| Anthony's Pier 4 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Restaurant information | |
| Established | 1963 |
| Closed | 2013 |
| Previous owner(s) | Anthony Athanas |
| City | Boston |
| State | Massachusetts |
| Country | U.S. |
| Coordinates | 42°21′04″N71°02′38″W / 42.351°N 71.044°W |
Anthony's Pier 4 was a restaurant on the South Boston waterfront opened in 1963 by restaurateur Anthony Athanas. In the 1980s, it was one of the highest-grossing restaurants in the United States. It closed in 2013, and the site was scheduled for redevelopment.
Restaurateur Anthony Athanas opened Anthony's Pier 4 in 1963 and lived in an apartment above it. It served traditional American food emphasizing locally caught seafood; the dining room, with seating for 500, overlooked Boston Harbor on three sides. [1] [2] In 1968, Athanas bought a 1927 former Hudson River cruise ship, the SS Peter Stuyvesant, and brought it from New York to Boston, where a specially built concrete and steel cradle held it in place adjacent to the restaurant; it served as a private bar and dining room and held a wine cellar as well as art works and mementoes collected by Athanas. The ship broke free, turned turtle, and sank during the Blizzard of February 1978; after unsuccessful efforts to salvage it, in 1979, all but the hull was removed. [3] [4]
The restaurant shot to prominence when Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton ate there in 1964 while Richard Burton's Hamlet was at the Shubert Theatre. [2] It was a prominent restaurant throughout its first two decades, attracting both out-of-town celebrities and Boston politicians. [1] [5] By the early 1980s, it was grossing about $12 million annually, making it one of the five highest-grossing restaurants in the United States. [1] [5] [6]
Athanas died in 2005; [1] [7] the restaurant closed in 2013. [2] [5] A condominium tower was erected on the site of the parking lot, [5] and in 2016–17, the restaurant building was demolished, and the remains of the Stuyvesant were dredged up for scrap in early 2017. [3] A multi-use complex on the site, including offices and condominiums, opened in 2018. [8] [9]
In 1982, Brian Halloran and Michael Donahue were murdered in the restaurant's parking lot by Whitey Bulger and another associate of the Winter Hill Gang. [10] In 2014, Anthony's Pier 4 having closed, this murder was recreated at the Porthole in Lynn, Massachusetts for the 2015 film Black Mass . [11]
Norman Jewison's The Thomas Crown Affair 1968 film was shot here for one of its dinner date scenes between Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway. [12]
James Joseph "Whitey" Bulger Jr. was an American organized crime boss who led the Winter Hill Gang, an Irish Mob group in the Winter Hill neighborhood of Somerville, Massachusetts, a city directly northwest of Boston. On December 23, 1994, Bulger fled the Boston area and went into hiding after his former FBI handler, John Connolly, tipped him off about a pending RICO indictment against him. Bulger remained at large for sixteen years. After his 2011 arrest, federal prosecutors tried Bulger for nineteen murders based on grand jury testimony from Kevin Weeks and other former criminal associates.
Wolfgang Johannes Puck is an Austrian chef and restaurateur.
Landry's, Inc., is an American, privately owned, multi-brand dining, hospitality, entertainment, and gaming corporation headquartered in Houston, Texas. Landry's, Inc., owns and operates more than 600 restaurants, hotels, casinos, and entertainment destinations in 35 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. The company also owns and operates numerous international locations. The company is owned by President & CEO Tilman Fertitta.
Legal Sea Foods is an American restaurant chain of casual-dining seafood restaurants primarily located in the Northeastern United States.
Tiffani Faison is an American celebrity chef and restaurateur. She is based in Boston, has served as a judge on Food Network's television series Chopped, and is a four-time James Beard Award Finalist for Best Chef: Northeast. She was the winner of Season 3 of Tournament of Champions and was named Boston's Best Chef by Boston Magazine in 2022. She was one of two finalists on the first season of Bravo's reality show Top Chef, where she finished second to Harold Dieterle.
