place

Charlie's Sandwich Shoppe

Coffeehouses and cafés in the United StatesCultural history of BostonJames Beard Foundation Award winnersLandmarks in South End, BostonRestaurants established in 1927
Restaurants in South End, Boston
Charlies Sandwich Shoppe, Boston MA
Charlies Sandwich Shoppe, Boston MA

Charlie's Sandwich Shoppe is a restaurant located in Boston's South End that is known for serving African-American jazz musicians during the era of segregated hotels.The walls of the diner are adorned with pictures of customers ranging from Sammy Davis Jr., Duke Ellington, and Cab Calloway, to Vice President Al Gore, President Barack Obama to Governor Deval Patrick. As a child, Sammy Davis, Jr. used to tap dance in front of the restaurant for change.Charlie's has been described as "equal parts old-school diner and neighborhood coffee shop", but among the locals it is known for its breakfasts. It has been open since 1927 and has no bathrooms. There are only 32 seats, 13 of which lie along a counter across from wooden refrigerators purchased in 1927, used. Charlie's was open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for 32 straight years. When Charlie's finally decided to close on Sundays, nobody had a key, and one needed to be made. The floor above Charlie's was a union hall for the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first black porters union founded by A. Philip Randolph. Charlie's has won numerous awards over the years, culminating in the reception of a James Beard Foundation Award in 2005 in the category of America's Classics.There is now a web-project history of the restaurant entitled Where Hash Rules. The story was written by George Aaron Cuddy; original photographs were taken by Brooke T. Wolin. On May 12, 2014, Charlie's announced that it was closing at the end of June 2014, ending its 87-year run. On August 5, 2014, South End restaurateur, Evan Deluty, announced he would be re-opening Charlie's Sandwich Shoppe and that the breakfast and that the lunch menu would remain unchanged, but a new dinner menu would be added along with expanded hours.A remodeled Charlie's Sandwich Shoppe re-opened on January 22, 2016.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Charlie's Sandwich Shoppe (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Charlie's Sandwich Shoppe
Holyoke Street, Boston South End

Geographical coordinates (GPS) Address Nearby Places
placeShow on map

Wikipedia: Charlie's Sandwich ShoppeContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 42.3448 ° E -71.0778 °
placeShow on map

Address

Holyoke Street 17
02199 Boston, South End
Massachusetts, United States
mapOpen on Google Maps

Charlies Sandwich Shoppe, Boston MA
Charlies Sandwich Shoppe, Boston MA
Share experience

Nearby Places

Church of the Disciples (Boston)
Church of the Disciples (Boston)

Church of the Disciples was a Unitarian church located in Boston, Massachusetts. It was founded by James Freeman Clarke early in 1841. The first public step taken by Clarke was preaching three times in the Phillips Place Chapel, with the purpose of forming a new religious society. The first meeting subsequent to organization was in a part of Amory Hall. The congregation soon outgrew the room and for a while, they met at Ritchie Hall. When they were able to secure the whole of Amory Hall, they returned to it. When it became too small for their increasing numbers, they went to the Masonic Temple. Though an internal split occurred in 1845, the congregation was ready to build its own structure in 1847, the Freeman Place Chapel. Clarke's health faded in 1849, and for the next five years, most of the congregants scattered, while a few remained together, meeting monthly. Clarke returned to his duties in 1854, and in the following year, the church came into possession of the Indiana-Place Chapel. The need of a larger place of worship brought a removal in 1868 to the church at the corner of West Brookline Street and Warren Avenue. Clarke died in 1888, and in the following year, Charles Gordon Ames became the new minister. The congregation moved to the Jersey and Peterboro Streets Church in 1905. Ames was succeeded by his associate minister, Rev. Abraham Mitrie Rihbany, in 1910 who retired in 1938. In 1941, the Church of the Disciples sold its edifice and united with the Arlington Street Church.