Jerry Remy's Grill Coming to Seaport

Second Jerry Remy¹s set for waterfront
Also, last call near for Sam¹s Cafe

By Donna Goodison / Turning the Tables | Friday, May 28, 2010 |
http://www.bostonherald.com | Business & Markets

Photo by Christopher Evans
A second Hub location for Jerry Remy¹s Sports Bar & Grill is in the works
for the Seaport District.

The NESN Red Sox [team stats] color analyst and former Sox second baseman¹s
company has a handshake deal with the Cronin Group to open a 200-seat Remy¹s
at Liberty Wharf, the $43 million waterfront development in South Boston.

The 5,000-square-foot sports bar and restaurant will be patterned after the
larger Remy¹s that opened in March on Boylston Street, in the shadow of
Fenway Park [map], with Sox memorabilia, huge high-def TVs and upscale
comfort food.

Jon Cronin, the largest investor in the original Remy¹s, reignited that $5
million project after a planned opening for the 2009 Red Sox season was
stalled due to a lack of financing.

³We¹re going to do two restaurants down on the old Jimmy¹s Harborside site:
One is going to be a Remy¹s and the other is going to be upscale Mexican,²
Cronin said. ³With the (Boston Convention & Exhibition Center) and people
coming into town - and the Red Sox obviously being a national team - I think
that personality and concept will be a good fit.²

The RemDawg¹s business partner, LTS Sports president John O¹Rourke,
confirmed the plans.

³We have a very good relationship with Jon Cronin, and we would give him the
opportunity of franchising the brand,² O¹Rourke said. ³Jerry would be
involved heavily in that, and we may or may not have an ownership piece of
that as well.²

Cronin also owns Atlantic Beer Garden and the recently opened Whiskey Priest
just down the street on the waterfront, among other properties in Boston,
Pittsburgh and Ireland.

He¹ll spend $5 million to build out Remy¹s and the 200-seat Mexican
restaurant. James Beard Award-winner Todd Hall, who had been culinary
director for the first Remy¹s, will be the executive chef of the
as-yet-unnamed Mexican eatery. Hall was the opening chef for La Hacienda at
the Fairmont Scottsdale hotel in Arizona, a four-star Mobil restaurant
that¹s since been revamped.

Both restaurants will be on the first floor of Liberty Wharf¹s west building
and will split 140 waterfront patio seats. December openings are planned.

The two restaurants will join a three-story, 20,000-square-foot Legal Sea
Foods restaurant and California-based Tavistock Group¹s ZED451 steakhouse at
Liberty Wharf, a project by Boston¹s Cresset Development.

³With the addition of Remy¹s next to Legal Sea Foods¹ newest restaurant, the
Seaport District is really going to take off next summer,² said Vivien Li,
executive director of the Boston Harbor Association. ³We now have Louis on
the waterfront . . . and there¹s discussion of a future extension of the
convention center. It really provides tourists a destination on this part of
the waterfront.²

Sam¹s Cafe at Cheers is on its swan song after seven years at Faneuil Hall
Marketplace.
Owner Thomas Kershaw has put the restaurant and bar space - named after Sam
Malone, the beloved bartender and former Sox relief pitcher in the ³Cheers²
TV sitcom - up for sale 1 years before his lease expires.

The 175-seat Sam¹s Cafe and its 70-seat patio are on the northwest corner of
the Quincy Market Building, opposite Kershaw¹s ³replica² Cheers bar, which
will remain open.

³Cheers is better than Sam¹s - it always has been,² said Kershaw, who also
owns the original Cheers on Beacon Hill, the former Bull & Finch Pub that
was the inspiration for the TV series. ³We feel that Sam¹s is cutting into
the potential for Cheers.²

Sam¹s lacked an identity, said Kershaw, who originally opened it as TK¹s
Jazz Cafe in 2002 before changing the concept a year later.

³I can describe the Cheers side very well,² he said. ³(Sam¹s) just never had
a personality of its own.²