Sharon Oliver, Contributor
For nearly 200 years, Durgin Park Restaurant in Boston’s Faneuil Hall Marketplace has been serving Yankee comfort food with a cheeky attitude.
BOSTON – Traditional Yankee food at Durgin Park was about as satisfying as a hug from grandma. Founded in 1742 as a food hall by Peter Faneuil, the restaurant inside his was purchased in 1827 by John G. Chandler, John Dargin, and Eldridge Park, and served meals to fishermen, merchants, and other businessmen. I did. After Durgin and Park died in 1877, Chandler renamed the restaurant Durgin Park in honor of his partners.
Classic cuisine and attentive service
In addition to its proud 192-year history, Durgin-Park’s menu also included dishes that have stood the test of time. Meals like slow-cooked Yankee pot roast, tender 32-ounce cuts of prime rib, and baked Indian pudding are not common these days. It was a restaurant where everything was made from scratch, with dishes rustling and conversations lively, and a cookbook even published. It was a place where generations of families came to share meals. When Durgin Park closed for good on a cold winter day in 2019, people came out in droves to sit one last time at communal tables with long red-checked tablecloths.
Even the service provided by the waitstaff, who were encouraged to adopt a bit of the restaurant’s early history of “brusqueness and gimmickry,” was a treat. As the story goes, this landmark restaurant hired many older women who didn’t necessarily need the income, but who wanted something to do and found working in Durgin Park very sociable. There was a trend. At that time, many of the customers who came to the store were men coming off long shifts, and they tended to be rude to them. It got to the point where the waitress immediately gave them a bit of cheeky service. Another memorable moment might be the 1978 snowstorm. At that time, a crew of skeletons happily served the people for three days despite the snow.
“It’s a big deal,” Gina Scherzer, a longtime server, told Forbes about the large number of people who lined up to eat before the restaurant closed. “At one point in the 1970s, every seat was occupied by businessmen and producers coming in for a two-hour lunch,” she recalled. “There are still a few left, but most of them have passed. All the people who really cared about Durgin Park have come forward, including the daughter of Scherzer’s former manager.” I took some of the ashes to the restaurant. She said, “He has to be here.”
Michael Weinstein, CEO of Durgin Park’s parent company Ark Restaurants, said the restaurant’s inability to make a profit was the reason for the closure, but Scherzer told the Eater website He said he had not noticed a significant drop in tips.
popularity has declined
However, the restaurant’s popularity began to decline as more new and modern eateries began popping up nearby. Eventually, the time came for the staff to begin preparing to auction off priceless pieces of history, such as old newspaper and magazine clippings pasted on the walls.
The James Beard Foundation awarded Durgin Park the America’s Classic Award in 1998, the first year the award was introduced. After years of attracting repeat customers and tourists who order dishes like fried Ipswich clams, roasted scrods and New England corned beef with cabbage, Durgin Park is clearly “gone but not forgotten.” It’s one of Boston’s restaurant icons.
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