Top-Rated Bar Double Chicken Please Is Popping Up in Boston

The good news: Double Chicken Please, the award-winning NYC cocktail bar known for its wild and wonderful food-as-drinks experimentation, is popping up at Boston hot spot Birds of Paradise, at the Charles River Speedway, on May 10 and 11. The bad news: Reservations are already all booked up. For those who really want to get in, you can try your luck with the waitlist, according to a press rep.

Chef behind former Michelin-starred Portuguese restaurant is opening a new spot in Back Bay

George Mendes, the chef behind decorated Portuguese restaurant Aldea, which had an 11-year run in NYC, is moving over to Boston. He’ll be opening a new fine-dining spot, Amar, at the luxury Raffles hotel and condo development in Back Bay this summer, according to the Boston Globe.

Shaquille O’Neal’s chicken chain Big Chicken is expanding to Boston

Big Chicken, the national fried chicken chain founded by NBA legend and former Celtics player Shaquille O’Neal, will soon be taking over Boston. Two local franchisees plan to open six Big Chicken locations in the Greater Boston area, according to a rep for the restaurant. No word yet on where the exact locations will be, or when the restaurants will open up.

Big-money Seaport chains are hoovering up the city’s liquor licenses

It’s not an unfamiliar story, but the numbers are no less damning: The Boston Globe examined how moneyed Seaport chains have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to acquire dozens of the city’s coveted, hard-capped liquor licenses, in some cases from longstanding neighborhood dives, while Boston’s more diverse, less wealthy neighborhoods are overlooked, further deepening inequities in Boston’s nightlife scene.