SCITUATE -- The Town Council will vote tonight on whether to create a liquor license in town for the first time in nearly a decade.
If the council votes to add a license, Scituate may be one step closer to having something it hasn't had for a long time: a tavern.
If it decides not to create the license, local restaurateur Richard Lang's controversial plan to open an English-style tavern on Hartford Pike will die.
The council meets at 7 in Town Hall.
Lang requested the license earlier this year after he won permission from the Zoning Board of Review to go forward with plans to build a tavern on property that borders his other restaurants, Famous Pizza and Famous Creamery.
The last available license in town was eliminated by the council in 1995. There are currently six licenses, spread between liquor stores and restaurants; Lang already has one and serves alcohol at his pizza shop.
Town Council President Theodore Richard III said the council would consider the license issue partly because Lang requested the license and partly to gauge public opinion on the tavern proposal.
"Technically we would not even be considering this if there wasn't somebody who wanted it," he said.
Richard said that Lang has "prompted discussion" in town about whether or not there should be a tavern here at all.
The discussion could be called a dispute -- between Lang and Councilman John Winfield, who lives and does business next door to the proposed tavern site.
Lang has said his tavern would be built inside an existing structure on his property. It would offer quiet entertainment to groups of about 30 people. Lang said he will market to a 35-plus crowd.
Winfield is president and funeral director of Winfield and Sons Funeral Home on Route 116. His property abuts Lang's, and he says his business could be harmed by the tavern -- especially if loud music from the pub floats over to his property during a funeral service.
"It certainly would have an adverse effect on our business. It would have an adverse effect on anyone's business," Winfield said.
Winfield has taken out advertisements in local newspapers attacking Lang's proposal and saying that the tavern would change the town's rural character.
Lang has circulated flyers questioning whether Winfield, as an elected official, is violating state ethics laws as he opposes what Lang called a legitimate business idea. Winfield has said he would ask the state Ethics Commission for guidance on how to proceed during the dispute.
Winfield said he has spoken to many residents who oppose the tavern. Richard and Councilman Michael Marcello added that they have received calls and e-mails objecting to the plan.
But Lang said he has gathered nearly 400 signatures in support of the tavern.
"I think that shows a customer demand," he said.
If approved, Lang's tavern, tentatively named "Bentley's" would be the only one in town. Winfield has said Bentley's is nothing more than a bar, and that it could breed the kind of trouble that bars sometimes do.
"He keeps saying the word 'bar'," Lang said. "I've never said 'bar'."
He has repeatedly described Bentley's as modeled after the pubs of Ireland and England, a quiet place for quiet groups of friends.
Tonight, even if the council approves a new license, Lang won't necessarily get it, Richard said.
"In order for us to give one to Mr. Lang, we have to create one, because there's none for Mr. Lang or anyone else to apply for," Richard said. "But if we do [approve it] then Mr. Lang can apply for it or anyone else can apply for it."
Assuming the council does add a new license, Richard said the license will be flexible, meaning the council may add certain conditions or restrictions to it.
Yesterday, Lang seemed to take the legal and political hurdles in stride.
"The hardest part was the North Scituate Village Overlay Committee and I passed them first thing," he said. "It's really just a matter of waiting for the license."
