Not sure how anyone could've seen this one coming, aside from all the other melees that have broken out there over the years, but one of Dorchester's most notorious bars, Ups N Downs, has gotten knifey again. You'll all surely remember my last trip to the bar from my book, , which you've all bought already by now, right? (And which just went on sale at all the Urban Outfitters in the area this week in case you haven't).
I've posted the entry on Ups N Downs from the book below if you want a taste. First one is free.
"The city has shut down a Dorchester bar where a bouncer was stabbed and seriously injured early Saturday morning when he tried to break up a fight between patrons... The bouncer, a man in his early 40s, was stabbed in the leg near the femoral artery inside the bar at about 2 a.m. Saturday, according to Boston police. Authorities said the man was in critical condition at Boston Medical Center yesterday."
Six other people were stabbed-up real good too in this particular altercation.
Upstairs Downstairs, 469 Neponset Ave., Dorchester.
This rough and rugged dive bar, wedged between a highway on ramp and a desolate few blocks of auto repair shops, and near one of Quinchester's (where Dorchester meets Quincy's) purgatory-like traffic circles, looks like a bowling alley with its colorfully playful sign. Inside runs with that theme as well, with video games, dartboards, posters of athletes covering the walls and other arcade-like fixtures. This sort of décor plays up the idea of how a lot of dive bars, even the ones where you'll find mostly older men, are really just examples of suspended adolescence at work. No surprise then that you'll often find drinkers in dives reverting to their childish states: yelling, drooling, nodding off for a nap, fighting when they don't get their way.
Speaking of fighting, Ups N Downs, as it's called, has a pretty menacing reputation in that regard. Fights over the past few years have placed the bar's liquor license in jeopardy, and plenty of people in the hospital, on numerous occasions. Last Christmas a massive brawl in the bar spilled out onto the streets when a woman smashed one of the bartenders in the face with a bottle. This being Dorchester, he punched her right back in the fucking face. Every police car in the area was needed to control the situation. During another brawl one of the customers jumped behind the bar and emptied the cash register, while others made off with armfuls of liquor bottles out the back door. There are police officers on duty now on weekend nights in the bar's upstairs area.
That upstairs downstairs demarcation is where things get a little interesting here, if by interesting you mean racially fucked up. The name of the place implies a sort of segregation. Upstairs is for hip hop, downstairs is for Sinatra. Or to put it another way, upstairs is for blacks, downstairs is for Irish. It's the same old shitty story of Dorchester race relations played out literally every night in the place people in the neighborhood go to get drunk. Like that's not asking for trouble. The bar, formerly known as the Pony Room, has been in operation for about 50 years.
“Don't go in there. Seriously. It's a bucket of blood where many, many innocent patrons have been assaulted,” my Dorchester guide Dave tells me. “That place is an infamous late-night haunt popular with people grabbing last call on their way out of Marina Bay. It's also popular with thugs from Quincy/Neponset who like to start fights with random drunks. If you want to fight or witness a fight, this is the place to go.”
Actually I don't want to do that, but fuck it, I need to check it out anyway. For journalism's sake. I almost get into a verbal fight when I'm there drinking on a slow early evening. Everyone seems friendly enough on the surface. The bartender is cute in that trashy Dorchester way, with tattoos on her neck and feet. I'm drinking with a few old guys watching the game and a seemingly reasonable guy in a Brett Favre jersey next to me. So what's upstairs like tonight, I want to know?
“You don't want to go up there,” the bartender tells me.
“It's like cockroaches up there,” the Favre fan says. “It's fucking awful. It's all black upstairs and all whites downstairs. Now you can't have glasses to drink out of up there anymore.”
“It's like Blue Hill Ave at its busiest.”
“It didn't used to be like that, but then they started playing the hip hop.”
Wait a second, is this a joke? This is a joke right? I mean, I know Boston has a reputation, but we're in fucking public here people. Instead I keep my mouth shut and my head down, because I'm a pussy. And what am I going to do, give a lecture?
“Ah well, as the world turns,” the bartender says.”
“As the neighborhood turns,” another guy adds from across the bar. Then we all go back to staring at the Red Sox game, cheering on our racially diverse hometown heroes.
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15 comments:
So, did you go upstairs anyway? If so, what was that part of the bar like?
It was never open the couple times I went there, was open at night, and I wasn't interested in what it was like as a club, more as a dive bar during the day/afternoon.
Good post...the place sucks...its time for it to go. Check out my post http://dotrat.com/2012/02/18/who-shanked-the-bouncer/
Driven past that place many times and was always too scared to go in. Guess my instincts were right.
Just watched ye olde YouTube video where that one bro commits aggravated battery against five other bros with an aluminum bat in Chinatown cuz this post gave me a hankering for a taste of the ultraviolence
Oh yeah, that was a classic. Rare case where some dudes deserved to get beaten up.
There's only three things worth going in there for... drinking, drugs, and fights. Take it from a local DotRat, there's definately nothing good after midnight.
Oh yeah? How is the shit coming out of there?
Univeral Hub has an update on the case, plus a nice shoutout to PTSOTL and my book
http://www.universalhub.com/2012/city-doesnt-wait-hearing-shuts-stabby-neponset-cir
I took an emergency dump in there in the mid-90's. scary
Race relations in Dot http://dotrat.com/2012/02/20/double-dutch-and-the-ave/
I have been there a dozen times and it was no different from any of the 50 bars I have been to. Barrooms filled with with men whom get drunk can be dangerous if you are also a problem drin ker. hold yopur booze mind your business when venturing out of your neighborhood or drink at home. remember barrooms are expected to have the occassional dust kickup
The man-bro side of me wants to agree, yeah, sure, bars are rough places, but I don't think I can vibe to that sort of thinking anymore. Fighting, no matter where it is, is fucking stupid.
Cool story. The only part that I don't agree with is the part saying Neponset people looking to fight. Neponset residents don't really go in. it's mostly South shore yuppies fighting Older Regulars. Either way you can always pull a pig out of upstairs if you buy her a Apple Martini.
Is Arkie still around? He was a character! I waitresses here in the early 90s. People were ok as long as you didn't act like a moron! The bands upstairs were great! Downstairs was more the local crowd. From 1-2am it was so packed you could barely move.
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