It seems that the cinematic Wahlburg brothers and their culinary sibling, Paul, couldn’t come to terms with the site owner on a new lease for the Boston Shipyards location. It was an emotional – and abrupt – end to a 15-year Wahlburgers love story…
All the Wahlburgers: Sign (left). Donnie, Paul and Mark (l-r) (right).
The news came just one day before the lease ended, September 30. But company frontman Donnie Wahlburg (Bluebloods) wrote a heart-felt obituary on the chain’s Instagram page…
“As the original Wahlburgers location, Hingham will always hold a special place in our story,” Wahl-burg wrote. “While this location is closing, we’re actively looking for a new home in the Boston area and hope to have more to share soon. […] Thank you for the memories.”
How ironic!
The closure of the original Wahlburgers comes as a chronicle of the family’s restauranting adventure enjoys heavy viewership on Netflix. I’ve been watching it. The story is all up-hill, so far. But the series was made back in the pre-COVID days…
According to Wikipedia, Wahlburgers was, “an American reality television series that aired from Janu-ary 22, 2014, to July 31, 2019, on A&E. During its 10 seasons, Wahlburgers aired 95 episodes.”
The ultimate irony?
“The closure comes months after the St. Charles, Ill. Wahlburgers location, which housed the Blue Bloods dining table, announced it was closing that same day,” a PEOPLE magazine story reported. Again, the issue was the lease.
“Sadly, we will be closing the doors of the St Charles Clubhouse. We’ve done our best to keep it going – since the second IL COVID shutdown, which we never truly recovered from, but fought the fight any-way. 🙏💔🥺,” Donnie wrote, in an Instagram post.
St. Charles was special to Donnie Wahlburg, because he and his family lived in the Chicago suburb. In the Wahlburgers TV series, he tells the camera he always wanted to open a restaurant in his ‘home town’, and the St. Charles location was a pet project.
My take
Wahlburgers isn’t hurting for business, overall. It currently runs 34 locations spread out across the US, and they’re all thriving. Not the least reason for which may be the screen notariety of two of the three partners…
But patrons agree, brother Paul is a heck of a chef, and has developed a great menu, focused on fast, fresh burgers.
As a foodservice pro (albeit, a retired one), I can endorse Paul’s respect for the food 100 percent!
~ Maggie J.