Boston Bars Are Considering Banning Glassware Due to Frequent, Violent Bar Fights

At a certain age, once their pudgy little fingers can firmly grip the slick contours of a glass drinking vessel, children graduate from plastic cups to cold, hard, potentially sharp AF glass. But meanwhile in Boston, adults who can't stop assaulting each other with bar glasses may get demoted back to plastic.

A series of assaults with bar glasses and beer bottles has led the Boston Liquor Licensing Board to consider requiring bars where there have been repeated offenses of "glassing" and glassware-related assault to use plastic cups. And while this may bring images of Leonardo Dicaprio raising hell in a Boston dive to mind, it turns out that some of the places that could be forced to go plastic are decidedly high-end.

At a recent Liquor Licensing Board Hearing, representatives of Minibar, a bar located in the Copley Square Hotel, and Bond Lounge, a bar located in the Langham Hotel, appeared to address glassware assaults that occurred within the last few months. According to the Boston Herald, late last year, a man at Minibar punched and threw a glass at another man who groped his wife. On New Year's Day at Bond, a customer smashed a beer bottle on another customer's head.

"It's concerning to the board that all these assaults are happening with glasses," the Board's chairwoman, Christine Puglini, said. "If we see a pattern of glass as a weapon, it will no longer be allowed."

"You may be high-end, but you're not acting high-end," Puglini added.

Reacting to the proposal, Michael Anthony, the general manager at the Townsman, said that drunk people are doing the damage, not glasses. "So we're also going to ban forks, knives, fruitcakes and all items that could cause bodily harm, right?" Anthony asked the Herald.

But unfortunately, the behavior of a few drunks could lead to a decidedly less classy time for everyone else. A turd in the punchbowl, as they say.

The plastic rule isn't in effect yet, but if you find yourself in a trendy lounge in Boston in the future and your $15 cocktail shows up in a plastic glass, you'll know what happened.