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I think the real former Weylu
I think the real former Weylu's was the building out front , before the place on the hill was made.
Weylu's
That's correct. The smaller building by the road was the original restaurant. But they're both technically "former Weylu's" ("Weylu'ses"?).
Have you driven Route One lately?
You are right about the building in front but it's been gone for quite some time. It was about 6 different restaurants before being demolished a year or two ago.
I wonder what the property where Weylu's is located is going to be. It was sold a while back:
http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/print-edition/2013/09/27/development-p...
I remember school buses up
I remember school buses up front where the old restaurant was, and being on rte 1 during a storm around the blizzard of 78 and pulling over to Kowloon. Roads sucked , couldn't move, got a lunch special for about $3 . Havent been to that area for a while, saw a Kelly's on rte 1 Saugus , stuff didn't taste the same as Revere Beach.
Here's the Saga of Weylu's
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/12/29/saugu...
Ruin Porn
Its a thing now.
Detroit is Mecca.
Didn't the entire site sell
Didn't the entire site sell recently, last year I think? I sure hope so. I want Rt 1 to become the googie vegas strip of the east again
Winner!, Oh wait.
Weylu's was run well, had modest expansions along the lines of The Chateau then went nuclear in a world of conventional weapons and lost. Even the people who owned Joyce Chen had to have blushed when this was built.
Boom and Bust
The place was packed out for quite a while after it opened. Then there was the stock market crash and other economic problems (and the baby boomers having kids, going out less,etc.) and the place eventually crashed.
Kowloon somehow hung in there for a while.
Kowloon is still there
And open. But its like stepping back in time.
The parking lot always seems packed.
Phantom payola insider
I blame/credit the Andelmen.
The father , Eddie , used to
The father , Eddie , used to hawk the Kowloon on his WEEI sports call in show, always mentioning his wife , the lovely and talented Judy. He liked his chow , that one.
Da 'Loon
Kowloons. It has ever been. It will ever be.
And as long as locals live in the bar, so shall it be. I swear the bar alone probably pulls in more revenue than most other establishments on the Pike. Then couple that with a comedy club upstairs, lots of "celebrities" stopping in (and leaving their signed pictures), an assortment of different Asian cuisines (with the signature dish being cornsyrup-MSG-loaded American Chinese food) and the continued kitsch value of tiki restaurants of the 50s, Kowloon may be the most recession-proof business this side of Bisbee-Porcella Funeral Home.
Hilltop and Weylus may be gone, but Kowloon carries the torch (sterno can?) for the mega-room restaurant. The Continental and Prince Pizzeria are the other last men standing on Saugus Route 1 (and of course, Santoro's, but we're just including the classy joints).
Don't know how long it's been there (maybe about 25 years +/-) but Out of Asia is not a bad restaurant, albeit with little ambiance. Oh, almost forgot Sake, which also has been there for quite some damn time and is a good place to eat in your socks. (But damn, don't sushi get pricey....)
You want great appetizers?
Kowloon is your place. Every thing else there is shit.
Exactly
That's why the last time I was there was for a kid's party. Ten year old kids love the kitsch plus endless streams of good appetizers.
annnddd....
Mai Tais.....kids looooove Mai Tais.
I'm just surprised
That the NOT ART guy hasn't snuck in there yet and tagged the thing up.
It was Weylu...now its Wey
It was Weylu...now its Wey-low. Looks like a level from Soul Calibur. FIGHT!
The decline of an empire
Is often so slow as to be unnoticeable.
Loved this restaurant - not exactly for the food, but for the spectacle. They originated in Dedham, didn't they? Heard something that the Dedham restaurant ended up being closed to fund the Rte 1 Beautiful Monstrosity?
?
I lived in Dedham from the 60s until the late 80s and remember no such thing.
Only China restaurant I can
Only China restaurant I can recall is Tahiti on Rte 1, just north of Lechmere's
Boston WEylu's
Wasn't there a Weylu's in Boston for a while also? Near South Station maybe?
Indeed there was , Weylu’s on
Indeed there was , Weylu’s on the Wharf 254 Summer St. Boston.
http://www.bostonmagazine.com/best-of-boston/1985/weylus-on-the-wharf/
Weylu's on the wharf
I worked in the area in the early 80s. Great place for lunch. It overlooked the Fort Point Channel on a pedestrian walkway between Congress and Summer. The building was unsafe and was torn down and the current steel and glass building was built in the same location.
That building cracked!
Like, right down the side! They cleared everyone out and tore it down.
My husband worked on Sleeper St. at the time - I remember that Weylus!
Then you would remember the
Then you would remember the rail car Victoria Station , right by the lighter barge.
Sure do!
And the Olde Spaghetti Factory, which got there too soon. They would do a banner business now!
Forgot about Spaghetti Factory!
Thanks for mentioning that place - think we went there once for lunch when our office was on Farnsworth Street. Now it's part of the Thompson Financial complex (or whatever that company is named these days!). Also remember the old Victoria Station - that's going back a few years....
Remember Stuart's , A and
Remember Stuart's , A and Congress ?
Stuarts!!
I used to work across the street. Freddie was the short order cook behind the counter. He appeared to be around 90 years old, hunched over and always a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. As far as we knew he never dropped ashes into our food, but we watched him carefully. Around 2 PM, Freddie would bring out the bucket and mop and start cleaning the flooor. If you were having a late lunch, the smell of industrial grade cleaner was part of the experience.
Then there was Pat, who took your orders. Pat always seemed angry. It was important to order your Spuckie as either "Spuckie", or "Spuckie the old way". The only place in Eastern Massachusetts where I ever heard subs referred to as Spuckies.
