(NECN: Greg Wayland) – It's as if an old candle has burned out in Boston's deep core, seeing those old windows dark, with sad regrets posted on the door.
Nestled since 1875 down a brick alley, Locke-Ober was the child of 19th-century French Resteraunteur Luis Ober.
Late Monday, current owner David Ray confirmed to The Boston Globe that he had sold the building he has owned it since 1978.
"I had a choice," Ray told the newspaper. "Make Locke-Ober more casual, lower our standards to conform with the way society is today, or I could close it … with its history and its dignity intact."
In a world of the slick and trendy venues and light cuisine, Locke-Ober was old world and elegant, serving stew, steak and lobster.
Pols and plutocrats had once been regulars.
John F. Kennedy had a table here and a chowder named for him on the menu.
Local
E. B. Horn Jewelers around the corner enjoys the same rare longevity; its carved wooden interior was done by the same company.
Michael Finn is one of the owners.
"My father bought this business in 1946 and he ate lunch in Locke-Ober's every day for 50 years,” Finn said. “He had his own table. They'd save it for him."
The new owners will reportedly put housing upstairs and perhaps a restaurant downstairs -- probably a far cry from what was Locke-Ober.
"It's one of those places you go, you dress up, you kind of felt important for a little while," said Joe Glaze, who dined there – once. "Very expensive," he said, laughing.
In fact, a lot of people dined at Locke-Ober once.
"For me, it was 1968 with my girlfriend and her father,” Glaze said. “He paid. I got a great duck l'orange -- and there, sadly, that story ends.”
And Locke-Ober's bittersweet story ends with the sign on the door, which -- at the very end -- says, "May the many warm memories we have shared within, live on!"
