The place is now closed down. Actually, it's a gay bar (under a different name). Now. Not then. Not when it was one of my favorite places. Not gay then. Just want to set the record straight.I refused to admit that it is now a gay bar when I returned to the Boston area to visit friends. I thought they were just saying that so I wouldn't want to go into Lynn to drink.
This is the part where a writer writes; "Not that there is anything wrong with that".
Not on this blog. It's a fucking travesty if you ask me.
This place was in Olympic Square, near the radio station WFNX 101.7. We lived within walking distance of Max's. It quickly became a Friday night stop for unbelievable steak tips and Rolling Rock long necks. I tried for years to duplicate that damn steak tips recipe. (Update: I think I found it! I found a message board. A butcher from Lynn posted the local recipe. I tried it recently; UNBELIEVABLE.
We always had the same waitress, who was a nice as could be.
We always had the drunk guy in the motorized wheelchair zipping down the aisle, brushing our table and tipping our beers. We always caught the tipping beers and never seemed to mind.
A few Boston Garden and Fenway Park pictures on the walls. Not an outright sports bar. Always had the Red Sox game on the tube during the season.
They really had good food. And you wouldn't know it from looking at the outside, or looking at the inside.
It sucks, I have no photos of the place. There is little to no info on the internet.
Just another in a long line of great places to come and go.
It's funny I stumbled on this...I was in there almost daily. Those people were good friends of mine...the guy in the wheelchair was Carlos, he passed away years ago the owners were named Hartley, and Janey, the bartenders I remember were Jodi, (bubbly blonde) Carmen, (thin woman with short hair...usually yelling at Carlos) Penny, and Louise (a black girl who was also a singer, wee called her weezie) some of the regulars were Scarp, Vinny, Laurie?, Bert, Ronnie, Darren, and a bunch of people I can picture but who's name I can't remember....my name is Tom,I was a long haired guy sitting at the bar...maybe we drank together
ReplyDeleteThis is too funny. I grew up in that bar. My mom was Carmen, and yes she was always yelling at Carlos. I remember always playing the pinball machine by the front door. My dad worked next door at Cals news store who my dads cousins owned, the Calvanis.
ReplyDeletewe opened it in 1984 and sold it to Lynnfield Tony.... he sold it to Hartley.... sold it over 30 years ago but still very proud of what we built there.....went on to create the Halfway Cafe brand in Greater Boston area....
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