Locke-Ober: Better Closed than Casual.
Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2012 5:25 pm
Locke-Ober, the Boston restaurant which opened in 1875, has closed.
“… if there isn’t a place in Boston for something so beautiful, with good food and service, something’s wrong,” says Lydia Shire, who served as executive chef there from 2001 to 2010. “Why do we all have to go to the next newest place?”
It’s easy to go back in time amid Locke’s magnificent mahogany carvings, art nouveau windows and gilt wallpaper. Add the bronze sculpture, “Gloria Victis,” which became an irresistible hat rack for high-spirited lads; the portrait of naked Mademoiselle Yvonne draped in black when Harvard loses to Yale; the stash of speakeasy-era bottles found recently in a closet; the buzzers in the upstairs dining rooms to summon service.
http://www.improper.com/features/locke-over/
“ ...the 137-year-old genteel eatery that catered to [Boston] Brahmins, royalty, presidents and even movie stars, closed its glossy black doors this weekend.
A sign posted outside the Winter Place restaurant said it is “closed for business, pending Locke-Ober’s sale of its buildings.” The note went on to thank our “loyal and valued customers” for years of service, and asked people to “remember the good times.” Management could not be reached for comment. — Boston Herald”
DOWNTOWN
Locke-Ober owner David Ray explains his decision to close
10/22/2012 1:09 PM
David Ray, the owner of the venerable Locke-Ober, called this morning to confirm what a city already knew. He has sold the building on Winter Place in Downtown Crossing, shuttered his restaurant, and is moving on.
“All done,” Ray said, pausing for a moment. “I think we gave it a good effort.
“Here’s what I was faced with,” Ray continued. “I had a choice. Make Locke-Ober more casual, lower our standards to conform with the way society is today, or I could close it. I could close it with its history and its dignity intact. Because, frankly, it looked as good as it’s ever looked. The service was good, and the food was good.”
“It’s unfortunate,” Ray continued. “It’s bittersweet for me. I’ve owned it since 1978.”
But the reality, Ray has learned over the past decade or more, is that Boston has changed, often for the better, but not always so. An increasingly younger city is on a constant search for the next new thing, restaurants being no exception. Formality, here as everywhere, is a thing of the past.
Which is why the Ritz-Carlton on Arlington Street is no longer the Ritz, and even before it changed ownership to the Taj, it had shuttered its second floor dining room overlooking the Public Garden. It’s why the famed Oak Room at the Fairmont Copley Plaza has been completely reimagined into the contemporary and snappy-sounding OAK Long Bar + Kitchen. It’s why L’Espalier now has contemporary quarters in a modern hotel. It’s why Maison Robert in downtown Boston and Aujourd’hui at the Four Seasons are no more.
Locke-Ober, for a long period of time, represented Boston, or a certain element of Boston, that which is bound in tradition. Founded in 1875, it’s where the captains of downtown industry mingled with the city’s most prominent lawyers and financiers over lunches composed of lobster stew and thick cut steaks. Famed maitre d’ Tony Accardi presided masterfully at the door. Jackets were required of diners, and many of the waiters – all male – marked their tenures not in years, but decades.
Presidents visited, along with sports stars, Hollywood actors, and power brokers from coast to coast. Some diners were so regular that the Globe once published a map of the dining room showing who sat where. When customers died, their chairs were leaned against the tables to signify the loss.
Rumors have abounded since the late 1990s over the restaurant’s future. At one point, John Kerry was believed to be a potential suitor to buy it. Famed chef Lydia Shire was brought in as a principal a little more than a decade ago and the room underwent a mild renovation and deep cleaning, but even that didn’t stop the decline. Shire has since moved on.
“Business has been OK,” said Ray, a Newport-based restaurateur. “You have busy nights and you have nights when there are 25 people in there. I wasn’t losing any money. We were just treading water.”
Ray said the new owners plan to put housing in the upper quarters of the building, where there is now a warren of private dining rooms, including one tiny alcove reputed to be the site of more marriage proposals than any other room in Boston.
Those new owners will likely put a restaurant on the first floor, city officials said in confirming that a purchase and sales agreement has been signed on the building. But it will be something different.
