A postcard advertises one of the Boston’s site’s early incarnations as the Hotel Del-Sol.
Photo provided by Delray Beach Historical Society
Boston’s, with the Upper Deck above.
Photo provided
Where else would hockey sticks decorate the dance floor, except for Boston’s?
Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star
By Thom Smith
Imagine a TV show: A little bit of Friends, some Seinfeld, a smidgen of Cops, a lot of Cheers.
The inspiration: Boston’s on the Beach, which will culminate its 35th anniversary with a typically big party on Oct. 25.
That’s right, Delray’s little piece of heaven on South Ocean was dishing up brews and brouhahas, assignations and asininities, food and frolic years before those sitcoms became legends.
Back in the mid-’70s, Delray was a sleepy place, the Atlantic Avenue renaissance still decades away. But as with most Florida beach towns, it offered refuge from northern winters.
So it was with Jerry Beauchamp and Bernie Cronin, two budding entrepreneurs from Massachusetts who happened to meet at a road race in Gloucester.
Beauchamp, a probation officer working on his Ph.D., had studied psychology at Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne. Cronin, whose family had been coming to Deerfield Beach for years, was in the restaurant business. Florida appealed to Cronin much more than the North Shore, and he persuaded Beauchamp to join him on an adventure.
Up and down the coast they traveled, Vero to Deerfield, looking for that perfect opportunity. They found it at 14 South Ocean — Hotel Del-Sol & Coffee Shop.
Built in 1926, it was popular with Finnish visitors. Beauchamp and Cronin had more universal plans, but knew they had no intention of going it alone.
In the spirit of Rooney and Garland’s “Let’s put on a show,” they headed back north — to Boston, Worcester (WOO-stah), the North Shore — to pitch their plan to friends, business associates and a surprising number of educators.
The task wasn’t that difficult: New Englanders may be tough, but given the opportunity, they aren’t averse to travel, especially in winter. A bar on the beach in Delray, they suggested, would be as appealing as the house of refuge that took in shipwrecked sailors in the 19th century.
To drum up investment cash, they needed two immediate changes — renovation and a new name.
“The hotel had a little cafeteria that served only Finnish dishes for breakfast and lunch, a small bar, no TV,” Bobby Paquette, Boston’s assistant general manager recalled. “It all progressed from there.”
Name wise, Hotel Del-Sol offered little allure and Worcester doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. Boston’s on the Beach, on the other hand, had a universal and alliterative ring.
But much work remained for the new owners, 12 to 14, in all. They kept the hotel out back, but added air-conditioning, a larger bar, TVs to catch the Pats, Bruins, Celtics and Sox, whose memorabilia covers the walls and tabletops, a bandstand for live music and a menu featuring more than the usual bar food — plus fresh New England lobster, steamers and fried clams … with the bellies.
Opening, initially scheduled for the first week of September in 1979, was delayed by surprise visitor — Hurricane David. On Oct. 22, Boston’s began serving “food, fun and live music,” but a few months later, it had to deal with another potential disaster.
Three off-duty sheriff’s detectives stopped in after their shift. One detective slung her purse over the chair back, but it slipped to the floor and the pistol inside discharged. The bullet struck and killed a young musician who was there in hopes of landing a job.
Though Boston’s was not responsible, the tragedy affected management and staff profoundly. Beauchamp wrote an employee manual that stresses interdependence among staff and management and the community, noting, “the place can’t survive with one or two successful people. We all must succeed.”
No better testament exists than Donna Gustin, whose smile seems to grow brighter with each decade. A member of the wait staff on opening day, she’s now lunch manager.
Paquette, a member of the Worcester crowd, started as a bar manager in 1982, about the same time as Perry DonFrancisco, a Mott Fellow taking graduate courses in education at FAU, began tending bar.
“Everything I learned in my education courses transferred directly to Boston’s,” said DonFrancisco, who eventually became a partner. “We were blessed to have a tremendous staff and tremendous management.”
Over the years, Boston’s has regularly been recognized by civic and business associations for its community involvement. They’ve sponsored youth and adult sports teams, road races and bike races. DonFrancisco co-founded Citizens for Delray Beach Police. After the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013, special events raised money for the OneFundBoston to help victims with long-term medical needs.
In 1985, the owners bought the derelict Arvilla Hotel, a favorite of vagrants on the south side, and bulldozed it. Boston’s added parking and the city subtracted an eyesore. Improvements were made. The second floor became the Upper Deck.
Monday’s Reggae Nights were followed by Blues on Tuesday. Boston’s scored top-notch acts by offering them gigs on usual off nights after they had worked dates in Miami and Fort Lauderdale.
“We’d give them an extra night and a free hotel,” Paquette said, “and they’d get us a good crowd.”
As the years passed and the bar’s namesake became a city of champions — Stanley Cups, NBA and NFL titles — Boston’s became the church where die-hard fans worshiped on game days. Except for Red Sox fans who had to pay penance — the “curse of the Bambino” — for trading Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1919. Yet in 2004, just as they had done so many heartbreaking times before, hundreds of the faithful and hopeful gathered among more than 30 TV screens at Boston’s for game seven against the Cardinals.
“I may have to crawl home,” Michael Walsh yelled as the jubilant crowd spilled onto A1A after the last out.
Walsh, from the Boston “suburb” of Bar Harbor, Maine, could have watched from “his place” just up the street, but he, too, preferred Boston’s.
In May 2006, his Ocean Properties, which owns the neighboring Delray Beach Marriott and is one of the largest privately held hotel companies in North America, bought it from DonFrancisco and partner Robert Kenney for just over $11 million. Not a bad return on an initial investment of less than $750,000.
“I’ve spent most of my adult life here,” a reflective DonFrancisco told The Palm Beach Post after the sale. “I spent it passionately. I loved it here.”
Fortunately, for longtime customers and the community, Ocean Properties had no intention of bulldozing the place, only improving it. DonFrancisco remains a consultant. Veterans such as Paquette, Gustin, beverage manager Millie Wilkerson (18 years) and entertainment manager Mark Pisarri (16 years) stayed on, and Ocean Properties brought in restaurant veteran Mark DeAtley as general manager.
Two years ago, Walsh closed it down … but only to spend $5 million on renovations. The result: a new outdoor SandBar on the south side with palm trees, pools, tiki bar and bandstand, and 50 Ocean, an upscale and much quieter restaurant upstairs with a great view beyond the sea oats and dunes. Some 200 employees keep the place humming.
While the big party is set for Oct. 25, 50 Ocean will be the setting on Oct. 22 for the next iteration of “Cocktails in Paradise,” a series of benefits for the Historical Society of Palm Beach County and associated groups. The $25 ticket includes drinks and hors d’oeuvres. (832-4164).
“Upstairs with 50 Ocean, the word is finally getting out,” DeAtley said. “What Ocean Properties has done with the property as a whole is fabulous. And we’re always doing something to help the city out.”
“And we can’t forget our customers,” DonFrancisco said. “From the beginning we got support not only from Delray but from around the country. We were viral before the Internet.”
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