The Commons Free Speech Area

Welcome to The Commons fishere670, make yourself at home and thanks for your interest.

Nice picture GO. Only ever been through Boston, never stopped and wandered around in it. Will make it up there someday to see the harbor and tourist attractions I imagine, but NE just doesn't have enough oil and gas related activities/conferences to make it a common stopping point for me.

Boston is a great place to visit. Lots of old historic buildings in A 1 shape. Museum of Fine Art and Isabelle Stuart Gardner Museum, Museum of Science, Copley Square, Boston Common, and endless list to points of interest. Excuse me, I forgot Harvard Square, my hangout in my youth and a world unto itself. Boston Harbor worth a brief visit but not that much to see there.

Drop me a note if business brings you this way, Dinner will be on me. One thing you missed unfortunately was Locke Ober, one of the worlds finest and most revered restaurants. What a place. Went out of business a few years back, folks just don't go into the city anymore like the old days, big parking problem, traffic, all one way streets and condos everywhere. Not a place you will find a car useful, thank goodness for the MBTA.

                                                                             

                                                                             


  Locke-Ober's Cafe: Boston's Lost Treasure
Posted: 02/12/2013 6:58 pm


The Locke-Ober Café, one of the grand restaurants of not only Boston, but in the United States, closed its doors for business this past October, after being in business for 137 years. Needless to say, a lot of history has passed through their doors. So, for the restaurant that was the third oldest in Boston, and by far considered the longest standing fine dining restaurant in Boston to shut its doors, and never use the name Locke-Ober in that location again, the city of Boston has lost a treasure. I am saddened as I worked there in the late 1980s, and felt that Locke-Ober's Café had many of the old school features that could attract a whole new generation of customers; a beautiful bar, with a separate entrance, a majestic first floor dining room with an oyster bar and one-of-a-kind brandished silver, a good-sized second floor dining room, smaller party rooms on the third floor, and a beautiful club or banquet room, that could seat another 100 plus people. Never mind the tradition and history that should be a natural draw.

Factors Working Against Success

Why couldn't Locke-Ober's make it? Even in the 1980s when I was there, my feeling was there was more of a sentiment to reaching back to tradition, rather than looking into tweaking the restaurant in a little more modern food approach, as well as giving it a little life with a marketing and PR effort aimed at fun for a younger clientele. A meal at Locke-Obers was a special treat, not necessarily for the outstanding food, but for the surroundings, the elegant service, the history of the building, the traditions that were carried on only in this one rather special historical treasure in Boston. When a regular customer died, their chair was respectfully leaned against the bar, so that no one could sit in their place. There was Frederick Childe Hassam's iconic **** painting of ' Yvonne' (Circa 1886) that was positioned over the door in the main dining room. This is the restaurant of JFK, Enrico Caruso, Ogden Nash, the Bluebloods of Boston, Heads of State, tycoons, and local politicians. This was once Boston's power restaurant. The bar, and the club "Yvonne's," were not utilized to their potential. There was nothing stopping Locke-Ober's from modernizing and upgrading their food, other than Locke-Ober's themselves.

Restaurant competition in Boston has changed dramatically. Boston, once known as one of the worst restaurant cities in America, as recently as the 1970s, has become one of the best. Locke-Ober's really had to compete. There have been arguments made that Locke-Ober's, who only admitted women in 1971, was always way behind the times. I would counter with the argument that Harvard University only started to admit undergraduate women in 1973. In that respect, Locke-Ober's made their adaptation, and opened their doors to women. They survived that change, and countless others during their long history, which included Prohibition, two World Wars, Vietnam and much cultural upheaval. What is it that made this the time that Locke-Ober's should close? Daytime drinking patterns had changed, and business meetings that were filled with wine and cocktails were replaced with water. Their clientele had gotten old, and was not being replaced. Casual dining patterns have taken over the restaurant landscape, both in Boston and the rest of the country. Very formal restaurants in 2012 require jackets for men. That was Locke-Ober's policy, and I would think it is in step with formal restaurants everywhere else. The downtown area, where the Winter Place address is located, had degenerated. Still, had the restaurant made some concessions to upgrading food, and aimed their marketing (something they never used to have to believe in, as everything with Locke-Ober in their heyday, was by word of mouth), I believe their doors would still be open.

The Last Attempt

The last decade of Locke-Ober's existence was spearheaded by the presence of legendary Boston chef Lydia Shire. The irony of a female chef in a restaurant that would not have even allowed her to dine in her early years was not lost on the ownership, nor on chef Shire herself. Yet, despite her presence, Locke-Ober's never fully worked its way back into the prominence it might have been able to gain, had there been more of an eye toward necessary changes that would have given Locke-Ober's an opportunity to continue on. I often wonder if Locke-Ober's would have thrived under the leadership of a visionary like Danny Meyer, or Drew Nieporent. Some person who could have taken the best elements of a historically classic restaurant, and put the modern touches on the menu and marketing, to make the legend of Locke-Ober's continue on.

The End   

                                           We will never know. David Ray, now the last owner of Locke-Ober's made a statement to the Boston Globe saying,
"I fought for the dignity of the place...it was better to close it."