“There’s not going to be another Locke-Ober in that building,” Ray said. “I’m the one locking the door.”
http://www.boston.com/metrodesk/2012/10 ... story.html
http://blog.zagat.com/2012/10/137-year- ... loses.html
“… if there isn’t a place in Boston for something so beautiful, with good food and service, something’s wrong,” says Lydia Shire, who served as executive chef there from 2001 to 2010. “Why do we all have to go to the next newest place?”
It’s easy to go back in time amid Locke’s magnificent mahogany carvings, art nouveau windows and gilt wallpaper. Add the bronze sculpture, “Gloria Victis,” which became an irresistible hat rack for high-spirited lads; the portrait of naked Mademoiselle Yvonne draped in black when Harvard loses to Yale; the stash of speakeasy-era bottles found recently in a closet; the buzzers in the upstairs dining rooms to summon service.
http://www.improper.com/features/locke-over/
“ ...the 137-year-old genteel eatery that catered to [Boston] Brahmins, royalty, presidents and even movie stars, closed its glossy black doors this weekend.
A sign posted outside the Winter Place restaurant said it is “closed for business, pending Locke-Ober’s sale of its buildings.” The note went on to thank our “loyal and valued customers” for years of service, and asked people to “remember the good times.” Management could not be reached for comment. — Boston Herald”
DOWNTOWN
Locke-Ober owner David Ray explains his decision to close
10/22/2012 1:09 PM
David Ray, the owner of the venerable Locke-Ober, called this morning to confirm what a city already knew. He has sold the building on Winter Place in Downtown Crossing, shuttered his restaurant, and is moving on.
“All done,” Ray said, pausing for a moment. “I think we gave it a good effort.
“Here’s what I was faced with,” Ray continued. “I had a choice. Make Locke-Ober more casual, lower our standards to conform with the way society is today, or I could close it. I could close it with its history and its dignity intact. Because, frankly, it looked as good as it’s ever looked. The service was good, and the food was good.”
“It’s unfortunate,” Ray continued. “It’s bittersweet for me. I’ve owned it since 1978.”
But the reality, Ray has learned over the past decade or more, is that Boston has changed, often for the better, but not always so. An increasingly younger city is on a constant search for the next new thing, restaurants being no exception. Formality, here as everywhere, is a thing of the past.
Which is why the Ritz-Carlton on Arlington Street is no longer the Ritz, and even before it changed ownership to the Taj, it had shuttered its second floor dining room overlooking the Public Garden. It’s why the famed Oak Room at the Fairmont Copley Plaza has been completely reimagined into the contemporary and snappy-sounding OAK Long Bar + Kitchen. It’s why L’Espalier now has contemporary quarters in a modern hotel. It’s why Maison Robert in downtown Boston and Aujourd’hui at the Four Seasons are no more.
Locke-Ober, for a long period of time, represented Boston, or a certain element of Boston, that which is bound in tradition. Founded in 1875, it’s where the captains of downtown industry mingled with the city’s most prominent lawyers and financiers over lunches composed of lobster stew and thick cut steaks. Famed maitre d’ Tony Accardi presided masterfully at the door. Jackets were required of diners, and many of the waiters – all male – marked their tenures not in years, but decades.
Presidents visited, along with sports stars, Hollywood actors, and power brokers from coast to coast. Some diners were so regular that the Globe once published a map of the dining room showing who sat where. When customers died, their chairs were leaned against the tables to signify the loss.
Rumors have abounded since the late 1990s over the restaurant’s future. At one point, John Kerry was believed to be a potential suitor to buy it. Famed chef Lydia Shire was brought in as a principal a little more than a decade ago and the room underwent a mild renovation and deep cleaning, but even that didn’t stop the decline. Shire has since moved on.
“Business has been OK,” said Ray, a Newport-based restaurateur. “You have busy nights and you have nights when there are 25 people in there. I wasn’t losing any money. We were just treading water.”
Ray said the new owners plan to put housing in the upper quarters of the building, where there is now a warren of private dining rooms, including one tiny alcove reputed to be the site of more marriage proposals than any other room in Boston.
Those new owners will likely put a restaurant on the first floor, city officials said in confirming that a purchase and sales agreement has been signed on the building. But it will be something different.
“There’s not going to be another Locke-Ober in that building,” Ray said. “I’m the one locking the door.”
http://www.boston.com/metrodesk/2012/10 ... story.html
http://blog.zagat.com/2012/10/137-year- ... loses.html
