Town Staff Looks To Rein In Christmas Stroll Excesses

A year after a brawl broke out at Nantucket’s annual Christmas Stroll event and one local restaurant turned over its management team following liquor license violations during the holiday celebration, the town’s licensing administrator appears to be recommending against some one-day entertainment permits for this year’s edition of the event.

The Select Board will hear the requests on Monday and will review licensing administrator Amy Baxter’s recommendations. While Baxter recommended in favor of a request for a DJ at the Greydon House’s new Green Room on North Water Street, she gave mixed or negative verdicts on the other three requests that her department has received so far.

Perhaps most notable is the request from The Pearl and The Boarding House for a DJ on The Boarding House's patio. Baxter came down strongly against this request, writing that it was “NOT recommended” and that “Licensing and Fire both strongly recommend this request be fully denied. This DJ was allowed for the past 2 Stroll weekends and both times were a mess and poorly managed.”

The brawl that drew international news attention at last year’s Stroll started inside The Boarding House, near where the DJ was performing, before spilling out onto Federal Street.

Abby Ayre, manager for The Pearl and The Boarding House, wrote in her application that “we are aware of the situation that happened last year and this year we will not have a line and we will increase our door staff numbers. The DJ will also play at a lower volume.”

That did not convince Baxter, who wrote in her recommendation that “noise complaints were received in 2025 in addition to the large altercation that began in the Boarding House bar and moved out into the street.”

Baxter also included email documentation showing that the licensing department had been worried about the Boarding House’s Stroll entertainment for years before the brawl.

Bar Yoshi—which has a two-day liquor license suspension held in abeyance after multiple violations during last year’s Stroll — requested a tent over an outdoor seating area and bar. This request was always likely to be a difficult sell: during last year's Stroll, Bar Yoshi served alcohol in open containers at an outdoor bar without permission and also allowed some of the alcohol to be taken off the establishment's premises, the latest incident in what town staff characterized as a “long history” of issues at the popular sushi spot.

Baxter wrote that “no outdoor bar was ever approved and following last year’s violations during Stroll bar Yoshi was advised…that the area could only be used for seating.”

In an email to Bar Yoshi, she added that “you should make sure operations are the same as any other day. No alcohol should be served to anyone outside your licensed area and all should be seated at dining tables.”

Billie’s, another local restaurant, asked the town for permission for a DJ, dance floor, and additional external speaker on the day of Stroll. Baxter wrote that “the DJ and Dance Floor configuration would need approval” from the fire and building departments and that “additional outdoor speakers is NOT recommended. We are already dealing with a charged environment that weekend.”

Baxter added that “no additional outdoor speakers will be approved” in any further applications licensing receives before the November 20th deadline.