Years ago, I used to go to Boston for work on a somewhat regular basis. I worked for a guy who expanded my culinary horizons - while also expanding my waist - and he was a big fan of all things to do with Boston. We had a number of memorable meals when we would do factory visits over 30 years ago. He loved Boston so much that he closed his firm, temporarily putting me out of work, and ran off to live in New England. One of our usual haunts was a place where I had my first Samuel Adams beer, my first oysters on the half-shell, my first real clam chowder, and my first lobster roll. Recently, I had to go out to Boston for some meetings, presentations, and to do a couple video shoots and I flew in around noon on a Sunday. After getting my rental vehicle, I decided that I was going to seek out the place that exposed me to the great flavors of New England. I had to go have lunch at the Union Oyster House.
Now, years ago, I was told that Union Oyster House was the oldest restaurant in the U.S. Since then, I've seen some things that tell me that may not be correct. However, there seems to be a consensus that the Union Oyster House is the oldest CONTINUOUS restaurant in the United States. The building is so old that there is no documentation as to when it was originally built. Union Street - which fronts the restaurant - was laid out in 1636. Over 100 years later the first documented business in the building was a dry goods establishment that sold cloth and silk sourced from Europe. The Boston waterfront at the time came up to the back door of the building which allowed for an easy transfer of goods.
Known as the Capen House, the building later became a focal point of the American Revolution as it was where the office of the first paymaster of the Continental Army was located. While soldiers who signed up to fight the British got their pay, women would mend the uniforms and clothing of the colonists in another part of the building.
The second floor also had some historical significance as the headquarters of a famous newspaper "The Massachusetts Spy" which rallied colonists in the revolt against the British. And after the war was over, a future king of France - Louis Philippe I (1830-1848) - lived in exile for a time in a room on the second floor during the mid-to-late 1790's.
Oysters had first been served in the United States in New York City in the early 1760's. By the early part of the 19th century, nearly every city up and down the Eastern seaboard had some sort an establishment that served oysters - oysters on the half shell, baked oysters, oyster stew, etc. In 1818, Hawes Atwood established his first oyster bar in Boston and followed that up with a number of other locations around the city.
It was in 1826 that the Capen family's dry goods business ceased to exist and Hawes Atwood opened Atwood's Oyster House in the building on August 3, 1826.
Atwood put in a semi-circular bar when he opened his oyster bar location there nearly 199 years ago (!) and many a famous person has sat at the bar over the years. Each time I went to the Union Oyster House, I sat at the bar up front. It's said that lawyer and statesman Daniel Webster had a seat at the bar every day eating at least six half-dozen plates of oysters and washing them back with a large tumbler of brandy.
In 1842, Hawes Atwood took on a minority partner - a man by the name of Bacon - and the restaurant became Atwood & Bacon Oyster House. The partnership continued on for over 70 years.
It was during the Atwood and Bacon ownership that another historical milestone was established at the restaurant. Maine native Charles Forster had traveled to Brazil in the 1880's and was amazed to see Brazillians shaving small wooden sticks and using them to pick food particles out of their teeth. This intrigued the entrepreneurial spirit in Forster and he established a toothpick manufacturing facility in rural Maine.
When Forster tried to introduce the toothpick to restaurants in Boston, the restaurant owners felt that their clientele was too well-heeled to want to pick their teeth after a meal. Thinking that he may have made a mistake, Forster desperately looked for an angle. He got it with a number male students at nearby Harvard University who he would pay to go into restaurants as ask for a toothpick after eating. The first restaurant in Boston - and quite probably the U.S. - to offer toothpicks was the Atwood & Bacon Oyster House in 1887.
The Atwood & Bacon Oyster House continued until 1913 when it was purchased by the Fitzgerald family. The Fitzgerald clan changed the name of the restaurant to its present day Union Oyster House. The Fitzgerald family owned the restaurant until 1940 when it was sold to two brothers with the last name of Greaves. The brothers were originally from Nova Scotia in Canada and expanded the restaurant with three rooms on the second floor.
The Greaves owned the restaurant until 1970 when they sold it to Joseph Milano. The Milano family expanded the restaurant even more by taking over the space next door to establish the Union Oyster Bar. The restaurant was forced to close for a short while in 2017 due to a fire, and again in early 2020 due to the COVID pandemic, but the closings were so short that the restaurant continued to keep its "oldest continuous restaurant in America" title. Milano's children - Joseph, Jr. and Mary Ann Milado Piccardi - continue to run the restaurant today.
It had been over 35 years since I was last in the Union Oyster House and an equal amount of time since I had been in downtown Boston. I forgot how much of a pain it is to get around downtown Boston in a vehicle after getting through the Ted Williams Tunnel from Logan Airport. My GPS was almost smoking from getting overworked trying to pinpoint my position with the tangled clusters of streets that are literally on top of one another. Union Street in front of the Union Oyster House (see map) was closed for pedestrian traffic that day, so I had to maneuver around to find parking. I found parking at the Haymarket Center parking ramp just north of the Union Oyster House. I was in there for about 90 minutes and it cost me a pretty respectable $15 - pretty cheap for a large city on the east coast (or anywhere, for that matter).
When I was walking from the parking garage, I passed the Bell in Hand Tavern whose sign out front boasted that it was established in 1795. I thought, "Hmmm... I wonder how Union Oyster House can say they're the oldest continuous restaurant in America." Well, it turns out they're safe because the Bell in Hand is one of the oldest "taverns" in America - and taverns usually didn't serve food. Plus Bell in Hand had moved to that location next to the Union Oyster House in the 1950's.
