-- Boston's Hidden Restaurants --

Old Timer Restaurant

155 Church Street, Clinton, MA 01510
(978) 365-5980 Find location!

Photo of the Old Timer Restaurant, in Clinton, MA One of the fun parts of finding restaurants for this site is the fact that every now and then, we find a restaurant that is so interesting, yet so utterly unknown, that it makes us almost wonder if we should tell the world about it. And so it goes with the Old Timer Restaurant, an historic Irish pub in Clinton that has about as much character and charm as any we have reviewed.

The Old Timer Restaurant is located just off the downtown area of Clinton, a hilly old mill town situated on the Wachusett Reservoir about 35 miles west of Boston in the heart of apple picking country. Clinton is a town full of old restaurants and watering holes, but none other better than the Old Timer. This restaurant has been around since the Great Depression (it took over a flower shop in 1929 as a bar, adding a dining room a few years later), and has been open ever since. The interior of the Old Time Restaurant oozes with history, with dark wooden walls and booths, old photos displayed everywhere, a couple of balconies overlooking the spacious dining room, and a high ceiling that almost gives the dining area a church-like feel.

The Old Timer offers up pub grub as well as dinner entrees, with a Sunday afternoon buffet that includes live music. The menu includes a hearty onion soup, excellent flame-broiled burgers, and a delicious hot roast beef sandwich smothered in brown gravy. Also on the menu are such items as prime rib, baked sea scallops, and veal marsala. The Old Timer has a number of beers on tap, including Guinness that is poured perfectly.

While the Old Timer Restaurant is little-known outside of the Clinton area, it has had some well-known entertainers perform in the past, including Sammy Davis, Jr., and it has also had a number of politicians visit the place, including some of the Kennedys. But overall, the Old Timer Restaurant is still a hidden gem after all these years, and one just waiting to be discovered by diners who live the Boston area.