RIP, Liquor Land

Liquor Land's demise is a plus-minus kind of story. The people who actually live in the neighborhood might be happy at the thought of one less liquor store and the arrival of a pharmacy. Others are saying it's gentrification.

Alas, the liquor store's neighbors never get to decide what they want within walking distance, do they? Liquor Land is closing on January 1 because the owner/manager's cousin, who also co-owns the store, decided he wanted to sell out. (Clearly, someone wasn't invited for Thanksgiving this year.)

Bostonist recently learned that Liquor Land was a go-to place for absinthe now that absinthe is available in the US. Yelp reviewers, particularly those in the South End, waxed rhapsodic about the store's prices, and one wrote, "If you're not a friend of Liquor Land, you ain't no friend of mine." However, as with all places in gentrifying areas, Liquor Land had its downsides, such as panhandlers, crackheads, and, in the words of one commenter, "drunk yuppies who think it is kitschy-cool to cross to the other side of the tracks." Those yuppies might be the ones complaining about the closure most of all.

Oh, and the reporter went the extra mile for the story, almost getting towed from the Liquor Land parking lot.

Image by daviddesign from Flickr under a Creative Commons license.