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Owner of South Boston's Lincoln Tavern wants to build similar place across the street
By adamg on Wed, 04/30/2014 - 11:11am
Michael Conlon, who owns the Lincoln Tavern on West Broadway, hopes to expand across the street by turning the Pan Asia Restaurant into a new neighborhood tavern.
Conlon told the Boston Licensing Board today he has an agreement to buy the Chinese/Japanese/Thai restaurant at 414 W. Broadway. He said he will pay $300,000 just for its liquor license.
Conlon said he is still trying to come up with a name and an exact format for his latest venture. His attorney, Dennis Quilty, though, said the basic idea will be "a friendly neighborhood tavern, casual dining type of establishment."
The board decides tomorrow whether to approve the sale. The mayor's office as well as several city councilors, including South Boston district councilor Bill Linehan, support the sale.
In addition to the Lincoln Tavern, Conlon's Eat Drink Laugh owns several other restaurants, including the Paramount in South Boston and West on Centre in West Roxbury.
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Comments
Lincoln Tavern has a lot going for it, but
it is so punishingly loud, even when it's not full, that we don't go nearly as often as we might. I hope Conlon makes the new place attractive to customers who don't like to scream at their dining companions to be heard. That's a place I might hit a couple of times a week.
Agreed. I read the piece
Agreed. I read the piece somewhere (Dig?) last week about noise in local restaurants and how expensive it is to fix, and was shocked, shocked to read that some owners cultivate that underneath-a-freight-train level of noise.
Noise in restaurants is a controversial subject
The Globe did a recent piece on it.
I think for veteran restaurateurs, the excuse that "We designed the space and didn't realize it would be so loud" is bullshit: they know exactly what they are doing, and the loudness is purposeful. One, it repels the old farts who make a scene less glamorous and youthful. Loud = lively, happening, hot. Quiet = lifeless, square, dull. Two, it discourages table camping, lingering after your meal is over. You squeeze more turns out of an evening's service if people get in, drink and eat, then quickly GTFO.
In my food-geek circle, we're speculating on how long it will be before restaurant-worker advocates start bring class-action lawsuits to address the workplace hazard that is hearing damage and other adverse health effects from constant exposure to jet-engine-level noise. This is how smoking bans in restaurants and bars got enacted: not as a public health issue, but a worker safety issue.
Yup
That was the one I read. I think the Merrill & Co. position that it's loud on purpose is terrible. I don't go to dinner to shout at my wife across a table, and I don't go back to places where that is required.
Loud is a strange hazard.
I was the booking geek at the Middle East in like 1990 after my friend who invented it was hospitalized.
And part of my 'job' was hanging around during shows. You could smoke in ginmills then.
And as the booking geek, I'd be holding court with the various music locals and scheming show dates.
I'd wake up the next day with laryngitis in addition to the requisite beer hangover and I eventually figured out it was because you end up shouting to carry on a conversation but don't realize it as the warm fog of boozing envelopes.
His West Roxbury restaurant is the same way
Or at least was the last time we went, three or four years ago - good food, but impossible to hold a conversation without shouting.
Going to actually miss pan Asia
Good Chinese food and quicker delivery than teriyaki house. I'm also wondering how many of the same exact bar broadway can hold? Judging by the crowds at stats and Lincoln it's apparent the demand is there. I'd just like to see a bit a variety in establishments
Stats = Lincoln Tavern =
Stats = Lincoln Tavern = Atlantic Beer Garden = Stephanie's = Ahmriens = Shenanigans = Playwright
Some are better than others but its all pretty much the same.
Good thing the South End is a $5 Uber ride away. SoBo needs to step up its game!
- The Original SoBo Yuppie
That's a ridiculous false equivalence
I think you can safely say in terms of food and drinks, Stats = Beer Garden = Playwright. I haven't been in Shenanigan's lately, but I'd bet money it belongs in that group. They stamp these out with a cookie cutter all over Boston.
