East Boston restaurant owner says floating ship bar unleashing waves of drunken marauders; says he has to lock his doors now to protect customers, workers

On July 15, a doorman at the Cunard Tavern on Orleans Street in East Boston was trying to get an argumentative patron out of the place when a large rando - 6'3" and 260 lbs. or so - walked in off the street and punched the doorman, exposing an ankle bracelet of the sort judges order people awaiting trial or on probation to wear, according to police and restaurant owner Philip Frattaroli.

Frattaroli told the Boston Licensing Board this morning he never used to have a doorman at his restaurant, which he opened in 2017 after growing up in his family's restaurants across the harbor in the North End. But faced with "drunk people coming from the waterfront who are over-served and abrasive to our customers and staff and just ignoring the staff and taking over," he said he had little choice. He added that he's even been forced to lock his doors sometimes, turning what is normally an open-air restaurant on nicer evenings into a sort of speakeasy, where regular patrons have to be admitted.

"I'm disgusted, I really am," he said, adding that after the incident, he also feels ashamed, because he was unable to protect one of his employees from getting punched out.

"It's really the most difficult time we've ever had in the business," he said.

Frattaroli was before the licensing board because after the incident, police issued him a citation - which requires a board hearing - since the attack happened on his licensed premises. The board could decide at a meeting on Thursday whether there was anything Cunard Tavern could have done to prevent the attack and, if so, whether any punishment is warranted.

Frattaroli did not call out the Tall Ship by name, but his descriptions of the place left little doubt that was what he was referring to. The ship itself has a capacity of roughly 250 people, but the Massport-owned pier it's docked at can hold several hundred more, and too many of them leave with more than just a spring in their step and then fan out into the neighborhood looking for more to drink, he charged.

Frattaroli said the July 15th trouble started around midnight when a guy came in and tried to get a drink, but the bartender refused because he already appeared drunk. Rather than leave, the man began to argue. When the doorman went over to help out, Frattaroli said, the guy began yelling at him, asking "Why don't you ask the bartender to leave?!?"

The doorman was in the process of herding him out, Frattaroli said, when the big GPS-clad stranger just walked in from the street and punched the doorman. The puncher and the drunk then waltzed out and down the street, he said.

Frattaroli said he hasn't gotten much help from the city in general or police in particular.

"The city has left us alone and we have to fight this on our own," he said.