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Good God, ANOTHER CLOSING?!?!
Good God, ANOTHER CLOSING?!?!?! Are you kidding me? That's FOUR Brighton hotspots closing since July. Unbelievable
trend?
Is there anything in particular driving this trend? Brighton center doesn't seem to lack people. Perhaps more of the long term residents are moving out and being replaced by young professionals who are attracted to the relative bargains on housing, but have less disposable income?
More like greedy commercial
More like greedy commercial landlords.
the food industry is tough
Very tough - most places don't make it in the short run, and a fair number hit obstacles later.
Competition is fierce and fads are fickle. Multiple places closing in a short time frame is probably pretty normal.
Like the owner of Joey's told
Like the owner of Joey's told me: people don't drink in Brighton anymore. But for restaurants, it's kind of a bigger deal.
In one short block there's now this place, Joey's, Brighton Beer Garden (closing soon, no big loss) and Imperial Pizza (though they retired) and further down the street, Castlebar.
I counted walking to Castlebar from Brighton Center once and there are FOURTEEN separate hair salons. I guess they need to make room for another group. Fucking pathetic.
:(
I've found that since the T runs late on Friday and Saturday nights, less people spend those nights at local bars.
Not for nothing
I'd love to drink in Brighton Center, but most of the bars are terrible. Like you said, BBG closing is just fine with me.
And not just a small factor on the rest of the bars is the growing clientele of obnoxious middle-aged Irish immigrants who reside at places like Porter Bellys, Green Briar, IV, and Devlins. Very aggressive bunch. Never seen as many fights in the area as I have in the last few years, when it seems like these guys grew in numbers.
The closing of Smoken Joe's is sad, since the food was outstanding and it was a cool place to drink without the crappy-bar atmosphere.
And the real problem is not hair/nail salons, but banks. My god, we have too many banks. They absorb good space, spike the neighboring retail rent, and kill the neighborhood nightlife.
brighton
There are a lot of recent vacancies in Brighton/Oak Square. Imperial Pizza, Castlebar, Joeys, now Smoken Joes plus the 3 year vacant spot at the corner of Washington and Market, plus the recently closed beacon hill athletic club and the long closed white hen pantry next door.
Can any real estate folks fill us in? Is there no demand or do landlord prefer vacant to lower lease prices?
You'd think with multiple 57
You'd think with multiple 57 busses running down Washington every 3 minutes or so that more people would go here. Seriously, most reliable bus I've ever seen. Maybe there's just a giant disconnect from bus transit to subway transit for destinations.
Hot spot?
The music was better than the food.
the local civic groups hate
the local civic groups hate bars and liquor licenses
wouldnt surprise me if some of those residents had a hand in all these closings
Hmmm--I wonder why.
Sounds as if there are still plenty of bars and from some of these comments, they're not the type you'd want on your corner. Trying to sleep through closing time fights and walking your kid to the bus stop through puddles of last night's puke is not fun for most grownup people.
Meh....
There aren't that many fights at Allston/Brighton bars for the most part. I do think some things need to be clarified though.....
Castlebar was a dive, and a semi-townie bar dive at that. Dive bars only survive if they are very busy (see Punters Pub or The Banshee), or if the owner doesn't care about making money and can survive on cheap rents and minimum upkeep.
joeys on he other hand had a decent renovation, but always had that townie feel that kept outsiders and students out. There was nothing special about joeys, and that is why it failed.
the Boston beer garden tried the sports bar/ young crowd style that somehow never seems to fit into the Brighton landscape. The d-bag college type crowd that seems to thrive in places like The White horse Tavern seems to kill larger type establishments that attempt the same style (see the Joshua tree/tonic). I go to jake and joes a lot in Norwood and the place does very well for basically C+ food and B- drinks and beer. The service there is decent, attractive waitresses that are friendly, and TVs in great locations, and it's clean.
And it doesn't matter where the bus goes. 90% of your customers are going to walk or drive to allston/Brighton, most of gem walking. No reason to take the bus to Brighton center to go to joeys or Castlebar.
i take it you have not been
i take it you have not been to brighton center or oak square
or you would know that closing time fights and puddles of puke were not a problem there
Seriously, that's one of the
Seriously, that's one of the first things I noticed when I moved to Oak Square from the Back Bay: no college student vomit in front of my building.
Brighton Centre
As a former resident of Brighton Centre, I am sad to see Joe's go (can't say the same for Joey's or BBG). They really cared about the place and brought a diverse crowd of folks together to enjoy good live music and good bbq.
However, a very short walk from Brighton Centre is still the best bar in the boston area (IMHO, its Deep Ellum), so all hope is not lost, and you still have (a) briar, (b) pour house, (c) devlins, (d) IV, (d) last call, among others right in town.
Pour House is not and
Pour House is not and Brighton and is also awful awful awful and filled with students and HAYYYY GIRLS FIREBALL SHOTS ALL AROUND OMGGGGGGGG crowd
That's a shame
I used to love this place when I lived in Brighton. Good BBQ, live music every night. Shame they're all done. I suppose I haven't been there in a while, as it's a hike from JP, but still.
