The establishments profiled in The Historic Shops and Restaurants of Boston—all in business for a century or more—embody the city’s spirit and embrace its history and strong sense of tradition. Author Phyllis Méras takes the reader to some of the most beautiful, evocative locations in Boston, all the while weaving the shops’ and restaurants’ histories with that of the city. 

Whether offering ornamental hardware for the fine old residences of the city; gold, silver or platinum flutes made in a 160-year old former carriage house, or candies with a romantic history that includes a shipwreck and an enterprising young widow, the superlative quality of the goods and services they provide has allowed them to endure in a city of discriminating shoppers and diners. From a restaurant with the oldest hand-carved bar in America, to a vintage clothing shop where future Presidents sold their second-hand clothing, to bakeries, bookbinders, art galleries, and farm stands, these venerable establishments continue to provide the best of what Boston has to offer.

The guide profiles:
• 52 businesses including booksellers, barber shops, food and spirits shops, general stores and clothiers, art galleries and societies, stonecutters, and more;
• 7 places to eat and drink, including fine restaurants, cafes, and pubs;
• 6 inns and hotels.

The address, phone, transit stops, and opening hours for each establishment are included.

In addition, more than 30 additional establishments are mentioned in brief.

In this book, which covers not only downtown Boston but its outlying districts and its neighboring towns, are hardware stores, bookshops, tobacconists, fishmongers, grocers – what is said to be the nation’s oldest family-run barber shop. There are shoe companies and flag companies and locksmiths, florists and bakeries and clothing stores, art galleries and music stores. Founded by Puritans as it was, Boston has always taken its social obligations seriously and among its long-standing enterprises are an animal hospital and a thrift shop for those in need.
      Through the years, immigrants from many lands have settled in the city and established their own communities. Often restaurants and bakeries are in first and second-generation Italian hands; taverns and stone-cutting yards are Irish-American-owned; clothing stores owned by the descendants of Jewish immigrants.
From its very beginning in 1630, Boston was a bustling port with energetic tradespeople clustered around its docks. In 1996, conscious of this enterprising past, the city inaugurated a Boston Business Heritage Project that pinpointed city businesses that had existed and prospered down through the centuries. Some were 200 years old; some 150, some 100.  Nearly 200 were found that were more than a century old. Not all of these have survived in this last decade, but many have, and in this book their histories are recounted.