Friday, March 9, 2007

Irish Pubs Part 7



Pete's Pub closed earlier this year.

Luckily I found time to bid farewell to the venerable Haymarket tavern, which had been a "dead bar serving" for quite some time. We knew for about a year that an Irish makeover was on the horizon.

Pete's opened bright and early at 8:00am each morning, welcoming a largely Italian American clientele from the nearby North and West Ends. Sammy from the Penalty Box was a regular.

Aside from the Italians there were other locals, dockworkers, the occasional punk rocker, people who worked at fancier bars in the area sneaking a drink and even a guy from the halal market next door who flouted Islamic law with a Tom Collins or two.

It was a friendly, welcoming establishment where you wouldn't feel out of place hiding from God* at 10:30 in the morning over a few boilermakers. The morning sun refracted nicely through the glassware and ancient bottles of schnapps.

But Pete's is gone now, and in it's place will be yet another Somers Irish Pub called "Durty Nellie's".

An oak bar is being shipped in all the way from Dublin and contracts have been signed with Sysco. The quaint story of how Somers' grandmother came to be known as "Durty Nellie" will no doubt find its way to the back page of the menu at Boston's latest Stepford Bar.

*Thanks to Tommy Somerville for the use of this phrase.

There are now fewer than ten dive bars remaining in Boston proper. This spring I will be leading a pub crawl devoted to appreciating them while we stil can.

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