That empty feeling
Without hockey, the TVs are on but nobody's at North Station sports bars
Frannie Manganiello is part owner of the Fours, the North Station pub chosen this month by Sports Illustrated as the best sports bar in America, and she was at her computer Tuesday when she found some good news -- a blurb that said there'd been a break in negotiations, that the National Hockey League would end its 154-day lockout and resume play.
"It lifted my hopes," she said, "and I called some friends. But then the commissioner announced they were canceling the season, and it was like that old line from 'The Godfather' when Michael Corleone says, 'I got out and they keep pulling me back in.' "
The Fours, the Harp, Boston Beer Works, the Penalty Box, the Sports Grille, the Grand Canal, Halftime Pizza, and other sports bars around North Station have paid a painful price for the labor war that culminated this week in cancellation of the NHL season.
On Thursday, a night the Bruins often play, North Station was a ghost town. Along Canal Street a winter wind swirled newspapers in and out of empty parking lots, and inside the colorfully lighted sports bars there was a depressing absence of the sights and sounds of fans waiting for tables, ordering one more round, and checking the clock to make sure they had time to cross Causeway Street in time for face-off.
Instead, an eerie quiet prevailed, and under walls lined with sports memorabilia, some bartenders read the newspaper, a few dusted glass mugs, and others polished the long stretches of bar already gleaming enough to reflect the flickering images from banks of overhead TVs tuned to NESN.
At the Fours, described by Sports Illustrated as the white-hot center of the sports universe, what's it like on a night the Bruins play?
"Well, the Bruins represent 60 percent of our business," says Manganiello. "On Thursday night, when more than likely there'd be a Bruins game, we'd have eight guys in the kitchen, eight waitresses, and five bartenders. What do we have tonight? Two in the kitchen, one bartender, one waitress.
"If the Bruins were playing, the place would be packed, and there'd be a line of people waiting for tables. We'd have 600 or so people, but tonight, outside of a party we have, if we get 50, 60 people, we'll be lucky. How much will we lose this season? Easily -- and this is no exaggeration -- a half a million dollars."
Bartenders, waiters, and waitresses also pay a price, for Bruins fans are judged to be better drinkers, bigger spenders, and more generous tippers than Celtics fans. One bartender, whose background was such that he thought it prudent to remain anonymous, said that every game the Bruins miss would reduce his nightly income from $300 to $50.
The bad news is everywhere.
At the Sports Grille -- "400 feet from the Fleet" -- tables and booths that can accommodate more than 125 people were empty, and at a bar that seats 25, only three people sat under kaleidoscopic colors emanating from 146 television sets -- that's 48 TVs per person.
"What impact has it had on us?" says Nicholas LaRosa, co-owner of Osteria Rustico, a small Italian restaurant on Canal Street. "We do good business at lunch, but without the Bruins we don't even open for dinner. There's no greater impact than that, right? We have six tables, and if the Bruins play, we serve maybe 25 dinners. Where it hurts most is that the income from those dinners is pocket money for the owners. That's what we use to pay ourselves."
Down the street, Dunkin' Donuts was lighted but empty, and at Halftime Pizza, one man sat at a table watching television, another sprinkled oregano on a slice of cheese pizza, and manager Bachir Hariri was getting ready to close for the night.
It was 7 o'clock.
"It's really bad," he said. "If the Bruins were playing, we'd sell 150 to 200 pizzas and 70 beers. I'm about to close, and since 3 o'clock we sold only 15 pizzas and two beers.
"It's sad," he said, "because the owners and players, it doesn't look like they care about the fans. They're so greedy. I mean, how much money is enough? The players make a million, 2 million, and they get five months off? And they won't accept a salary cap, but they go play in Europe? How much are they going to make in Europe? It doesn't make sense, not when it's hurting us so bad. I got a family in Revere, two kids, 6 and 3, and a mortgage, and I don't know what's going to happen."
Sheri Saperstein Richberg, marketing director for the Briar Group, which operates a number of pubs and restaurants in Boston, including the Harp across from the FleetCenter, said business there is down 30 percent since October.
"We've been working with the city to revitalize the whole area, to get people to come down not only for sporting events but for other things as well, and we've been booking events and setting up theme nights at the Harp that do not rely exclusively on sports. But it's difficult because we have a giant projection screen and more than 25 television sets, so we have a lot of clickers."
As an expression of confidence in the North Station area, she said, in 2003 the Briar Group opened
At Boston Beer Works on Canal Street, where the capacity is nearly 600, in that busiest hour between 6 and 7 most of the seats at the bar were empty Thursday night, and bartending that normally requires four people was handled easily by one. The 30 patrons seemed forlorn in the cavernous dining room, where even the coveted window seats were empty.
"The difference is night and day," says manager Joseph Ferrari. "If the Bruins were playing, I'd have 25 people working the front of the house rather than 10, four bartenders instead of one. At 6:15, people would be two and three deep at the bar, every table would be filled, and, if the Bruins were playing Montreal, there'd be a line out the door."
Around the corner, at the Penalty Box on Causeway Street, manager Joseph Bottari interrupted a conversation with his bartender.
"It's bad," he said, "really bad. If the Bruins were playing, we'd be open till 2, but tonight we'll close by 9. But it's not just us. Everybody's in trouble, the whole area. Take a look at what you got here," he says, gesturing to the lone soul at the other end of the bar nursing a Budweiser. "What have you got here? You got one customer. Ya wanna buy a barroom? Gimme $20. You can have it."
Jack Thomas can be reached at thomas@globe.com.
