Tradition Built Locally
The Grog has sat on Middle Street for more than fifty years, long enough to become part of the rhythm of Newburyport life.
Regulars have watched their kids grow up in these booths. Friends have turned first dates into anniversaries here. What started as a neighborhood pub has stayed one, through award-winning burgers, a beer list that keeps growing, and a stage that never stays quiet for long.
The story behind it goes back much further, to the years after the Civil War, when Alfred W.
Thompson opened a “Ladies and Gents Eating and Oyster House” that served Newburyporters,
sailors, and travelers until Prohibition.
The name arrived in 1969, borrowed from the English Navy’s ration of rum and water, and since Richard and Pat Simkins took ownership in 1971, The
Grog has stayed family owned and operated.