. Thank you for supporting local news.
She cited a wine vendor’s permit for the Nov. 21 farmers market, approved earlier on the consent agenda, which she described as a 10 a.m. alcohol license.
“We just said 10 o’clock is OK to have wine tastings, but 8 o’clock is too early,” Prior said.
Brady said that license allows bottle sales, not drink service; a speaker told the board vendors may offer up to five tastings of about an ounce each.
Brady called the early opening and the morning alcohol separate requests and said she found the health officials’ letter compelling.
Members recalled the record differently. Prior said boards had approved the request since 2013; Brady recalled two prior approvals.
McGonigle said his position had not changed since the last vote, when he was in the minority. His concern, he said, was that the event is associated with underage students, and he had no objection to opening early for food.
“If alcohol is not the focus, I don’t see why it’s necessary,” McGonigle said.
Bettencourt, participating remotely, praised the restaurant’s “impeccable record” and its family’s support of the football program. He objected to splitting food from alcohol and to letting “a couple of letters” speak for a community that has long celebrated the tradition.
He said the breakfast is not held at the high school and predicted that denying it could push some people to bring their own alcohol into the stands.
Prior said a rejection would signal how receptive Winchester is to restaurants in a town that leans heavily on residential property taxes.
“I think it’s a bad look if this is not approved,” she said.
McGonigle replied, “And I think it’s a bad look to endorse drinking around underage high school events.”
Brady said the health concerns stemmed partly from people bringing alcohol into the stands. Pressed by Prior, she said she was not tying that problem to the tavern.
After the vote, Bettencourt asked whether the board might support a farmers market-style tasting at the tavern. McGonigle said that was not before the board; Brady said a different request would need a future agenda. No motion was made.
Bettencourt had said it was up to the restaurant whether to open early for food alone. The votes allow breakfast service from 7 a.m. on Thanksgiving, with alcohol sales barred until 11 a.m.
Will Dowd is a Massachusetts journalist who covers municipal government and community life for Winchester News. He is also the founder and editor of The Marblehead Independent, a reader-funded digital newsroom.
