Thursday, October 25, 2012

Another Casualty of Casual

***Getting CRUSHED by the storm here in Miami today.  
Palm trees bending and their fronds pointing away from the wind 
as if they're in a speeding convertible. Rain works it's way under doors 
and into closed windows.  We are hunkered down 
in the cocktail lounge.  No rationing so far.


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From the Boston Globe, October 22, 2012
By Brian McGrory, Globe Staff


Excerpt (with emphasis added):

Here’s what I was faced with,” Ray continued. “I had a choice. Make Locke-Ober more casual, lower our standards to conform with the way society is today, or I could close it. I could close it with its history and its dignity intact. Because, frankly, it looked as good as it’s ever looked. The service was good, and the food was good."

"It’s unfortunate,” Ray continued. “It’s bittersweet for me. I’ve owned it since 1978."

But the reality, Ray has learned over the past decade or more, is that Boston has changed, often for the better, but not always so. An increasingly younger city is on a constant search for the next new thing, restaurants being no exception. Formality, here as everywhere, is a thing of the past.



Read the rest here.



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We were enthusiastic regulars and will miss it dearly.  What's worse than losing it is that which killed it after holding on for 137 years.


6 comments:

  1. This is just so sad. I was taken to Locke-Ober for special dinners when parents visited while I was in college then to lunch by venerable gentleman when I had my first job. I have not been in a while but hoped to go once more - now this will not be possible. How awful. Meanwhile, be safe in the storm.

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  2. Sad to see places like Locke-Ober fade away because they're not on the cutting edge or hot with self proclaimed "foodies". I hope Galatoires and Joe's Seafood continue to survive.

    Hate to say it, but you're a storm magnet this year. Stay safe.

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  3. Very interesting (and sad) to read this. Several years ago, on a mid-winter's jaunt to Boston, I had dinner at Locke-Ober. I was returning there for the first time in many years, and did so with much happy anticipation. Before our dinner I spent some time on the restaurant's website, where I noticed that L-O had posted a dress code, in which it said that patrons were expected to dress appropriately, which meant no jeans or sneakers, and that men were expected to wear jackets. During my dinner there I was dismayed to find that there were several tables in the restaurant full of patrons who brazenly ignored the stated dress code, unlike I and my dinner companion. When I asked the manager why it was that these people were allowed entry, he shrugged and said that he had no choice but to do so, since if he didn't he would have no patrons at all, and he needed the business. Now it has come to this. On a similar note, I was shocked while spending an evening at '21' this August to find that it had relaxed its requirement for men to wear jackets for the summer, and was irritated no end to find myself in a room full of boobs in in tee shirts while dining there. What has the world come to? Reggie

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  4. Devastated, to say the least.

    Stay dry!

    CPC

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  5. Third and final generation of my family to eat at Locke-Ober. Booked many luncheons here early in my career and was taken there fairly often for lunch with my former boss, when he couldn't make anyone else go......very sad.

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