I view Mr. Ray's position as that of a steward of a legacy. A restaurant with 137 years of history bears a certain responsibility to the business owner. Locke-Ober's was David Ray's restaurant, but it was Boston's restaurant too. He is a business owner, and of course he has every right to sell his business. I just wish he had allowed someone else to come in and give Locke-Ober's a chance for a future.

Mr. Ray sold the building without allowing the name of the restaurant at Winter Place to ever be called Locke-Ober's again. He sold it to Mr. Jay Hajj, a local businessman, for $3.3 million dollars. Much of Locke-Ober's belongings were auctioned off. Mr. Ray did not auction off the iconic Frederick Childe Hassam painting of "Yvonne," which prominently sat over the doorway of the main dining room. Now he, and he alone, can view this iconic art piece that came from his restaurant, and Boston's most elegant restaurant too.

R.I.P. Locke-Ober's Café (1875-2012) 

Follow Brad Haskel on Twitter: www.twitter.com/braskel

Quote from: Golden Oxen on April 25, 2014, 04:30:07 pm

Boston is a great place to visit. Lots of old historic buildings in A 1 shape.

I take it you don't make it out to the Combat Zone very often?

I worked in it for 40 years JoeP. Washington ST Boston, All office buildings on one half, the combat zone on the other half. Right next to Chinatown. 

                                                                         

Hard to believe JoeP, but that is the lower end of The Main Street in Boston Washington Street.  Famous for Filene's Basement, Jordan Marsh, Downtown crossing, Raymonds Dept store RKO Cinema , all out of business.

It doesnt look like a postcard or imgr foto, Im guessing it was taken by a private investigator hired by Mrs **** Oxen, probably in the white van. That would be GO in the black hat, head down quickly crossing the street toward the sexy strip.

It doesnt look like a postcard or imgr foto, Im guessing it was taken by a private investigator hired by Mrs **** Oxen, probably in the white van. That would be GO in the black hat, head down quickly crossing the street toward the sexy strip.

 

                                                                       

Why was it called the Combat Zone? Other than it has something to do with Boston's aversion to allowing citizens to arm and protect themselves? That is about my extent of knowledge about Massachusetts, they don't trust their folks to use firearms.

This should explain it MKing, taken from Wikepedia

The name "Combat Zone" was popularized through a series of exposé articles written by Jean Cole on the area published in the 1960s in the Boston Record-American newspaper. The name had a double meaning in that it was an area known for crime and violence, but also in that many soldiers and sailors on shore leave would frequent the many strip clubs and brothels in uniform giving the streets an appearance of a war zone.

Quote from: JoeP on Today at 06:56:34 PM
So 163 is a lot? Time to get real boy.

"It's quite good for a single day overall.  What that translates to on a monthly basis is around 4000 Listens.  Total Listens to all the Podcasts is now around 27,000

Similarly, the 500 or so Visitors the Diner gets each day is not Huge, but over the course of the month that translates to around 50K Visits.  That is mostly returnees, but there are about 1/3 new visitors in there all the time according to Google Analytics.

All this sort of traffic ends up getting boiled down in Alexa Rankings.

When we started the Diner, we pretty quickly achieved what is about standard for a decent personal Blog, around a 3M Ranking.  We worked up to around 1M before we had to make the server and URL change, and took a big hit from that. To compare, John Michael Greer's Archdruid Report ranks out at around 1M right now.

Over time on the new server, we crept back up to near the 1M mark, and hovered there until the Rants went up.  This allowed us to break through the 1M Barrier on Alexa.  The current ranking is at 787K, which puts the Diner ahead of NBL at around 847K but behind Jimbo on TBP or Gail on OFW who are in the 200K range I think right now.

In terms of total readership, I would guesstimate it is around 1000-2000 right now of people who at least occassionally drop by the Diner.  Is this HUGE Zero Hedge territory?  Hell no, but thing is the model isn't designed to get that much circulation.  The whole Sunstead idea only needs around Dunbar's Number of 150 to be workable.

Anyhow, if you think this is Chump Change, YOU try and get a Website up past the 1M Ranking on Alexa.  The Diner is growing steadily here, with a very significant readership and listenership.  Surly's Diner Facepalm site also shows a steady growth in "Friends" and "Followers".

This is a process oriented thing.  In all its years of existence, Ugo Bardi's Cassandra's Legacy never got near the Diner numbers.  We are only at the game a bit over 2 years here.  Gimme some time, I will make it to Zero Hedge territory.  LOL.

Listens today now at 182.  When you get that many people listen to you rant in a day, get back to me.  Day is not over yet either.

RE"

The real question is whether the rants are like an isle in a walmart, say coffee or confectionary, as DD is a one stop shop of doom. I never pick up anything in confectionary (candy) but will always stay stocked up of coffee, I will always go down the confectionary isle though. Same thing with DD, most daily readers read or listen to whatevers new, travelling down all isles. However the stated aim highlighted above is to get the 150 investors/residents, burning the bridge with the contributors of actual comments then makes sense. Joseph Smith, Sai Baba, Rev Moon, David Koresh etc all were renown for taking all the credit too.