The Oldest Restaurant In Boston Was A Favorite Spot For This Popular President

Boston is one of America's oldest cities, packed with significant sites and historic landmarks. One of them is the Union Oyster House, founded back in 1826 and famous as not only the city's oldest eatery but the oldest continuously operating restaurant in the U.S. Part of its long history includes being one of the restaurants where former presidents loved to eat, as it was a favorite lunch retreat for President John F. Kennedy.

In his pre-presidency days serving as a U.S. congressman and senator from Massachusetts, Kennedy went to the Union Street restaurant almost every Sunday when he was home. He would go for lunch, sit at the same corner booth in the more private second-floor dining room, and tuck into lobster stew while reading newspapers. The Union Oyster House dedicated booth Number 18 to the beloved president in 1977 with an engraved plaque of him in profile, a small American flag, and a sign saying it was his favorite booth. A white rose is placed on the table each year on the November 22nd anniversary of his assassination, and nobody is seated there that day. After his death, other Kennedy family members would sit in the booth when they went to the restaurant, including his brothers Senators Robert and Edward Kennedy.

While JFK was a regular, other presidents have also visited including Calvin Coolidge, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama. Another famous U.S. statesman, 19th-century secretary of state, senator, and congressman Daniel Webster, came almost every day for oysters downed with brandy and water.

The pre-Revolutionary War building in which the Union Oyster House opened in 1826 had already existed for more than a century and was built in the early 1700s. It was originally a clothing and dry goods store and, because this is Boston, a pro-patriot newspaper called "The Massachusetts Spy" was published before the Revolutionary War on the upper floor. It remains the oldest brick building in Boston's Georgian architecture style.

The restaurant was first named Atwood's Oyster House, a smart business move for a time when eating oysters was very popular in the U.S. It later became Atwood & Hawes, and then Atwood & Bacon, reflecting the names of its owners, before becoming Union Oyster House in 1916. A half-circle wooden oyster bar is a hallmark of the nearly 200-year-old restaurant. The bar that's still in use today has been there since the beginning, and a plaque marks its 1826 origins. The Union Oyster House was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2003.

The menu is unsurprisingly heavy on seafood. There are oysters of course, which can be ordered fried or on the half-shell (raw oysters are alive but just barely). Lobster choices include a lobster roll, a New England icon that's one of several traditional regional dishes. Among them is a clam chowder the restaurant has served since the 1830s, Broiled Boston Scrod, Boston Baked Beans, and Boston Cream Pie, one of the state's most legendary desserts.