My friend Jorge posted this photo and I thought 'pink elephant'.
Only one place had one and it was in Brighton, Mass.
In college I drank in a Commonwealth Avenue establishment with a mural of a naked woman riding a pink elephant over the bar. THe El Phoenix Room offered draft 'ganseets at 25 cents and drinks for $1. You could play three pinball games for a quart and got the same amount of songs from jukebox for two-bits. The regulars were Irish trolley drivers and the girls attended BU.
The Irish owners ran a Mexican restaurant up the short step of stairs. The cook was a one-armed woman from Monterrey. I tasted my first tacos and enchiladas there. Rosa served the spiciest food in Boston for years.
It closed years ago.
There is no trace of the El Phoenix Room online.
Ah, the memories.
The owners also had a bar underneath the Forest Hills train station.
Concannon and Sennetts'
Neither dive is there anymore.
Ah, the memories.
This was my parents' place. :) Thanks for your kind words. You wouldn't happen to have any old photos of it, would you?
ReplyDelete(Also, strangely enough, you wrote this blog on my parents' anniversary, although my Dad passed away in 2000. What a coincidence.)
ReplyDeletemeredith, sadly I don't have any photos. cameras were an extravagance in the early 70s. I loved the el Phoenix restaurant and the bar. My friends and I had lots of good times there. I'll ask around to find a photo. Like so many great places Concannon and Sennett's exist a a pleasant beery memory for many of us.
ReplyDeleteIt was relatively peaceful although there were two brothers that duked it out regularly and no one ever came between them, since they'd gang up on anyone trying to stop their fight.
A good fun place.
A few years late to the party... Just to say... (I googled my old memory) I too, have warm memories. 1971, freshman at Berklee and living on Comm Ave. a couple of blocks away (just downstairs from some silly local rock & roll band named Aerosmith). It was my first chili, and the beer, and the jukebox, and the chips... 6 years later I moved to LA, Mexican food everywhere,... Thanks for being a proof that I wasn't just imagining it.
ReplyDelete...and a further 16 months later to the party, but just to let you, Meredith and Peter know that I have a couple of photos of the exterior of Sennetts and the El Phoenix Room at 1430 Commonwealth Ave (on the corner of Kelton St)from the early 90's which I'd be happy to share with you.
ReplyDeleteI would love to find out more information about this place as it was my first favorite place when I moved to Boston in 83. I still crave the salsa and chips. I can't seem to find anything like it today. Hands down best chili in Boston.
ReplyDeleteemail the photos to pascharay@hotmail.com
ReplyDeletethank you
I DO have a photo or 2 or 3 from Concannons! This would have been my hangout around 1975-77. I lived just a few doors up Comm Ave in a 3rd floor Brownstone. Right on the Green Line. Bartenders then were Timmy, the owner/son-in-law of the place. George from Southie, what a lovely good friend to all. Arthur who would help open the place at 8 am every day and sometimes take a break to drive me to my job at Harvard Business School after my morning coffee. We partied with the guys from "The Wilton Hilton" including Billy, Butch,Buster and his girlfriend, Jeri and their dog who once ingested a lid of grass and passed out for days, Harry, Wally. I was there with Murray, Peter, Michael "the Pasquale", Murph. Irish Mike, Freddy, Obie (RIP) "Flash" Gordon Faber. Back when pinball machines were "real".
ReplyDeleteIn July 1966 there was a melee at a bar right in this area, the 1400 block of Comm Ave. A man named Joe McDonald got into it with two patrons and pulled out a gun. Cops came on the scene and chased him down Allston and through an alley to Spofford and back to the avenue. There was shooting. My question -was there another night spot nearby? I'm trying to narrow it down to Concannans and would appreciate any help... and photographs. Scalinatella@hotmail.com
ReplyDeleteI proposed to my wife in the Phoenix room in 78. Audrey was the waitress, long timer. We had plates 4 and 5. we hung out at Concannon's Bar we used to callit, in 72 and after. Get a nice drink there during the day
ReplyDeleteMy grandfather, lifetime Bay Stater staring in 1902, always loved the irony of the best Mexican restaurant in town being owned by and Irishman and a German. Glad I found this.
ReplyDeleteMy grandfather, a lifetime Bay Stater (b. 1902), always loved the irony of the best Mexican restaurant in town being owned by an Irishman and a German. I’m glad I found this.
ReplyDeleteI played softball and football for Concannon and Sennett's from about '73 to '78! Spent A LOT of time in that place!
ReplyDeleteI hung there 1970 to 1974. 25 cent drafts, pinball, BU coeds, Mexican food and a painting of a naked woman riding a pink elephant over the bar. Paradise.
ReplyDelete