The Boston Seafood Restaurant Julia Child Visited So Often She Had A Plaque On Its Wall

It's funny imagining Julia Child going out to eat; it's like imagining Amelia Earhart flying on Spirit Airlines. We're talking about the woman who brought the art of French cooking to American housewives with her cookbooks and public access television shows, after all. But we suppose cooking every night gets tiring after a while, and Child certainly wasn't above patronizing other practitioners of the culinary arts, whether they be the griddle masters at her beloved In-and-Out or the cooks at her favorite seafood restaurant, the Union Oyster House.

Back in the 1950s and the 1960s, when Child lived in Boston, she would frequent the venerable seafood institution and enjoy a lobster or some oysters. The restaurant has hosted many famous people over its two hundred years in business, ranging from presidents like Franklin Delano Roosevelt (and, naturally, native son of Massachusetts John F. Kennedy) to actors like Paul Newman and Meryl Streep. But Child's patronage was clearly important to the Union Oyster House as the restaurant still has a plaque of Child up on the wall and was even featured in "Julia," an HBO series about the late chef's life.

Union Oyster House was home to plenty of history, even before it was a restaurant at all. The building was previously occupied by several patriot-friendly businesses in the lead-up to the American Revolution, including a dress supply shop that hosted the wives of powerful Bostonians and a newspaper called the "Massachusetts Spy". When a restaurant opened in the building in 1826, it was called the Atwood & Bacon Oyster House, before eventually becoming known by its current name. It is one of oldest, if not the oldest, continually operating restaurants in the nation.

Indeed, if you visit Union Oyster House today, you'll feel like you're a part of history. With its tasteful wooden furnishings and hearty, old-fashioned fare, it's the kind of restaurant that very much feels like the place where a 19th century senator might have eaten. (After all, former statesman Daniel Webster was known to demolish up to six plates of oysters a night.) But it sure doesn't feel overly fusty when you're eating quality seafood, does it? You can enjoy oysters like Webster, sure, fresh from the waters of New England. Or you can tuck into some lump crab cakes or perhaps a creamy bowl of New England clam chowder. (Massachusetts hasn't banned the tomato-based Manhattan clam chowder like Maine once threatened to, but their preference is clear.) One thing's for sure: when you're done, you'll understand why Julia Child kept coming back.