Jack Repetti, Owner of Boston's Eagle, Passed Away
Jack Repetti, the owner of Boston's Eagle from 1981 to 2020, passed away on Thursday, December 1. Repetti also was the chief bartender at the South End bar and was famous for his sharp-witted retorts to customers that made him a local icon. Throughout the 1990s and into this century, the bar was the last spot on a bar crawl for many Boston gay men and was famous for its sidewalk sale when it closed at 2AM.
Boston gay blogger BosGuy reports that, “The Eagle closed in 2020 due to the COVID pandemic and a year later was put on the market. It recently reopened under new ownership as The Kartal (Turkish for Eagle).”
One curious detail about the The Boston Eagle was that it didn't appeal to the leather community as in other cities, such as New York, in which bars shared its name. In Boston it was a neighborhood bar at which there would more likely be cis white professionals in T-shirts than the leathermen in full gear. When they did turn up, they often felt conspicuously out of place.
The owners,BosGuy writes, are hosting a memorial service for Repetti at the The Kartal (formerly The Eagle). “Remembering Jack” takes place on Tuesday, Dec 6th 6PM-8PM, at The Kartal, 520 Tremont Street, Boston, MA.
BosGuy continues: “A memory book will be available to share stories about Jack and the bar where most every gay man in Boston ended up late on any given Friday or Saturday night. People are encouraged to bring photos of Jack to add to the book.”
In a Q&A with South End residents on Melanie Olinto's website, Repetti recalled coming to the South End prior to gentrification. “The South End has changed so drastically. It's interesting to see it go from being a gay community to a homogenized, totally different part of city. The thing I find fascinating is that people come here and spend money and then the first thing they want to do is change everything. I find that wild. You came here because you liked it, why change it?”