WTF...that place was always
WTF...that place was always full when I lived in the area a few years ago
GAT DERNIT!
I JUST went there for the first time. It was gonna be my new spot!
With all these closings, maybe we can get a halfway decent Mexican joint?
No love for Boca Grande?
I mean it's cheap and fast...but that's what's great about it.
Boca Grande has, by far, the
Boca Grande has, by far, the best carnitas in Boston.
It's so boring!
There's no flavor and the food just looks sad. Habaneros in Allston...now that's some good, quick mexican(/guatemalan/el salvadorian) food. Even Anna's, which is a clone of Boca Grande run by the sibling of BG's owner, is a step up.
I did not know that
I did not know that Boca Grande and Ana's were run by the same family (or siblings). This would explain why they are almost identical. Although I prefer BG over Anas (I find Ana's beef to be so fatty)
El Phoenix
I used to love the El Phoenix room, a dingy bar/Mexican restaurant on Comm Ave. Sure the food wasn't the finest but it was tasty and filling.
Brighton center had few restaurants back then.
Timmy was the best bartender
Timmy was the best bartender , wasnt he?
Oooooh buddy!
Have I got a juicy story for you... http://www.bostonmagazine.com/2006/05/the-burrito-war/
Parking and location
That block seems to be kind of tough. Been in the area for over a year with my GF and only reason we go to that corner is for Abbotts ice cream (either by walking down 20 mins or circling endlessly for a spot). I honestly never noticed the place til we sat outside Abbotts one night this summer. Joes and that barber shop are at an area where parking is limited and most times, people are racing to get the light.
Are you kidding? Brighton
Are you kidding? Brighton Center has some of the best parking around! TWO huge FREE muni lots are right behind those buildings.
The funny thing is, if you're
The funny thing is, if you're driving by, it's easy to miss that those lots are even there, and think you're stuck with street parking.
Really?
Well stupid me never realized that. Disregard my comment then, I'll take a lap.
Who needs parking?
It's Brighton Center. The buses go right through it and it's very walkable.
Several reasons for closings
I don't think the recent closings are that unusual. Food and bars struggle for very good reasons when they get tired and don't keep up with rising expectations. Brighton Center has always been "behind the curve" in its bars and restaurants - poor/shoddy suburban bar menus and bartenders who know how to pour beer and simple cocktails and little else. In part this is due to the influence of students and newly minted students who are happy to drink lighter fluid if it comes in a tall glass with a straw. Smoken Joe's was not bad by any measure … but it certainly wasn't "very good" or "great" either. The bar was far too minuscule to encourage it as a real hang out for a bar. I can't tell you exactly what was wrong with Brighton Beer Garden … other than the fact that it was NOT a beer garden and pushed cocktails over beer (and cocktails were alway hit-or-wildly-miss) and the menu was outdated and boring. Also, they obviously put 0 effort into training staff. Every single server, waiter, bartender had the same "Hi, I'm here to collect a tip and **** little else" look there. Castlebar … well, what can you say? I used to live behind there in the 1980s when you'd go in there on a weekday afternoon and there's be a clutch of girls in Catholic high school outfits pounding down a pitcher. It was a bunker bar -- for good or bad. And oh … I can't count the number of times I've ordered a beer and got skunked beer from uncleaned beer lines at EVERY bar in Brighton. NO EXCEPTIONS. I swear if I were a Harpoon or a Boston Beer Co. I'd pull my beer from half those places until they showed they gave a ****. But … 23 year old bros don't really care, do they? Now … let's compare this with Porter Square area and Davis Square. I have had exceptional to excellent bar and food experiences there (and more so in recent years). I noticed that: bars pushed specialty drinks that I wouldn't consider but tried because of good customer rapport; bartenders who are well-trained and attentive ("Hey, you like Maker's? Try this … "); good, creative menus that changed frequently; Trained staff who know their jobs and manage to do it professionally and are courteous and friendly. So … does that sound like Brighton Center? Um … no. I'm not arguing for hipster-hood. I'm saying if you don't keep up with rising demands for quality and service, then what do you expect? I wouldn't shed a tear if every restaurant and bar in Brighton Center sold to a new owner.
you seem
wicked picky
Rent
I can confirm that for many of these places, the issue was the rent or being bought out.
Castlebar's liquor license got bought out.
Beacon Hill Athletic Club's rent went up extremely fast, and way too high.
Butcher Block, rent was raised.
Not Good
The BBQ was not good! Maybe that is why they need to close. I'll head to Sweet Cheeks for my BBQ...
More info on why they're closing
They had some building damage last year as well as landlord trouble. Eater has a bit more information: http://boston.eater.com/archives/2014/09/10/smoken-joes-will-close-on-se...
Tough crowd here , guess
Tough crowd here , guess wouldn't be satisfied with a glass of beer and the old steamed hot dog. But , fear not,just walk down Market street to the Irish Village.This metamorphosis probably caused by the A man's nemesis TJL jr turning over HQ to the other bank. They are all bailing out of Brighton!
I'm happy as long as the Last
I'm happy as long as the Last Drop sticks around.