End of an Era — Scollay Square Restaurant

A topic of a number of my posts has been having dinner at Scollay Square Restaurant in Boston (apply the filter restaurants) where Seth worked as a waiter for a number of years (apply the filter Seth). Seth was always friendly and interested in the books I was reading. The food was enjoyable, so it was a good place to go for dinner before Harvard Musical Association concerts and I made it my regular restaurant for those occasions. Several readers of this blog visited me over the years, and I brought them there to see the place I was writing about.

It started out fairly upscale, but after a year or two they eliminated the top of the line items, with a corresponding reduction in the overall price level. Patio seating during warm weather was popular, but I guess overall patronage was never as good as it should have been because the trend to commonplace items continued, apparently to try to attract more patrons.

Last November 16, I went there, and I was shocked at how few people were there: a couple of people at the bar and three ladies at a table. While I was there maybe six more customers arrived. This was considerably less business than I had ever seen there. I hoped it was just an off night for some reason.

Various factors such as weather, scheduling conflicts,  or just not feeling like making the effort to go to Boston led to my not going to another HMA evening until April 5. When I got to the Scollay Square, the windows were covered inside with brown paper. I was disappointed, but in, light of my experience in November, not entirely shocked to find it closed. It was a good place to have as my regular pre-HMA restaurant for ten years, and I'm sorry it's no longer there as a familiar, if occasional, presence.

This meant that I needed to find another place for dinner. I checked out several places in the area, but they were offering burgers and sandwiches, and I wanted normal entrees. There was a spot called Carrie Nation just down the block from Scollay Square. The second time I went by it, I decided that it was the best I could do at that point, so in I went. The maitre d' seemed to think that he didn't have a table available, but the manager happened by and told him to seat me in the section by the window. Looking at the menu I found a number of attractive choices and settled on oysters, followed by salmon and lentils with a house salad. Everything was good. After putting in my cocktail order I noticed a specialty cocktail which includes rye whiskey and grand marnier that I'd like to try. Service was good. In a way, although the ambience is very different, it's reminiscent of what the Scollay Square was when I first went there. So I want to go back and have some of the other items they offer, and I'll probably make it my regular place.