Tony C’s in the Assembly Row complex was one of the places that I had spotted as a possible bar to hang at when I knew that I was going to be staying at the nearby AC Hotel by Marriott just over the mystic river.

I understood that there were a fair number of these spots locally, four to exact, around the City. This one here at Assembly Row in Somerville, and the others at Fenway, Burlington, and at Seaport

“Tony C” or Tony Conigliaro was a baseball player for the Boston Red Sox (1964-67, 1969-1970, 1975) and the California Angels (1971).

I read that he was quite the story his career seemed to duck and dive between serious injuries and amazing homerun streaks and that he was part of that ‘impossible dream’ season of 1967

It seems as though he was the hometown favourite who every one was rooting for. There is a great article here at the Society for Baseball Research about his career written by Bill Nowlin

Anyway none of that has anything to do with the food, it was just stuff I learnt that made me want to come and try out a ‘sports bar’ near my hotel 🙂

The Tony C Burger 

Tony C wore the number 25 Jersey for the Boston Red Sox, which ties in to the meal I was about to order and a meal that I had been planning to eat for about a month before I arrived in Boston just because of this man and his story.

The burgers here at Tony C are half-pound, hand-formed USDA choice beef patties! they come served with French fries, lettuce, tomato, red onion, and pickles and the toppings or style of your choice

I ordered The Tony C Burger or #25 as it is written on the menu, this was topped with Vermont Cheddar, Crispy Pork Belly, Fried egg, and Hoisin sauce on or rather in a sesame brioche bun.

Inside the Burger you can see all the layers and even though individually I love many of them, as a collective, it didn’t quite work, but then again compared to any British burger I was getting a dream plate 🙂

So the verdict, it was OK. The patty was kind of pinkish and it had a decent charring and was fairly well seasoned. The Crispy Pork belly with the Hoisin sauce was really nice on it’s own, but it kind of fell out of the bun as I tried to eat it.

The Fried egg was a bit too well cooked so that the egg yolk was no longer runny. That was a shame as I really like that yellow egg sauce that it makes when it is served sunny side up.

It was a good effort though and a fairly decent bar burger. I would come back again to try some of their other food

Located at