Fenway Infill and Small Developments

Fenway residents balk at plan for 300 seats on eatery?s roof
Remy raising bar
By Thomas Grillo
Tuesday, April 13, 2010


Fenway neighbors are crying foul over Jerry Remy?s plans to add rooftop seating to his brand-new restaurant behind Fenway Park [map] - nearly doubling its capacity.

?It feels like bait and switch,? said William Richardson, president of the Fenway Civic Association. ?They never mentioned anything about doubling the size of the restaurant when we supported the idea for the 325-seat restaurant steakhouse last year.?

Three weeks after Jerry Remy?s Sports Bar & Grill opened in the shadow of Fenway Park, Remy wants to add another 300 seats. The eatery, in the former WBCN [website] building on Boylston Street, is co-owned by Remy, the Red Sox [team stats] color analyst for New England Sports Network. The restaurant leases the space from New England Sports Ventures, which owns Fenway Park, the Red Sox and an 80 percent share of NESN. The $5 million restaurant features a $28 Grilled Cowboy Rib Eye and the $9 RemDawg hot dog.

Richardson said the neighborhood will not approve an expansion, because the restaurant?s management has yet to prove they?re good neighbors. ?On the first day they opened, the line was so long that pedestrians were forced into the street,? he said. ?We?re wary about how the management operates the restaurant, and a dramatic expansion like this on the heels of them opening raises lots of questions.?

Managing partner John Mascia insists that the owners did not know about the expansion until very recently. ?An expansion was never in our budget or on our agenda when we first opened,? he said. ?We started to talk about it and met with neighborhood representatives to explain that we would spend money on it and do it tastefully.?

Mascia, who is known for the Bomboa, La Bettola and Galleria Italiana restaurants, said he went to the neighborhood first before filing an application with the city. ?We understand they?re concerned about too many seats,? he said. ?We want to work with the neighbors.?


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300 outdoor seats (on a roof) next to a 38K stadium.... Where is the problem.
 
That's kind of like moving next to Logan and complaining about the noisy planes.

I love when people move next door to a known "menace" (in this case, a stadium with bright lights, a blaring public address system, filled with over 35000 screaming fans), something which existed long before they were born, and then oppose its natural expansion. Adding 300 seats to a restaurant roof so people can dine al fresco before hitting the game is peanuts. Maybe if they had the extra space to accomodate 300 patrons, the crowd wouldn't have lined up out in the streets as this guy complained.

I doubt they'd put expensive high def screens on the roof deck, so the upstairs will likely empty out once the games start at 7:05. What's wrong about that???
 
?On the first day they opened, the line was so long that pedestrians were forced into the street,?

i fail to see how this is the restaurants fault.

This restaurant isn't even that close to residential.

this guy needs to move to Norton.
 
The Cask wanted rooftop seating years ago and that was blocked. I can't see how a rooftop deck will harm the neighborhood. It'll draw more people to the area and they may even spend money at other local businesses.
 
That's a lot of people; don't dismiss people's concerns so casually, consider their points.
 
Whose concerns? The president of the Fenway Civic Association? Exactly whose concerns is he channeling?? Show me the petition from residents and businesses within earshot, and then maybe we can consider their points.
 
Boylston Street is being rebuilt with wider sidewalks in the coming year. Crowding from one restaurant expansion isn't going to be as big of an issue following that.

With so many problems in that neighborhood: a goldmine of non-resident illegal parking the city refuses to ticket and tow, the reeds sleaze and druggies vs. the gardeners battle, litter from all the Sox fans and very few trash barrels or compactors to contain it, missing or heavily damaged pedestrian bridges, the loss of the mounted police, and outdated traffic/street lights/inaccessible curb cuts, one would think the civic association would be picking their battles. Methinks this is another case of 'civic' extortion on the behalf of a very select few.

One wonders what kind of hell the HoJo next door is going to go through in its redevelopment meetings. The stretch deserves better than a Midtown 2.0.
 
I try to hear concerns, but ever since 2002 when I started reading about developments, I've just about allways disagreed w/ the concerns. And in this instance I again disagree. When you include all the clubs and bars right around the park, over 40k people come to fenway for home games. I can't see how an additional 300 going onto a roof near by makes any difference to the residents who choose to live near there.
 
On game days the 300 people on the roof will have no added impact, but perhaps the civic association is concerned about noise from them on non-game days? Just guessing here ...
 
Ron Newman said:
On game days the 300 people on the roof will have no added impact, but perhaps the civic association is concerned about noise from them on non-game days? Just guessing here ...
Click to expand...

Theres already a bar across the street with rooftop dining. Not for 300 people, no, but I havent heard any complaints about that. (I think its called the baseball tavern)

Remys doesnt have ANY residential neighbors. The closest resident lives across the street, behind the above mentioned bar.
 
Heaven forbid a new local business be a success. Lines out the door, expanded seating areas... how awful!
 
I can't see the noise from the roof deck exceeding the noise of Boylston St. traffic. And how many days are we talking about here? The baseball season is six months long. The other six months do not offer suitable climate conditions for al fresco dining. During the six months, roughly 94 days do not have a scheduled game. Some of those days will be rainy, some will be week nights, etc. I suspect there are really only 20 days or so each year when you might see 300 people up there without a home game. Again, won't the street noises exceed the crowd noise anyway?
 
I'm not opposed to this, in principle. Except for the utter bullshit that John Mascia is peddling. An "expansion was never in [the] budget or on [the] agenda"? Riiiiiiight........
 
How can a kitchen designed for 325 customers handle an additional 300? I would bet it was designed for 625 customers.
 
Perhaps the deck will only serve light fare and drinks? Or they may be trying to build an al fresco kitchen or grill to cook for the added customers.
 
kennedy said:
Perhaps the deck will only serve light fare and drinks? Or they may be trying to build an al fresco kitchen or grill to cook for the added customers.
Click to expand...

No way it wasn't engineered (structure, layout, MEP) for future development of the roof. They knew they were height-limited. This is the only way they could expand. It's surprising how quick they decided to announce though.
 
PaulC said:
How can a kitchen designed for 325 customers handle an additional 300? I would bet it was designed for 625 customers.
Click to expand...

Have you eaten at Remmy's yet? Everything if fried in oil, they will simply double the number of cookers.
 
Last week's Courant had an article on the Fenway "Restaurant Row" rebuilding project on Peterborough Street. According to the article, the owner of the property is proposing adding 5 floors of housing above the restaurants. His previous proposal had a boutique hotel going above them instead.

If I still had the paper I would have scanned it in and posted it, but it got thrown out.
 
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