It’s the end of an era, well, several eras: The Boston Licensing Board today gave permission to the owner of the Dugout, 722 Commonwealth Ave., to sell his liquor license to Earl’s Kitchen and Bar, a chain of upscale restaurants looking to supplement its existing Prudential Center and Assembly Row locations with one on Seaport Boulevard - complete with something the Dugout never had: an outdoor patio.
From its basement location, the Dugout has been serving thirsty Sox - and once, Boston Braves - players, politicians and, eventually, BU students, since January, 1934, when legendary local bootlegger Jimmy O’Keefe was awarded one of the first liquor licenses Boston doled out following the end of Prohibition the month before.
O’Keefe, who lived above the bar and who died in 1987, had a co…
It’s the end of an era, well, several eras: The Boston Licensing Board today gave permission to the owner of the Dugout, 722 Commonwealth Ave., to sell his liquor license to Earl’s Kitchen and Bar, a chain of upscale restaurants looking to supplement its existing Prudential Center and Assembly Row locations with one on Seaport Boulevard - complete with something the Dugout never had: an outdoor patio.
From its basement location, the Dugout has been serving thirsty Sox - and once, Boston Braves - players, politicians and, eventually, BU students, since January, 1934, when legendary local bootlegger Jimmy O’Keefe was awarded one of the first liquor licenses Boston doled out following the end of Prohibition the month before.
O’Keefe, who lived above the bar and who died in 1987, had a colorful life that included punching out Gov. Maurice Tobin, whom he’d helped get elected mayor and then governor, for refusing to help a friend get a job. In 1961, Boston Police tried charging him with using a payphone in the bar to run numbers. And according to a Globe account, while the rest of the state shut down during and after the Blizzard of ’78, the Dugout stayed open - aided by an emergency beer shipment transported in a Boston Edison truck, one of the few vehicles allowed on the road after the infamous storm.
But O’Keefe, who eventually sold the bar to William Crowley, was also known for kindness to friends, beat cops and Kenmore Square denizens and for his loyal clientele, such as James O’Leary, whose 2004 obituary noted that "he found his friends at the Dugout Cafe and at O’Leary’s, both located near his home on St. Mary’s St. in Boston."
In 1946, after moving its campus to its current location along Commonwealth Avenue from Beacon Hill and the Back Bay, BU tried to shut the Dugout down, thundering to the Boston Licensing Board that the bar "was not conducive" to academic work and demanding its liquor license be revoked, according to a Globe report at the time. The board said the Dugout had a good record and rejected the school’s demand.
The two eventually made peace. After escaping the Garden following their Beanpot match against BC during the 1978 blizzard, the hockey coach had the team bus pull up in front of Marsh Chapel to offer up a prayer. Players instead crossed Comm. Ave. to congregate at the Dugout.