And next door was the bar with the sign that said, simply, "BAR". Teamsters double parked their rigs on Congress to go inside for a morning pick me up.
Now, its a trendie bar for 20 and 30 year olds. If they only knew.....
Shush ! Don't spill the beer
Shush ! Don't spill the beer , I mean the beans. Better parking for a sangwich on Northern svenson , there was a Santoro's .....
Shush ! Don't spill the beer
Shush ! Don't spill the beer , I mean the beans. Better parking for a sangwich on Northern svenson , there was a Santoro's .....
Every Friday night after work
We hung out at Victoria Station drinking lots of alcohol and ingesting an illegal white powder that was popular in the 80s. I cant believe I survived all that abuse of my body.
Victoria Station
used to be a big national chain. There's just one left now, on Pickering Wharf in Salem.
I didn't think the one in
I didn't think the one in Burlington would ever close. Now there's some weird resturant there that seems like it would be a chain centralized in Florida, much like whatever that brewhouse is next to the Home Depot in Watertown.
do you mean Border Cafe?
I'm not in that area much, but when I Google the former address of Victoria Station in Burlington, I find Border Cafe today. That started in Harvard Square (where it's quite crowded and popular) and later branched out to Saugus and a few other places,
Think the one in Harvard
Think the one in Harvard square was Oxford tavern before , not totally sure , but it was something else.
Yep - Oxford Ale House
also known as Oxford Grille
I guess it was Border Cafe,
I guess it was Border Cafe, odd, I thought it was something else.
The one on Pickering Wharf
The one on Pickering Wharf was sold in 2008 and no longer has anything to do with the owner of the national chain and is no longer affiliated.
there's no national Victoria Station chain to affiliiate with
anymore, so the question of whether this one is affiliated is moot. This was the last one standing.
Victoria Station!
Not just the train cars, but the loaf of bread ...
Confused
Maybe I am remembering it wrongly. I thought it was in the basement of 250 summer, with the entrance just under Morrison Mahoney?
That green awning there was the old entrance I think?
http://goo.gl/maps/Wla3u
Was it further down where the new building was instead?
on the wharf
It was in the basement, with an entrance on the pedestrian walkway right next to the Fort Point Channel. I worked on Congress so I always entered via the pedestrian walkway.You could access the walkway via Summer or Congress.
Weylu's in Salem
There was a Weylu's in Salem in the Museum Place Mall in the late 80's. It had wonderful food. I had visitor's declare it to be as good as anything in Central Square or Boston.
Weylu's in Salem
My wife and I used to go to this Weylu's often many years ago - well before the disaster in Saugus. It had a contemporary decor, and we tried to sit by the windows since it had a good view of the historic courtyard. It was really a pleasant place and had good food. Pickering Wharf was relatively new at that time and had many pleasant stores including the theater showing the historical development of Salem. So one could come to Salem, have a nice meal at Weylu's, and walk or take a short drive to Pickering Wharf to enjoy the stores and shop. All this went downhill including the small mall and shops where Weylu's was and Pickering Wharf. When the theater was destroyed to put in an antique store, then you knew things were bad.I could never understand why the community could not save the small theater in Pickering Wharf.
Theatre in Pickering Wharf?
Was this a movie theatre or a live stage? When did it close?
There is still a movie theatre in Museum Place Mall, now called CinemaSalem.
Wow
This rocks.
I've always wondered what it looked like inside. It was closed shortly before I moved here (I think) so I've never been inside.
I've always wondered.. now I know!
So cool! I've been wanting to
So cool! I've been wanting to see what the building looks like. It's amazing how much it has decayed.
Reminds me of visiting the
Reminds me of visiting the old Face's site near Alewife during the late 90s. Inside looked like they had just left it behind one day in the 80s, and as late as 1999 the bars were mostly still stocked, and there were cases upon cases of (decade+ old) beer sitting in the back by the Chinese restaurant that shared the building. I always wondered why it sat vacant for all those years, and why no one ever bothered to remove anything from the interior. I mean, no one had any use for 20 cases of Sam Adams the day after they shuttered?
We actually found out about its existence when some kids started selling old skunked beer in Harvard, and the grapevine eventually led back to the building back by Alewife. And speaking of common sense, I'll never understand why said booze peddlers determined it was a better use of inventory to bring back a few 6 packs instead of a few bottles of liquor, but if you're trespassing to steal contraband to sell, common sense isn't high on the list of your inherited traits.
Related, but there apparently used to be someone sitting in the parking lot of the motel next door who would watch out for people gaining access to the building--so apparently it wasn't worth doing anything with the property for nearly 25 years, but important enough to protect from urban explorers.
So many questions.
Maybe some answers here , can
Maybe some answers here , can you dig it....
Last Dance
http://www.bostonmagazine.com/2011/04/last-dance-a-fond-look-back-at-fac...
The 'Faces' discotheque sign, which outlasted disco, punk and grunge music much to Cambridge’s chagrin, came down in a crunch of heavy metal today just before noon.
http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/cambridge/2011/10/onlookers_brave_th...
There were 5 locations of
There were 5 locations of Weylu's - Salem, Saugus, Boston, Brockton and Woburn. All were "cash-cows" that Rick Change used to finance his "dream". He imported most of the woodwork, fixtures, etc from China and hired a "famous movie-set designer from China" to build his "dream". The Bank of Saugus would only lend him $6 million for his project so he had to used all the cash from his other restaurants to make up the deficit, once the costs started to skyrocket. Eventually it all came crashing down on him.
wondering how..
how the photog gained access? Legally im sure?
Weylu's site follow-up
for those interested in what happens to that locale or just like to rubber neck at the train wreck that is "planning" in the town of Saugus:
http://saugus.wickedlocal.com/article/20141217/NEWS/141217290