It was a cool, yet sunny day when I got into Boston and there were a few people who were sitting at tables along the sidewalk in front of the Union Oyster House. There was a hostess out front and I asked if I could sit at the bar inside. "If there's a spot, go ahead," she said.
Just inside the front door is a large tank full of lobsters ready for the picking. There was a gift shop area off to the side that I didn't remember being there - but it had been over 35 years since I was last in the place. The upstairs area at Union Oyster House was closed that day, but another piece of historical significance on the second floor is a booth that has a plaque honoring President John F. Kennedy who - along with other members of his family - would frequently eat at the restaurant. JFK was particularly partial to Union Oyster House's lobster stew. The booth on the second level was evidently Kennedy's favorite place to dine when he would visit the restaurant.
I did find a spot at the original bar and settled in between two people - an older gentleman (along with his wife) who now lived in Arizona whose grandfather had taken him to Union Oyster House was a young boy; and a lady who was part of a group of four tourists from Ohio who were trying to figure out what the big deal was about Union Oyster House. The 199-year-old bar had settled over the years and actually sloped toward the front so much that at least three coasters were needed to level plates that were placed in front of patrons.
There were three bartender/oyster shuckers behind the bar that day. The guy in the picture above left was the primary guy who waited on me. As he shucked oysters, he conversed with people seated in front of him, some were asking about his shucking technique. One guy asked him about shucking an oyster with a rock - something that he said he had done before, but didn't like to do. (I had never heard of that technique.) When he got the time, he handed me a menu and asked me what I wanted to drink. Well, I had to have a Samuel Adams lager since this was the first place I had ever tried the beer over 35 years before.
As I don't remember much other than having Sam Adams beer, lobster rolls, clam chowder and oysters the half-shell on previous visits to the Union Oyster House, it turned out that they had a pretty diverse menu. It was definitely seafood-centric with seafood appetizers such as mussels, shrimp cocktail, and crab cakes; seafood Caesar or mixed-greens salads; and - of course - local oysters on the half-shell.
I had to have some oysters along with a cup of the clam chowder to start out. The gentleman next to me saw the chowder and said, "Now, that's the real stuff! Real CHOW-DAH!" I'm sorry, it's chowder, not chow-DAH! But, then again they have a menu sign behind the bar with the price of a bowl or a cup of chowder and it was spelled "chow-dah". In any event, the clam chowder was fine - I mean, it has to be if it's served in Boston. And the oysters were meaty. The bartender provided me with some Tabasco and I piled a liberal amount of fresh ground horseradish on the oysters to give them a wonderfully spicy "bang". I made short work of the oysters and the clam chowder and went back to the menu to see what else I could get.
While I was leaning toward getting a lobster roll, Union Oyster House also had a crab cake sandwich, seared fish tacos, a fried clam roll, and a fried oyster roll. For people who didn't want seafood, they also had a burger on the menu, as well as a grilled chicken sandwich. Entrees available for lunch included broiled scrod, sautéed shrimp and scallops, fish and chips, and a seafood platter consisting of fried fish, clams, oysters, shrimp and calamari.
But I went back to the chilled lobster roll. It was served on a small toasted hoagie bun with lettuce. A side of cole slaw came with the sandwich, as did a number of fries. The lobster roll was - in a word - delicious. I hadn't had a lobster roll since I was out in California a couple years ago and while that one was good, the one at Union Oyster House was outstanding. The chilled lobster meat was tender and so full of flavor. But - oh my god - was it RICH!! I'm glad it was on a small roll because it filled me up pretty quickly.
But I have to mention the fries. They were sort of like steak fries - fat and flaky on the inside - but were cut more like large French fries. And they were delicious, as well. They were simply some of the best fries I've ever had. While the lobster roll was terrific on its own, the fries were possibly the most memorable part of the meal.
After I finished up, I wandered around the rest of the Union Oyster House to see if I remembered something
about the place. Going up a short flight of steps, there was a larger bar area around a corner. I sort of remember going up the steps - mainly because the restrooms were up there - but the rest of the place was unfamiliar to me. The bar in the upper level was more spacious and modern than the original bar on the main level. But I would have rather sat at the original bar.
Off to the side of upper bar was a room with a number of painting and 3-D panels depicting famous landmarks around Boston. Dubbed "The Freedom Trail Room", it featured artwork representations of The Old North Church, The Paul Revere House, The Old State House, and Faneuil Hall that are along the famed Freedom Trail, a 2.5 mile walkway through Boston that I toured back in the late 1980's. This room I also didn't remember from previous visits.
Past the bar, there's another room toward the very back that features portraits of famous Bostonians and area historic artifacts. This cozy little room featured a few booths and a small bar area that could be used for private receptions.
Sometimes visiting places you haven't been back to for years on end can be somewhat disappointing. In my case, it was over 35 years since the last time I was in the Union Oyster House. But this visit didn't disappoint in the least. For as much as I don't remember about my previous visits, I do remember the lobster rolls, the oysters on the half-shell, the clam chowder, and the Sam Adams lager - all of which I first tried at the Union Oyster House. And having them all once again brought back a lot of memories of expanding my culinary horizons in a place that meant a lot to me during my visits to Boston years and years ago. It was nice to get back to the Union Oyster House to relive some of my more memorable times in my life.