New cafe on Meridian Street?

Universal Hub reports that an East Boston resident plans on opening a cafe at 102 Meridian Street -- and wants to serve some alcohol as well as coffee and tea. Gina Guerraro is asking the city to license her proposed 35-seat Cafe GiGu to serve beer and wine. No word yet on when the eatery would open.

Eastie in the news

Today's Globe has several stories referencing our neighborhood:

**Giordana Mecagni and Peter Chipman moved to East Boston three years ago, and they make hard cider from apples they find locally. A couple after my own heart! They've found fruit trees around the beach, Piers Park and Belle Isle Marsh, crushed them and made homemade alcoholic brew. I've been fermenting cider for six years now, but I use unpasteurized cider that I get at orchards, which means a drive and a few bucks. I've thought about crushing my own apples, but as a renter I'm not sure how feasible that is space and mess-wise. I'm jealous of these guys, who -- like me -- also make mead (fermented honey and the beverage of choice for Vikings).

**Eastie resident and freelance writer Elizabeth Gehrman starts off her piece on the nightmares that sometimes come with home ownership with a story about a house on Sumner Street that was purchased by a pair of brothers and, not long after, condemned when a work crew busted a water main just outside. (Gehrman also has a nice piece on a New Hampshire couple who built a beautiful off-the-grid home.)

**Transportation beat reporter Noah Bierman writes, in the "Stops & Starts" column, about the proposal to increase tolls for the harbor tunnels and how that would affect East Boston. He mentions a pair of Internet sites that have popped up in protest: Stop the Hike and Stop the Pike Hike.

LUC meeting Thursday

I've received an email announcing a meeting of the East Boston Land Use Council tomorrow, Thursday evening, at the East Boston Social Center starting at 7 p.m. Items on the agenda include the transfer of a beer and wine license from Caffe Italia on Huntington Ave. in Boston to Rosticeria Cancun, located at 145 Meridian Street.

Fish and sips

The city's Licensing Board will hold a hearing on Jan. 23 at 10 a.m. to hear a liquor license request from Off the Boat Seafood. The beer, wine and liqueur license in question would be transfered from the El Cafetal Restaurant in Allston.

Off the Boat, at 26 Porter Street just outside East Boston's Central Square, opened in November 2006 in the renovated storefront of an old fish store. Thanks to Joe Mason for forwarding me the announcement of the hearing.