Durgin-Park was a centuries-old restaurant at 340 Faneuil Hall Marketplace in downtown Boston. The Greater Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau stated that it had been a "landmark since 1827", and it was a popular tourist destination within Quincy Market. The restaurant had entrances on both facades.
Locke-Ober was a longstanding fine dining restaurant in Boston that operated between circa 1875 and 2012. Claimed to be the city’s fourth-oldest restaurant, it featured classical French cuisine and seafood.
Le Bernardin is a three-Michelin star French seafood restaurant in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Eric Ripert is the executive chef, and he is co-owner along with Maguy Le Coze.
Tilman Joseph Fertitta is an American billionaire businessman and television personality. He is the chairman, CEO, and owner of Landry's, Inc. He also owns the National Basketball Association (NBA)'s Houston Rockets. Fertitta is chairman of the board of regents of the University of Houston System.
Anthony Athanas was a multi-millionaire Albanian American restaurateur and philanthropist. His restaurants included Anthony's Pier 4, known throughout United States. In 1976 the National Restaurant Association named him Restaurateur of the Year.
Bobby Chinn is an American international chef, television presenter, restaurateur and cookbook author. He is a culinary celebrity across Asia and the Middle East, thanks to his role as host of Discovery TLC's World Cafe, and as a judge on MBC's Top Chef Middle East. He opened two award-winning restaurants in Vietnam – Restaurant Bobby Chinn in Hanoi (2001) and Bobby Chinn Saigon in Ho Chi Minh (2011), then relocated to London in 2014 and opened the House of Ho Vietnamese restaurant.
Black Mass is a 2015 American biographical crime drama film about American mobster Whitey Bulger. Directed by Scott Cooper and written by Mark Mallouk and Jez Butterworth, it is based on Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill's 2001 book Black Mass: The True Story of an Unholy Alliance Between the FBI and the Irish Mob. The film features an ensemble cast led by Johnny Depp as Bulger, alongside Joel Edgerton, Benedict Cumberbatch, Kevin Bacon, Jesse Plemons, Peter Sarsgaard, Dakota Johnson, and Corey Stoll.
Lydia Shire is an American Boston-based chef and restaurateur.
The Hilltop Steak House was an American restaurant located on Route 1 in Saugus, Massachusetts. Founded in 1961 by Frank Giuffrida, it was one of the busiest restaurants in the United States during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. The Hilltop closed in 2013.
Forbes Island is a floating island and event space near Bradford Island, California, United States. It was formerly a restaurant, located between Pier 39 and Pier 41 in Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco. It was the only "floating island" restaurant in the Bay Area. The restaurant was inspired by Captain Nemo's marine dwelling. The restaurant closed in 2017, and the floating platform was moved to the Holland Riverside Marina in Brentwood, California.
Calumet Fisheries is a seafood restaurant in the South Deering neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, United States, directly next to the 95th Street bridge. It was originally established in 1928, and subsequently purchased in 1948 by Sid Kotlick and Len Toll. It serves smoked and fried fish, shrimp, and clams. The restaurant is often featured on TV shows and web series', such as Eater's Dining on a Dime and Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations. The building is a one-room shack with a counter and no seating. Patrons can take their food to go, or sit in their parked cars along 95th Street to eat.
Chris Coombs is an American chef and restaurateur who specializes in French-American cuisine. He is the co-owner of Boston Urban Hospitality, a restaurant group based in Boston, Massachusetts.
The Village Cafe was a 550-seat family-owned Italian restaurant in Portland, Maine, United States. It was in business, at 112 Newbury Street, for 71 years (1936–2007) and was one of the few restaurants in the Old Port during the restaurant's existence. It stood across Hancock Street from the Shipyard Brewing Company, in a space now occupied by condominiums—The Village at Ocean Gate—which maintain The Village's name. The restaurant closed at 11:30 PM on weekdays and 12:30 AM on weekends.
Jimmy's Harborside Restaurant was a Boston seafood restaurant on the Boston Fish Pier opened by Jimmy Doulos in 1924. The restaurant closed in 2005 and the building was demolished in 2007. For restaurants in the neighborhood, Jimmy’s was a favorite for Julia Child.