Hot Coffee Coming Through: Durgin Park Restaurant, Boston, Massachusetts

Introduction and Sad News

"Hot coffee coming through!" That translated to, "Come on, get out of the way, I have these huge plates of food to take to a table." And huge plates was right. But sadly, the plates will be no more. The venerable Durgin Park Restaurant, a Boston fixture for 192 years, closed for good on Saturday, January 12, 2019. The logo over the door stated, "Established before you were born." Definitely true. And I recall printed on the menus words to the effect, "Your father ate here and his father, too." True in my case, as well. As noted in Restaurant Business, "Durgin-Park was generally regarded as the nation’s second-oldest restaurant, behind Boston’s Union Oyster House, which was founded in 1826. Durgin-Park opened a year later, while favorite local son John Quincy Adams was president of the United States."

1970s or 1980s photograph at the ground floor entry to Durgin Park (from Forbes magazine). I recall the lady in the middle row with the puffy black hair.

Some Memories

I first ate at Durgin Park in 1965 or 1966 with my dad. He told me he was introduced to the restaurant by his dad. Grandpa died in 1919, so this may not be correct, but certainly is not out of the realm of possibility. But my father had definitely patronized Durgin Park on and off for decades because he recalled when whale steak was on the menu. I think bear steak predated him.

Typical 1976 lunch crowd at Durgin Park. You shared your table with politicians, workmen, tourists, gangsters - almost anyone, and everyone was cheerful.

The "Hot coffee coming through" ladies, 1976 (Leica IIIC camera, 5cm ƒ/2 Summitar lens, Kodachrome film)

By 2008, the starched white waiter outfits were gone

When I first moved to Massachusetts, the sales tax had just been enacted. The politicians promised that it would never exceed 3 percent. Well, you know how that turned out. But restaurant meals below $1.00 were exempt. Therefore, at midday, Durgin Park offered a 95 cent luncheon, which included a cup of soup, cornbread, a hearty entree, such as yankee pot roast, and a cup of coffee. During the summers, I taught sailing at Community Boating on the Charles River and often walked over to the Faneuil Hall area to lunch at Durgin Park. Even then, a Dollar was a reasonable price for a hearty meal. But as inflation ravaged our economy in the 1970s, the soup and coffee disappeared from the 95 cent lunch and the choice of entrees was reduced. Finally, the 95 cent lunch became a fond memory. Sigh....

Andy and Vico digging in to beans, Yankee pot roast, and scallops

In the 1960s and early-1970s, the lunch crowd was so large, the line for a seat often stretched out the door and along the side of the building. If you waited until about 12:30, the first group of diners, who had been seated at 11:30, were moving out, and you could get a seat in a reasonable time. Another trick in the old days was to buy a drink at the bar. Then you could ascend to the dining rooms on the second floor via a bar-only stair and bypass some of the crowd. But I do not remember patrons drinking spirits in the dining room. Maybe that was restricted to the bar area.

From the 1972-1974 television show, Banacek

The entry hallway and bar were on the ground floor. The dining rooms were on the second floor, accessed by a narrow stair on which the line would stand and wait (eventually they had to wait at the bottom of the stairs). The chief waiter, at the top of the stairs, would survey the dining room and wave groups of two or four to available places at the long, family-style tables. You shared a table with whomever was already there. The kitchens were on the third floor. In the 1970s, it was not uncommon to look out the window and see a quarter cow being hoisted via winch to the third floor.

Young Boston beauty awaiting her chowdah and Yankee pot roast

Parking in downtown Boston was always a problem, even in the 1960s. Back then, the Southeast Expressway was a gruesome elevated concrete roadway carrying I-93 through Boston. This route is now subterranean, thanks to the Central Artery/Tunnel Project or the Big Dig. Most Boston citizens despised the old Southeast Expressway because it cut the heart of the city in half and was a visual eyesore. However, it offered inexpensive parking underneath close to Quincy Market. It was a bit spooky, but we were never mugged, and it offered a short walk to Durgin Park.

Durgin Park Brochure

My wife found a brochure in her recipe box with the famous Boston baked bean recipe as well as a short history from Collier's Magazine (date not specified). Click the link above to see the .pdf file or see the pages individually below (click to expand each page).

The End

Before mid-1970s Bicentennial redevelopment of Quincy Market (see the next article), Durgin Park, Union Oyster House, and a few other establishments were the only lunch spots in this part of Boston. After redevelopment, there were many more choices. Durgin Park soldiered on, but by the mid-2000s, fewer customers came. It did not have a "theme" as is popular in restaurants today. Traditional hearty New England cuisine prepared from scratch ingredients was not trendy. I remember how the menu had changed by the mid-2000s, with vegetarian offerings. They even dropped smelts and mackerel from the menu. How can a true New England eatery not offer mackerel!! Or smelts? Modern Americans are too wimpy to eat mackerel? Finally, a 192-year tradition ended. In January, several New England friends sent me the sad news that "Hot coffee coming through" was no more.

The 1976 frames are from Kodachrome film exposed with my 1949 Leica IIIC camera with a 5cm ƒ/2 Summitar lens, which I am still using. I scanned the slides with a Plustek 7600i film scanner using Silverfast Ai software.

Update: Indian Pudding

Yankee Magazine published the recipe for Durgin Park's famous Indian Pudding.

For many, the recipe for Durgin–Park Indian pudding, served warm and topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, is the gold standard.

Yield:

8-10 servings 

Ingredients: 

1 cup granulated yellow cornmeal

1/2 cup black molasses

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup lard or unsalted butter, softened, plus more for baking dish

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

2 large eggs

6 cups (1 1/2 quarts) warmed whole milk, divided

Garnish: freshly whipped cream or vanilla ice cream 

Instructions: 

Preheat your oven to 450° and generously grease a 2-quart baking dish, preferably one made of porcelain or stone.

Whisk together the first seven ingredients and 3 cups of the warmed milk.

Bake until the mixture begins to bubble, about 10 minutes; then stir in the remaining 3 cups of milk. Reduce the heat to 275° and continue baking another 5 to 7 hours.

Serve warm with freshly whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream. 

Yankee Magazine also published a last retrospective, "One Last Taste of Durgin-Park."