Amhrein's is far older than any of those places and occupies a unique old-school niche, despite a makeover ten or so years ago.
Lincoln and Stephanie's have little in common with the rest of those in terms of their food, drinks, and ambiance.
I couldn't agree more.
I couldn't agree more. Although Stats has an edge on the other bar/taverns wrt food. They import the chicken fingers from a family connection in NH and are very very good.
.
I dunno, my impression of Lincoln was a more expensive Playwright, they try to spin craft cocktails with your typical broadway bar liquors, and the food didn't seem any better either.
Amhreins has really fallen off in the past year or so as well in terms of food quality, but the bar still holds that old school niche.
Local 149 was a great place for solid food and cocktails, but all of its experienced bar staff have left for greener pastures, and the food has definitely slipped the past few times we stopped down there.
Haven't been to Stehphanie's yet, but the wife was impressed when she stopped in for drinks one night. Will probably never go back to Franklin after a night with absolutely terrible service from the bartender, p that night despite being 1 of 3 people at the bar, another customer had to walk down to the other end to summon the bartender.
We've found ourselves often heading downtown to jm curley, or sometimes over to picco/gaslight a lot lately.
Amrhein's does not belong....
Amrhein's does not belong....
Lincoln Tavern
HaHa - doesn't fit in....It's been there for 100 years or so. And it's jammed every time I go in there - but what do I know - I'm just one of those OFS who apparently are mourning the loss of greasy Chinese food.
This "us" and "them" is pretty ridiculous.
Really?
Ugh...who uses Uber? They treat their drivers like crap and don't even cover the full insurance.
More importantly, can you
More importantly, can you never use SoBo again?
Everrrrrr................
Everrrrrr................
But...
It sounds so much better than Southie..... No?
You're just a Keyboard Cowboy
You're just a Keyboard Cowboy.
You definitely got your butt kicked in junior high. I LOVE that we take up so much real estate in your head.
Lincol Tavern
Well thank God the South End is so close because it would be tragic if you couln't find food that suits your sophisticated palate.
Pan Asia
Pan Asia has gone downhill the last couple of years. The staff are rude, the food is not nearly as good as it once was. If you read yelp reviews you see its been downhill. The last time I was there I saw cockroaches and a mouse trap behind the bar. I have not gone back since.
It will be nice to have a new addition in the area.
I guess this is another win
I guess this is another win for the yuppies and a loss for the locals.
Locals never go to the Lincoln Tavern?
Sorry, I mean locals who can't trace their South Boston routes back to the 1850s?
And there are no other Chinese places in South Boston?
and locals love chinese food?
That makes zero sense.
Adam
Admiral Farragut partied with Lincoln. So in So. Boston Farragut got the statue and Lincoln the bar room. Go figure.
Admiral Farragut HAD a
Admiral Farragut HAD a restaurant/ bar.
You don't
say? The PBL and its Mint Room were his favorites.
Lincoln Tavern
Ah, the old PBL! First place I was able to drink underage!
My "route"
My "route" in Southie only goes back to early 1900s when my grandfather worked in the sugar factory there to earn money to bring my father, uncles, and grandmother over to the USofA. I've gone to the Lincoln as many times as I've ordered food from Pan Asia, which is exactly twice. Pan Asia, well, their version of Thai was pretty awful both times and, being vegetarian, I was not excited over the mac'n'cheese at Lincoln. Southie did lose one Chinese restaurant recently to developers who are going to knock down the corner at D and Broadway and build up higher than one story. There are two other Chinese restaurants on the same block as Lincoln (three if you include the combo Mexican/Chinese) but these are mainly take out places whereas Pan Asia is a sit down place with take out. Would LOVE a Thai place.
Taverns though are a tradition here. I remember walking to the subway to get to college in the early 70s and passing, as I recall, 13 taverns on West Broadway, so it's just in keeping with old Southie to have another tavern open.
South Ocean
"Southie did lose one Chinese restaurant recently to developers who are going to knock down the corner at D and Broadway and build up higher than one story..."
