R.I.P. The Littlest Bar 1945 - 2006

[spatch]

Man, I hate two "they're gone" posts in a row.
I've also had a few in me tonight, but they didn't come from this place.



The Littlest Bar was indeed the littlest bar you ever saw.
Its official capacity was 38, though the sign above the bar read "Legal Capacity 3000."
The pay phone was located in the restroom, whose door didn't shut all the way
because it was mostly blocked by cases of beer.
You couldn't help but talk to people at the bar. Even at my most anti-social, I could
strike up a nice conversation with a stranger over a pint of Guinness.

The Littlest was living on borrowed time.
Its fate has been sealed since mid-2005, but its execution has been stayed several times over.
It served its last pints on Saturday, September 23.
Somebody thinks a big-ass building of luxury condos would better suit this space in Boston.

That somebody is full of shit.

Fuck you, Abbey Group. Fuck you for taking away something special, wonderful and unique
only to put up cookie-cutter "luxury" bullshit in its place.
May your housing bubble burst and take you with it.

EDIT: There is hope; the hand-written note above the door reads "Build it and they will come." The owner of The Littlest may very well be on his way to opening another Littlest on Devonshire Street.

Comments

[nonhuman.livejournal.com]

If only I had known about this place earlier. :(

[invisibelle.livejournal.com]

This post comes on my friends list right after reminders for a city council meeting in my college's town - people are trying to fight developers there, stop them from tearing down the beloved old bars and eateries near campus that have entertained generations and putting up a Walgreen's and Starbucks in their place.

It's miserable to see it happening everywhere. :(
There is something special about bars... I don't even drink much, but I feel a sort of bond with those places where I had drinks with friends during college. Fuck Abbey Group, and fuck United Equities. I am so with you on this.

[pecosy.livejournal.com]

Those pictures make my heart sink. So sad.

[spatch]

I'm glad you visited when you did.

[phonemonkey.livejournal.com]

Every time you post one of these, my eyes fill with tears.

In Prague, we're losing Holesovice market. It's the only proper market downtown, and before long it's going to be gone. For another fucking shopping mall. Prague is full of shopping malls. Most of them empty.

Have a pint at the new Littlest for Jeff and me.

[ron_newman]

This would never have happened if the Commies were still running things.

[antiquated-tory.livejournal.com]

A friend of ours who's well into retail development says that at least in Prague the problem is that the development is driven by investors rather than actual retail people trying to fill up the market. So a bunch of bankers who know squat about retail say 'hey, we think there's room for more retail given the per-capita retail space isn't as high as Dubai yet. Mr Developer, here's 6 million dollars. Build us a mall for 5 and keep the change.' It's not in the developer's interest to point out things like catchement basin studies or shopping habit studies because hey, a million bucks. So down goes something cool and useful and up goes another carbon copy development that's doomed to failure anyway because there already are too many.

[phonemonkey.livejournal.com]

I think Martijn only figured that out very recently though. Remember when the Eden mall went up, and how great he said it was going to be? And it's half-empty now.

Thing is, I don't want to get into all that whole Property Developers Are Eeeeeeeevil stuff because I don't even think they are. But it happens again and again, and it's either bloody luxury flats (which at least actually get bought) or else it's a cookie-cutter mall that nobody goes to because Prazaks only go to malls that are actually plumbed into the Metro system or that are way, way out of town with a huge car park.

Sorry Spatch, this is of no interest to you. But it's symptomatic. All of these things dying.

[ron_newman]

What I don't understand is .... all of the drawings I've seen of the proposed new luxury condos include the Littlest Bar. It looks to me like the bar is in a separate structure from the parking garage that they are demolishing.

[spatch]

Nopers. They may be in separate buildings, but the bar's owner was told when the garage went, the Littlest would go too. Concept art and the reality of it all are two different things.

[phonemonkey.livejournal.com]

Any development, no matter how appalling or pointless it is in real life, looks marvellous in the concept art.

It's like the way that medieval crucifixion paintings are always so neat and tidy, with no blood, and Jesus just looking a bit tired and in need of a cup of tea.

[agent_dani]

Indeed. I've noticed that with the construction at my workplace (a college campus.)

P.S. New reader of this blog. phonemonkey sent me this way and I got hooked.

The Littlest bar

[(Anonymous)]

We are a group of European girls who were AuPairs together in boston in the early nineties.

The Littlest became like a second home to us, a home away from home, and it is really sad to know that it is no longer there.

We all miss good old Paddy and his bar, and really hope it re-opens....if it does, let us know, please :-)

www.piasworld.net