Tag Archives: Ye Olde Bridge Grille

Friday Flashback #379

Posted on December 29, 2023 | 27 comments

Westport traffic is almost unmanageable.

But it had to start somewhere.

Here’s a shot of the first automobile in town:

It was owned by “the Crawford boys.” They lived on the property that is now Longshore Club Park.

Here, they’re motoring west on the Post Road (State Street). They pass what are now the Taylor Place shops (South Moon Under), headed toward the precursor of the Ruth Steinkraus Cohen Bridge.

The horse and wagon ahead is about to be overtaken — literally and figuratively.

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5o Years Ago This Week:

While Westporters will be watching TV to see if their favorite teams make the NFL playoffs this weekend, 50 years ago the Minnesota Vikings and Miami Dolphins clinched their spot in Super Bowl VIII.

A favored drinking spot to watch games was Ye Olde Bridge Grille, just over the Post Road bridge on the way to Norwalk, next to National Hall (it was then Fairfield Furniture).

The year after Connecticut dropped its drinking age from 21 to 18 — to match New York’s — that was a safer alternative than Port Chester or Vista.   

“The Bridge” was the “Cheers” of Westport — a place “where everybody knows your name, and they’re always glad you came.”

The Bridge was also a mecca for the soccer community. Owner Dave Reynolds sponsored many state championship-winning Under-23 teams.

(Every Friday, “06880” takes a look back. To help ensure we’ll be here in the future, please consider a tax-deductible contribution. Just click here. Thank you!)

 

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Remembering Dave Reynolds

Posted on April 26, 2021 | 18 comments

Dave Reynolds died on Saturday in Fairfield, after a long battle with cancer. He was 80 years old.

To generations of Westporters, he was the welcoming owner of Ye Olde Bridge Grille. Located on Post Road West, next door to National Hall (at that point, the Fairfield Furniture store), it was the “Cheers” of its day (though smaller and less well lit). Today it’s an interior design shop.

The Bridge Grille, around 1980. Fairfield Furniture Store is at right; today it’s been restored to its original look, as National Hall.

Bars like “the Bridge” — with a jukebox, bowling game, wooden tables, plenty of beer, and a mostly-but-not-entirely young crowd of regulars — no longer exist in Westport. In the 1970s and ’80s, it was legendary.

Dave — an excellent golfer — became a soccer fan thanks to several of his bartenders. He sponsored a Westport Under-23 team that was as legendary as the bar that sponsored it. His Bridge teams won numerous state championships, with a roster that included some of Staples’ best players ever, and top stars from around the tri-state area.

Dave Reynolds, at the bar.

A Brooklyn native, Dave played varsity basketball at Boston College. After graduating in 1963, he worked on Wall Street. Owning the Bridge Grille was his second career.

Dave was a devout parishioner of St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Fairfield. He was also active in the Knights of Columbus.

Dave is survived by his sister, Mary Anne Reynolds; 2 sisters-in-law, and several nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews. He was predeceased by his brothers Arthur, Frank, Robert and Paul.

A funeral service will be held Tuesday (April 27, 11 a.m.) at St. Thomas Aquinas Church, 1719 Post Road, Fairfield, with burial to follow in St. Thomas Cemetery, Fairfield. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Knights of Columbus.

Dave Reynolds

 

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Posted in Local business, Looking back

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Friday Flashback #156

Posted on August 23, 2019 | 29 comments

Regular readers know “06880” often laments the loss of things that make a town a community.

Movie theaters. Mom-and-pop shops.

And bars.

I’m talking about real bars. Not bars attached to restaurants, like so many places in town: Spotted Horse, Tavern on Main, Arezzo, Little Barn, you name it.

And not restaurants with very active bars, like Viva’s and the Duck.

No. I mean actual, go-and-stay-and-drink-and-maybe-have-peanuts-but-a-place-where-everybody-knows-your-name bar.

The Westport equivalent of Cheers.

Parsell’s Purcell’s was that kind of bar, on the Post Road near Southport. So was the Red Galleon, across from Green’s Farms Elementary School.

Ship’s Lantern was too, downtown on the Post Road (before it become The Ships nearby — which today is Tiffany 🙁 ).

Then there was “The Bridge.”

Formally Ye Olde Bridge Grill — though there was nothing formal about it — The Bridge sat on Post Road West, right over the bridge (aha!), a couple of doors down from National Hall (at the time, Fairfield Furniture), and directly opposite Art’s (now Winfield) Deli.

It was around for years, but hit its stride in the 1970s and ’80s. With generous owner Dave Reynolds, popular manager/bartender Dennis Murphy, a large and loyal bunch of regulars, and a jukebox that played the same songs over and over and over again (“Domino” by Van Morrison, anyone?), The Bridge was the kind of gathering spot we just don’t have any more.

Owner Dave Reynolds …

(It was also the sponsor of an Under-23 soccer team of the same name. Stocked with the best Westport players of its time, and their friends from the college and semi-pro ranks, it won all kinds of state and regional championships. After every match, players and fans celebrated you-know-where.)

… and manager Dennis Murphy (standing, left). He coached the Bridge Grille team to many state titles.

Things change. Rents rose. The drinking age rose too, from 18 to 21.

The Bridge has been gone for 3 decades or so. Today it’s an antiques shop, or something like that.

Cheers!

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Posted in Downtown, Entertainment, Friday Flashback, Restaurants

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Friday Flashback #9

Posted on September 30, 2016 | 8 comments

Wednesday’s fatal accident between I-95 exits 18 and 17 closed the southbound highway for nearly 12 hours.

From 7 p.m. until 7 a.m. Thursday, vehicles crawled through Westport. It took almost an hour to get from the Sherwood Island Connector, down the Post Road and out Riverside Avenue.

Fortunately, it was nighttime. But that meant there were tons of trucks. Traffic was stop-and-go — mostly stop — all night long.

That was the scene nearly every day in the 1950s, until I-95 — then called the Connecticut Turnpike — opened. The Post Road was the only way for trucks to get from New York to Boston.

Newcomers have no idea how bad the traffic was. Oldtimers barely remember.

This week’s Friday Flashback shows a typical scene. It doesn’t look too bad — but it was.

bridge-grille-and-fairfield-furniture

Today the Fairfield Furniture Store is National Hall, with its 1st-floor Vespa restaurant. The Food Mart and Calise’s Wine & Liquors are gone. So — truly unfortunately — is Ye Olde Bridge Grille, one of Westport’s best dive bars.

The intersection of the Post Road, Wilton Road and Riverside Avenue is still bad. But can you imagine what it would be like without I-95, the highway we love to hate?

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Posted in Downtown, Friday Flashback, Local business, Looking back, Restaurants

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