The end of an era...

Most times I go to Boston I get a chance to go to Faneuil Hall and have a drink at J. J. Donovan's Pub. I have been going there since I was old enough to drink, and it was mentioned in a "Spenser for Hire" novel. It was a local joint, a real Irish bar that somehow kept the tourists out and the locals in. The bartender had the heavy Southie accent and you had to have some Boston 'tude to get served. If you were from out of town, you tended to get ignored. I always ordered a Sam Adams Larger and my best friend Mike (who was almost always with me there) got a B-52 on the rocks. We always stopped there.

But not this time. I went to Boston this past week and Donovan's was gone. Judging by the other changes at Quincy Market, I would guess it finally lost out to some big national chain (even the layout was different, so I couldn't tell exactly who took it over). Quincy Market used to be a great place to go to see local merchants selling local goods. Weird, unusual goods that you couldn't really get anywhere else. Then one time we went there and there was a big GAP store there and it went downhill from there. Slowly but surely all the cool stores were replaced by the national stores that exist everywhere. Going there was no different than going to the local mall.

There are still a few places that have been there since I started going, but Donovan's was "my" place. And now it's gone. Crap.