Dutch Tavern

The Dutch Taps Into History

New London tavern and its precursor, The Oak, one of Eugene O’Neill’s watering holes

by Dan Pearson (Originally published in The Day June 20, 1999)

New London — In 1912, when Eugene O’Neill was a cub reporter with a thirst for ale, a 10-ounce Narragansett or Ballantine could be had for a nickel in any one of the 27 taverns that lined Bank Street.

After a day covering society weddings or sleeping off a hangover in the newsroom of the New London Morning Telegraph, O’Neill would find himself within walking distance of 69 bars where he could drink away the pain of his family life on Pequot Avenue.

It’s a good bet he squinted against the gaslights of every one of them.

Until Prohibition and the world wars changed the way America socialized, the tavern was every neighborhood’s community center, its belly stove providing the heat that ramshackle apartment buildings and Federal-era homes could not.

Now, at the close of the century, drinking mores, dietary habits and the entire conception of a bar have changed all that. But, at 66 years old, the Dutch Tavern on Green Street, with its century-old recipe for potato salad, undulating tin ceiling, dark wooden interior and taciturn regulars, remains a throwback.