If you mean South Ocean that's next to the Beer Garden at L and Broadway
No, last name I remember was
No, last name I remember was Golden House... but it has had more names I think. D and W Broadway... kitty corner to Burger King. The low one story that housed the Korean grocery store, the Chinese restaurant, the corner store that has been a few things over the year and around the corner a little market that has been closed for years... going going...
That is going to be pretty strange when they knock down the old garage near Rite Aid and keep South Ocean... sort of like knocking down the buildings next to the Cornerstone for a luxury hotel. Odd couples.
Lincoln Tavern
Great story and similar to my family and so many others in SB.
No Chinese places in Southie
No Chinese places in Southie are close to similar to the Dragon (or Pan Asia for you newbies). And the Lincoln epitomizes yuppie bar.
Seriously..... I cannot even
Seriously..... I cannot even say Pan Asia, doesn't sound right. Then again, I have started to call Frosty Village "The Fish Pier", still holding on to the past.
Frosties
And now we're supposed to stop calling it Frosties and calling it "Village Pizza".
Locals don't like to eat and drink?
My friends are 50% OFS, 50% Yuppies, as far as Southie residents go (not so weird anymore that we co-exist happily). They all patronize The Lincoln. It's neither a yuppie or a local bar.
Actually
I'm gonna miss the Rainbow Dragon immensely, but I heard the Lincoln is sticking with the Asian theme and calling it "The Rincoln".
Native Americans?
Unless you are a Native American you are not a local.
- The Original SoBo Yuppie
Douche
Anybody who uses SoBo and Yuppie in the same sentence is a douche.
That is
unfair to Douche's.
I wrote that while wearing
I wrote that while wearing boat shoes!
- The Original SoBo Yuppie
Lincoln Tavern
Oh no, not BOAT SHOES?
Like my son and every single one of his friends - native or not.
Was that supposed to be witty? FAIL
Native Americans
Your comments are everywhere, and they are pretty entertaining in their condescension.
You seem pretty obsessed with your all-consuming hatred of us locals (and your ridiculous comments about American Indians is typical of you). Yes, I am a native of South Boston, my grandparents immigrated here 100 years ago. I am a native because I was born here.
The suggestion that OFS don't appreciate and patronize the new establishments is ridiculous. Gentrification is good in many ways, but also comes at a cost for some people. There are three groups of people in SB now - the new young people, the people in the housing projects, and us SB natives who own property, because many of the people who rented have been priced out.
There is a large middle class in SB who has always been here and since we own property, we won't be squeezed out. I do not resent the new people because they are not the cause of the change, they are more a result of the several factors - the booming of Boston which is good for all of us, and that fact that it is a place that young people want to live. The developers took enormous advantage and have, IMO, gotten out of control, but that's something else.
Because we walk our dog we have met many of our new neighbors and they are great kids. I have six nieces and nephews who grew up outside the city but are back here. And about 8 of my son's roommates and teammates from college have moved here now.
Cities have to change and evolve or they die, nothing stays the same, but the flip side is fewer families, our youth sports leagues are way down in numbers because there are fewer kids, so those are the things that I hate to see change. But in the end it is all about money to be made, as usual.
And no way you are the Original South Boston Yuppie.
Lincoln
Oh really? So we don't like to go to nice places?
Do you really think that most of us OFS are sorry that some of the smelly Chinese food places are closing? (There are still a couple of good ones)
What is this Winning and Losing? Is it a war of some sort? In your mind.
Broadway
needs more noisy bars and restaurants. Now we can double park on both sides of the street.
I have heard
That Pan Asia will simply move their location to across the street and renovate the Chinese place that's over there. They are selling their liquor license though. Probably a good move.
Sorry...
That was the original plan, but they ended up just calling it quits. Eva plans on working the new Rincoln, so you can still get your scorpion bowls.
Scorpion Bowls
At double the price and half the size no doubt.