Anthony's Pier 4

[glauer]

My mother is visiting right now and we were going to the ICA. Everytime I take in the view over the water I also see Anthony's Pier 4 and wonder how it is. Last meal there was in 1982, first visit to Boston with my parents and that time it was one of the few culinary highlights of the city, and I was mightily impressed.

So lunch seemed a great opportunity to check out whether it might be worth going for a full dinner some time soon. And now I don't really know what to say.

I really want to like this place, and I must say I enjoyed our visit mainly for all the weirdness of the place. It feels like being in a time machine right back to the culinary and style desert this country was not so long ago (and Anthony's Pier 4 considered an oasis in that desert.....). I dont think they have changed the interior a bit over the years, everything looks like an english sailing club, but on a closer look is pretty cheaply made. The view is great, if you manage to ignore the incredibly tacky and run down pieces of fake grass carpet laid out on the vast deck outside. The waiters seem also unchanged in many years, judging by their looks and style of service, and I like it that way. Somebody should tell them, however, that they look better if they wash their clothes on occasion, I cannot remember having seen waiters anywhere with so many stains on their jackets. The crowd was almost exclusively granddads and -mums taking the family out to where they have been going for the last 80 years (I am not sure how many people were there voluntarily).

How was the food? We tried the Clam Chowder and an open Tuna sandwich on Brioche. Chowder tasted nicely like very fresh clams and was not too thick. I would prefer it even lighter and maybe a bit more interestingly spiced, but there was nothing wrong with it. Tuna was also OK, but a bit too much vinaigrette with lots of cheap balsamic vinegar poured over it. It was also not very nicely plated, pretty messy.

I also studied the famous winelist and it was impressive indeed with some deals mixed in (especially if the wines have been well stored).

Despite my negative comments I think this place has great potential. They should dust it off a bit and renovate some of the most appalling things (the green carpet outside and the super cheap ceiling come to mind first) and they should modernize the food just slightly and work on execution and presentation. I would enjoy it very much as an oldfashioned place full of memories, but they need to play that at a much higher level. With the new museum, the hotels and the conference center there should be a huge opportunity to revive this old classic.

Edited April 7, 2007 by glauer (log)

[Chris Amirault]

Thanks for the report, glauer. I also haven't been in ages and ages. What were the prices like?

[glauer]

Prices were not cheap, especially dinner menu. The tuna sandwich was 14 I think, and the chowder 5 or 6. Dinner entrees were well in the twenties and even thirties, an dthe lobster dishes had a 10 dollar "high lobster prices" surcharge.

That is why I might not go back: For less money I can go to B&G etc and eat on a very different level. The (outdated)style of food they are serving would need to be perfectly executed and the place in better shape, then I would go on occasion.

[Moopheus]

They used to have an old Mississippi riverboat tied up in a drydock next to the restaurant. I had my bar mitzvah on that boat. Chicken cordon bleu was served. Not very long after that the boat was destroyed in the Blizzard of '78. The vengence of god, I guess.

I haven't eaten there since.

[Davydd]

I was there in 1968. It's been a while.

[glauer]

oha, seems like I was not only the last one to visit this establishment but also the second to last.....with my visit in 1982.

[Peter B Wolf]

Had Dinner there in 1966, met Anthony Athenas, proprietor, also had a complete tour of the Back of the House.

( Actually my boss, Rupprecht R. Scherff of ' The Student Prince " in Springfield MA had invited me. Never forget the day, Ruppert's (as he was called) youngest son Peter, I think was just four years old, but demanded Lobster, and ate it !!)