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Let me introduce the Union Oyster House. It was established in 1826, and is the oldest restaurant in the United States. It has survived everything that has happened to Boston, well, almost everything, it wasn’t around during the Revolutionary War, but was established fifty years after. It saw the rise and fall of Scollay Square, for after the burlesque houses of the neighborhood went into decline, urban redevelopment changed the area to Government Center.The hay market is also gone, as are the produce and meat markets. They have given way to the Disneyesque Quincy Market using the original market buildings as retail shoppes.

Union Oyster House has been a landmark. It was the meeting place of Boston politicos, before AND after the redevelopment of the neighborhood. It does and has provided Boston with local fish all along. The menu has changed over the years, but only slightly, in order to reflect American tastes, adding foreign influences to keep up with the popular restaurants. But the staple, of course is fish. Finding the cod, hake, halibut, sole and other white fishes on the menu is not all that easy, for they aren’t readily obtainable any more, what with the overfishing problem.

The restaurant is a building that is on the National Historic Registry for its place in history as a restaurant. One enters the first floor and enters the area for the commoners, well, it is actually the bar now, but if you want a meal, you walk up a flight of stairs that is old, creaky, with uneven worn planks. The staircases are a bit small, since they haven’t been reengineered since the average height of an American was less than five feet. You are now in the first floor of dining rooms. There are worn wooden booths by the windows, and booths and tables filling the rest of the room.

Lobster has always been “seasonally priced” on the menu. The real shocker was that clams are now also seasonally priced. The beds have been over harvested, so that it is not always possible to find enough for the current day at a price point that can be guaranteed. There will always be oysters and scallops, of course. Originally, you had the choice of fried, broiled or baked. The “fisherman’s” platter is still abundant with clams, a white fish, and perhaps scallops or other fish, deep fried and piled high with sides of creamy cole slaw and French fries. A broiled platter has been added for now the cholesterol-laden, red-nosed fifty year-old is no longer a staple of the Boston landscape.