They're getting the old gang back together: Pour House on Boylston Street could re-open, between Lir and McGreevy's, which could also re-open

All for it. The Pour House made happy memories to many. We were super sad when it closed. Customer since late 80s back when Division 16 was its neighbor. Wild and crazy nights. The Pour House helped me the next morning.

What a great time to be Mr. Talanian. He gets to snap up the names, the liquor licenses and advertise that he got some great turn-key deals ready for business. Just sign right here and tell all your friends that you're a bar owner on fabled Boylston St. Imagine the lines of people on weekend nights, the full bar on important game days, packed to gills on Marathon Monday and all that extra foot traffic from shopping holidays, championship parades, Newbury Street walkers' paradise, awesome pub crawls and the endless walkathons. And don't forget graduation season with all those families looking for a table.

Of course most of that is in the past. Baby boomers are on a fixed income now and the places they made famous have faded and closed. Red Sox fans are now in-and-out suburbanites who give most of their money to Mr. Henry who delivers the safest, mostly antiseptic, encapsulated experience they can handle. You can't count on the college kids for anything. Thanks to social media, their views and tastes have expanded and become very fickle. Good luck investing half a million dollars on a concept with a 12-month lifespan. Mating rituals, sports and gambling are available on every pocket phone, your coke and weed dealers deliver safely to your home or hotel room and Amazon has your retail shopping covered so there's very little actual need for most of these places unless you're tired of cooking and a $17 burger made by someone who'd never eat one sounds like a good time. A community gathering place they are not.

Those lucky enough to remain in the Back Bay have matured and aren't into spending much time in the same dump they did in college. Those who've moved in recently have other tastes and priorities. Just look at the cars now parked on residential streets and you'll see what I mean. It's a very different neighborhood than it was twenty years ago. Those people in the new luxury buildings? They're not hanging out at the Pour House when they'll have to breathe in bathroom fumes and pay $12 for a vodka soda. Trust me on that one.

But hey, if you're one of the lucky ones selected by Mr. Talanian to operate one of his businesses for him, know that your silent albeit majority business partner is the one to reap the benefits of both his real estate and liquor license appreciation, you're going to have to pay him both his rent and cut of the business revenue every month rain or shine and when you get on the wrong side of his money, which you will, the business itself will be worthless and you'll be back out on the street talking up your pedigree and new "concepts" while Mr. Talanian changes the name of the GM and goes back to counting his money.

Before you label me a cynic and tell me that it's busier than ever out there or that baseball attendance is on the rebound, ask yourself why all the places have closed for good and nobody in their right mind is going all in for what's left of them? It's the very last of the tail end of a forty-year retail boom and it's just vultures and suckers looking to squeeze out what's left.