By Sharon Oliver
Contributing Writer
BOSTON – During its first 20 years of existence, Anthony’s Pier 4 restaurant attracted out-of-town celebrities and locals, including politicians and was one of a handful of high-end restaurants, competing with nearby icons like Locke-Ober and the Ritz Carlton. In the 1980s, it was one of the highest-grossing and busiest restaurants in the United States.
Photo/Wikimedia Commons/Dale Cruse
Loyal customers
One of the first things owner Anthony Athanas did after opening the waterfront eatery in 1963 was host a gala dinner for local cab drivers and eventually funded a scholarship for their families. Cabbies so loved the place and felt welcomed to the point where they would often stop by the kitchen to grab a quick bite to eat. In the early days, customers enjoyed a hearty feast and prices like the 95 cent cocktails, broiled swordfish for $3.50, fillet mignon for $6.25 and lobster dishes for under 5 bucks.
Former customers shared on Facebook memories of their experience at Athony’s Pier 4.
Susan Corlies wrote:
“It was wonderful in the 60s, 70s and 80s. All of the Anthony restaurants were, but Pier 4 had that gorgeous location.”
Colleen Swanson added:
“As a kid, I thought the coolest thing about the place was that a lady brought marinated mushrooms around to all of the tables.”
Anthony’s Pier 4 was known for more than its impressive menu and prime location. It was further enhanced by Athanas’ purchase of a 1927 former Hudson River cruise ship, the SS Peter Stuyvesant, where a concrete and steel cradle held it in place adjacent to the 500-seat dining room restaurant. Everyone from Alfred Hitchcock, Kurt Russell, Goldie Hawn, Frank Sinatra to Richard Nixon, and Julia Child, a regular, dined at Anthony’s. Photographs of celebrities proudly graced the entrance walls.
Colorful stories
Some of the wild and colorful stories involving the restaurant are noteworthy by themselves. Screen goddess Elizabeth Taylor and then-husband Richard Burton ate there in 1964. The actor was performing at the Shubert Theatre for “Richard Burton’s Hamlet.” Taylor frequented the restaurant and really liked the chairs. As reported by WCVB, according to son Michael Athanas, his father promised to send her twelve of the most worn-in chairs to her home in Switzerland, per her request.
After later divorcing Burton, Taylor lost the chairs and asked Athanas for another twelve. He obliged. This time she was married to Virginia Senator John Warner. Following their divorce in 1982, Taylor visited the restaurant and told Athanas that they divided ownership of the chairs. The senator took six and she kept six. In one national television interview, Taylor could be seen sitting in one of the chairs. After she died in 2011, people would come to the restaurant just to sit in the chairs.
Norman Jewison’s 1968 heist film “The Thomas Crown Affair” shot a scene there for one of its dinner date scenes between Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway. One headline or at least footnote the historic restaurant could have done without occurred in 1982.
The menacing Winter Hill Gang left their footprint throughout the state including on the parking lot grounds of Anthony’s. In 1982, Whitey Bulger and an associate gunned down Brian Halloran and Michael Donahue (a Dorchester truck driver and innocent bystander) in the restaurant’s parking lot. The murder was recreated at the Porthole in Lynn for the 2015 Bulger biographical crime drama film “Black Mass.”
The flagship restaurant closed in 2013 and was eventually demolished. The SS Peter Stuyvesant, which served as a private bar and dining room with a wine cellar, sank during the Blizzard of 1978. Anthony Athanas, who was named Restauranteur of the Year in 1976 by the National Restaurant Association, passed away at his home in Swampscott in 2005 at the age of 93.
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