The Union Oyster House.

According to the proprietors’ website, “The Union Oyster House is the oldest restaurant in Boston and the oldest restaurant in continuous service in the U.S. —the doors have always been open to diners since 1826. . . .

In 1742—before it became a seafood house, the building housed importer Hopestill Capen’s fancy dress goods business, known colorfully as ‘At the Sign of the Cornfields.’  At this time, the Boston waterfront came up to the back door of the dry goods establishment, making it convenient for ships to deliver their cloth and goods from Europe. . . .

The first stirrings of the American Revolution reached the upper floor of the building in 1771, when printer Isaiah Thomas published his newspaper ‘The Massachusetts Spy,’ long known as the oldest newspaper in the United States.

In 1775, Capen’s silk and dry goods store became headquarters for Ebenezer Hancock, the first paymaster of the Continental Army.  There is no reason to doubt that Washington himself was familiar with its surroundings.  At the very spot where diners today enjoy their favorite New England specialties, Federal troops received their ‘war wages’ in the official pay-station.  During the revolution the Adams, Hancock, and Quincy wives, as well as their neighbors, often sat in their stalls of the Capen House sewing and mending clothes for the colonists. . . .

The toothpick was first used in the United States at the Union Oyster House. Enterprising Charles Forster of Maine first imported the picks from South America.  To promote his new business he hired Harvard boys to dine at the Union Oyster House and ask for toothpicks.

The Kennedy Clan has patronized the Union Oyster House for years.  J.F.K. loved to feast in privacy in the upstairs dining room.  His favorite booth ‘The Kennedy Booth’ has since been dedicated in his memory.”