On July 17, a Boston Police detective entered Savin Hill Specialities, the new wine-and-cheese shop at 1047 Dorchester Ave., and took careful note of how many shelves were used for wine and beer and how many for food items. He looked in the shop's coolers to compare the ratio of chilled alcoholic beverages to soda and water.

And then he wrote owner Mateo Van a citation for "failure to conform to floor plan and food/alcohol ratio, approved by [the Boston Licensing] board" - because seven of eight shelves marked on a store floor plan for "food" were, in fact, stocked with beer and wine and because there was no soda or water in the refrigerators.

At the requisite hearing before the licensing board today, Van's attorney, Carolyn Conway, said she was kind of at a loss as to why her client was cited, because she couldn't find any Boston regulations that specify a specific food/alcohol shelf ratio, unlike the practice in Cambridge, and that nobody ever told her floor plans submitted to the board were to be scrutinized so carefully.

Still, Conway presented the board with several folders' worth of receipts for the food Van has purchased since he opened a few months ago - and she recited a list of some of those items, including gourmet spaghetti, pasta sauces and cheeses, premium olive oils, crackers and popcorn and artisanal bread.

She continued, "The chocolates that are there, those are a big, big seller," she said. "The dog treats are a big, big seller."

And, she let drop, "quite frankly, the mayor's a regular customer." Gov. Patrick recently signed a bill that gives the mayor the power to appoint members of the licensing board.

She continued that Van plans on adding even more food - he has yet to stock four tables in the store because he was asking customers first what they wanted there. Van, Conway said, had been listening to customers and ditched the processed meats and other supermarketish food items that they could easily get around the corner in favor of the gourmet stuff she said the neighborhood has been craving.

She added that while there may be no soda or water in the refrigerators, Van had an entire Coke machine installed.

Board Chairwoman Nicole Murati Ferrer, who oversaw two hearings on the proposal - first when Van sought a license to sell hard liquor as well and then, when that was rejected, for just beer and wine, asked if Van is still running the same sort of gourmet wine-and-cheese shop the board approved back in January.

Conway answered yes.

At the January hearing, a few residents, in particular, Cornel Miller, pastor of the Waymark Seventh-Day Adventist Church, warned a beer-and-wine license would open the door to even more drunks and prostitutes than the neighborhood already has. Other residents, however, strongly backed Van's proposal.

Three local residents attended today's hearing to offer testimony in favor of Savin Hill Enterprise, but Ferrer closed the hearing before they could testify, because they were not present at the shop the day of the police visit. Police did not say what prompted them to conduct their inspection.

The board decides Thursday what action, if any, to take.