Historic Lowell Tavern to Appear on ‘America’s Best Restaurants’

A historic tavern in Lowell will appear on "America's Best Restaurants." 

The Worthen House Cafe, which has operated as a tavern and restaurant since 1898, will be part of the production's "America's Best Restaurants Roadshow." According to a report by The Sun, the building that houses the tavern on Worthen Street dates to 1834, when it served as the West India Goods Store. The Hamourgas family has owned the building since 2001.

"America's Best Restaurants" will be filming at the Worthen House and Charr'd Grille from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. next Thursday, June 5, with an episode premiere date to be announced. Restaurants chosen to be featured in the roadshow are selected through customer nominations, internal selections, or a restaurant applying to be featured. The show airs primarily on the ABR YouTube channel.

Throughout the nearly two centuries that the building has stood in Lowell, the building is believed to have been visited by several famous authors, including Edgar Allan Poe, Jimmy Breslin, and Lowell's own Jack Kerouac.

In addition to its appearance on "America's Best Restaurants," the tavern has announced that it will soon launch its own beer, an India pale ale that will be called “1898” after the year the building started operating as a tavern. The beer is already available as a draft in the bar, Hamourgas said, and it will soon be available in bottles at local liquor stores.

Chris Demato has been running the kitchen at The Charr'd Grille within Worthen House since 2023. His menu features classic bar foods like french fries, chicken tenders, and mozzarella sticks, and more substantial items like burgers, hot dogs, and paninis. He told The Sun he is making changes to the menu soon and is still deciding which dishes from the current menu to showcase during filming for "America's Best Restaurants."