Monday, June 10, 2013

Hyannis News

The Compound - New Kennedy Themed Hyannis Bar & Restaurant

By ROBERT GOLD   rgold@capecodonline.com
June 05, 2013

HYANNIS — A restaurant with a Kennedy theme that opened late last month has already recast its cocktail menu to focus more on Camelot and less on controversy.
The Compound Bar and Grille, which opened May 24 at 644 Main St., less than 4 miles from the actual Kennedy compound in Hyannisport, features photos of JFK on the walls and the Kennedy name on some menu items.

Part of the theme, though, was eyebrow-raising: The restaurant's initial drinks menu listed cocktails with names such as "the Honey Fitz" and "PT-109" but also included "Dealey Plaza."

Dealey Plaza is the location in Dallas where President Kennedy was assassinated. And that wasn't what majority owner David Keville had in mind.

"I didn't even see that on the menu," Keville said when notified by the Times. "I wouldn't sign off on that." He called it "a bit macabre for me."

The drink is a mix of Smirnoff sorbet raspberry passion fruit and prosecco with raspberry-flavored ice.

Keville said the cocktail menu was provided by the restaurant's liquor distributor, United Liquors, and was drafted by the distributor after a "heated debate" with the Compound's manager over the use of Kennedy-themed names. The menus arrived at the restaurant several days after it opened, Keville said.

The names were overlooked by staff during the large amount of preparatory work of opening the restaurant, Keville said, adding that the manager was upset when they were later called to her attention.

United Liquors disagrees. "The drink names probably would've come from the account," said Tim Bruce, manager of United's graphics department. "I'll produce anything a restaurant wants, but I'm not going to tell them what to do."

Either way, the contentious cocktail names are off the menu.

Keville spoke with the Compound's staff Monday afternoon and said the cocktail lists were immediately pulled.

New menus are expected today. Gone are "Dealey Plaza," "Pink Chanel Suit" and "Operation Aphrodite" — the name of the World War II operation in which Lt. Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. was killed.

"As the owner, I absolutely have no tolerance for those sort of things," Keville said.
The drinks have been renamed "Cool as a Cucumber," the "USS Rose" and the "St. Crispin."

Elizabeth Wurfbain, executive director of the Hyannis Main Street Business Improvement District, said she hadn't noticed the original drink names on the menu, but said it was smart to remove them.

She said the restaurant, located in the site most recently home to Ardeo on Main, was a good addition to downtown because many visitors still are drawn to Hyannis by the Kennedy name and legacy.

"They all want to see the Kennedy compound," she said. "They love the Kennedy mystique."


New exhibit documents JFK’s last visits to Cape Cod in the months before assassination

By Associated Press, 

HYANNIS, Mass. — A new museum exhibit tells the story of President John F. Kennedy’s last visits to Cape Cod in the months before his assassination.

Officials at the John F. Kennedy Hyannis Museum say the exhibit includes videos, photos and news clips that look back on the final days of the president’s administration through a Cape Cod lens.

Museum Development Director John Allen says visitors will see images including JFK swimming with his children and the president kissing his father’s head on the family’s porch.

He says the exhibit also strives to capture the family’s grief after the death of the president and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy’s newborn son, Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, in August 1963.

The exhibit also explores how JFK’s assassination in November 1963 affected people on the Cape.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may

Related Links


No comments:

Post a Comment