2nd Jerry Remy's set for Seaport; Cheers at Fanieul Hall up for sale

Second Jerry Remy’s set for waterfront
Also, last call near for Sam’s Cafe
By Donna Goodison / Turning the Tables | Friday, May 28, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Business & Markets

A second Hub location for Jerry Remy’s Sports Bar & Grill is in the works for the Seaport District.

The NESN Red Sox [team stats] color analyst and former Sox second baseman’s company has a handshake deal with the Cronin Group to open a 200-seat Remy’s 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 Remy’s 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 Remy’s, reignited that $5 million project after a planned opening for the 2009 Red Sox season was stalled due to a lack of financing.

“We’re going to do two restaurants down on the old Jimmy’s Harborside site: One is going to be a Remy’s and the other is going to be upscale Mexican,” Cronin said. “With 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.”

The RemDawg’s business partner, LTS Sports president John O’Rourke, confirmed the plans.

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

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.

He’ll spend $5 million to build out Remy’s and the 200-seat Mexican restaurant. James Beard Award-winner Todd Hall, who had been culinary director for the first Remy’s, 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 that’s since been revamped.

Both restaurants will be on the first floor of Liberty Wharf’s 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 Group’s ZED451 steakhouse at Liberty Wharf, a project by Boston’s Cresset Development.

“With the addition of Remy’s next to Legal Sea Foods’ newest restaurant, the Seaport District is really going to take off next summer,” said Vivien Li, executive director of the Boston Harbor Association. “We now have Louis on the waterfront . . . and there’s discussion of a future extension of the convention center. It really provides tourists a destination on this part of the waterfront.”
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# Sam’s 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 “Cheers” TV sitcom - up for sale 1 years before his lease expires.

The 175-seat Sam’s Cafe and its 70-seat patio are on the northwest corner of the Quincy Market Building, opposite Kershaw’s “replica” Cheers bar, which will remain open.

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

Sam’s lacked an identity, said Kershaw, who originally opened it as TK’s Jazz Cafe in 2002 before changing the concept a year later.

“I can describe the Cheers side very well,” he said. “(Sam’s) just never had a personality of its own.”
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1257846