Doyle's Cafe was a pub located on Washington Street in the
Jamaica Plain
Jamaica Plain is a neighborhood of in the City of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Settled by Puritans seeking farmland to the south, it was originally part of the former Town of Roxbury, now also a part of the City of Boston. The commun ...
neighborhood of
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
,
, United States. Doyle's Cafe was established in 1882 and is located near the
Samuel Adams
Samuel Adams ( – October 2, 1803) was an American statesman, political philosopher, and a Founding Father of the United States. He was a politician in colonial Massachusetts, a leader of the movement that became the American Revolution, and ...
brewery. Its close proximity to the brewery afforded Doyle's the unique opportunity to serve new or experimental Samuel Adams beers.
It is also where Samuel Adams Boston Lager was first put on tap. Throughout its history, Doyle's was known as a favorite watering hole for both local and national politicians. On
St. Patrick's Day in 1988, Senator
Ted Kennedy
Edward Moore Kennedy (February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Massachusetts for almost 47 years, from 1962 until his death in 2009. A member of the Democratic ...
helped dedicate a new room at the location to his maternal grandfather,
John F. Fitzgerald
John Francis "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald (February 11, 1863 – October 2, 1950) was an American Democratic politician from Boston, Massachusetts. He served as a U.S. Representative and Mayor of Boston. He also made unsuccessful runs for the United ...
.
Boston musician
Rick Berlin
Rick Berlin (born Richard Gustave Kinscherf III, in Sioux City, Iowa in 1945) is a Boston-based singer-songwriter, formerly the frontman of Orchestra Luna, Luna, Berlin Airlift, Rick Berlin: The Movie, and The Shelley Winters Project.
Life an ...
was a long-time employee at Doyle's Cafe.
Given its historic look, atmosphere and popularity in the
LGBTQ
' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity.
The LGBT term is a ...
community the Irish pub has been used in several Hollywood movies and television series. Shots of the exterior of the building were used in the television series ''
Boston Public
''Boston Public'' is an American drama television series created by David E. Kelley and broadcast on Fox. Set in Boston, the series centers on Winslow High School, a fictional public high school in the Boston Public Schools district. It features ...
''.
The pub also appeared in films such as ''
21'', ''
Patriots Day'', ''
Celtic Pride
''Celtic Pride'' is a 1996 American sports comedy film written by Judd Apatow and Colin Quinn, and directed by Tom DeCerchio. It stars Daniel Stern and Dan Aykroyd as Mike O'Hara and Jimmy Flaherty, two passionate Boston Celtics fans, and Damon W ...
'', ''
Mystic River
The Mystic River is a riverU.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 in Massachusetts, in the United States. In Massachusett, means "large estuary," alluding to t ...
'', and ''
The Brink's Job
''The Brink's Job'' is a 1978 American crime comedy drama film directed by William Friedkin and starring Peter Falk, Peter Boyle, Allen Garfield, Warren Oates, Gena Rowlands, and Paul Sorvino. It is based on the Brink's robbery of 1950 in Bos ...
''.
A local bartender who appeared in the film eventually moved to California to pursue acting.
Doyle's permanently closed at midnight on October 26, 2019. However, in October 2021, a development project to revive Doyle's was approved.
References
External links
Official website
Restaurants in Boston
Restaurants established in 1882
Defunct restaurants in Boston
Former pubs
1882 establishments in Massachusetts
2019 disestablishments in Massachusetts
Jamaica Plain, Boston
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