Boston restaurant redesigned by Gordon Ramsay faces backlash for Whitey Bulger, mobster photos
A Savin Hill restaurant is facing backlash from the community, after featuring photos of Boston mobsters inside the restaurant. One of the photos is the infamous mugshot of the most notorious Boston mobster, Whitey Bulger.
The picture now hangs at the entrance of Savin Bar & Kitchen as part of a recent revamp, but the mobster mugshots are getting pushback.
"How can you go into a restaurant that says it's a community restaurant with photos of the very people who murdered and maimed many of the people in this community," said life-long resident Donna Blythe-McColgan. "It's absurd, it's outrageous."
McColgan's family lived in Savin Hill for generations. She says the display is offensive and sends the wrong message about the community.
"It's immoral to bring back and glorify gangsters and murderers who've had direct impact in this community," said McColgan.
TV show makeover by celebrity chef
The new wall art was part of a makeover on celebrity Chef Gordon Ramsay's TV show "Secret Service," where owners were encouraged to lean into the history of their Savin Hill spot.
Owners say the restaurant location was once home to the Bulldog Tavern, a key gathering place for Bulger's Winter Hill Gang during the 1970s.
The owners sent WBZ a statement saying, "the intent was to preserve and interpret the history of this building — not to romanticize its darker chapters."
"To be clear: this isn't an homage. We don't glorify Whitey Bulger or the violence that scarred Boston. We're acknowledging the history of this very spot," the statement said. "We display this image not to celebrate Bulger, his associates, or their crimes — but to recognize a chapter in the complex, gritty story of our neighborhood."
Newer residents in the community don't see what the fuss is all about.
"I don't think it's a big deal, it kind of shocked me when I went in there, but I didn't think too much of it," said new resident Miguel Rivas. "It's a good restaurant, I don't see what the problem is, if you don't like it, don't eat at the restaurant, there's the one next door."
At a recent Columbia-Savin Hill Civic Association meeting, McColgan started a motion to the start a petition calling on the restaurant to remove the images.
"Had they come to the community and said look we're having a little bit of business trouble, we need some help, we would have responded and helped, but we're not helping now," said McColgan.
The group will discuss the issue more at its November meeting.