Loyal customers of both Dragon Pizza and Sligo Pub are delighted to have a place to enjoy their favorite fare at their outdoor patio area. ~ Photo courtesy of Sligo Pub

By Rachel Berets

The parking lot behind Dragon Pizza in Davis Square used to be an eyesore – a mess of patchy gray concrete with worn white lines marking the parking spaces.

Now it has been transformed into an outdoor patio serving food and beverages, a COVID-collaboration between Dragon Pizza and their Davis Square neighbor Sligo Pub.

The joint outdoor restaurant provides a unique opportunity for Sligo Pub to reopen, as bars like Sligo that do not serve food are not allowed to operate until Phase 4 of the Massachusetts reopening plan goes into effect.

“Really this partnership is about people helping each other,” said Charlie Redd, the owner of Dragon Pizza. “They’re able to earn, we’re able to earn. It’s a partnership of need right now and it’s been a positive experience.”

While Dragon Pizza has been able to stay open during the pandemic, delivering pizza and filling take-out orders since Governor Baker ordered non-essential businesses to close in late March, Sligo has been shuttered throughout the spring and most of the summer.

For months, Sligo’s leadership tried to secure a food license from the City of Somerville so that they could reopen during Phase 2 alongside other restaurants in the area.

“We just didn’t want to die,” said Joe Devine, Sligo’s Bar Manager who has worked at the pub since 2001. “If we didn’t open up soon, we could be saying ‘See you later Sligo.’”

Sligo did not see any way to open until they consulted with Redd and Dragon Pizza about how they could operate together in the dilapidated parking lot behind their two storefronts.

Dragon Pizza did not want to run an outdoor patio on their own without serving alcohol, so teaming up with Sligo felt like the perfect solution. “It’s a bad business decision to open a patio with no alcohol, it didn’t make sense. But if we opened this patio with Sligo serving alcohol and us serving food, all the sudden we created a restaurant together,” said Redd.

After Dragon Pizza and Sligo was approved by their landlord and the City of Somerville to run their restaurant in the parking lot, they started constructing the patio, which seats 50 people.

“We built a restaurant in our back parking lot, so it was a lot of work,” said Devine. “The whole staff was there with me every day, working for free, just to make sure Sligo doesn’t die.” 

Since opening the outdoor patio in late July, Sligo has been able to rehire several of their full-time employees. They have also been able to provide a semblance of normalcy to their customers, many of whom work at restaurants in the Somerville area and have been coming to Sligo for years.

The two establishments plan on partnering at least for the rest of the summer and into the fall. But even as the weather gets colder, Devine is not worried.

“Sligo customers are a different kind of people, they don’t care how cold it is, they just want to hang out. We could get heating lamps or whatever, but I’m not worried about that. Sligo is strong as far as the clientele goes. They’re all crazy but they’re there.”

Redd is also thrilled to be able to provide a good, familiar experience to his customers. “The people that come are happy and that’s the only concern that any restaurateur can carry,” said Redd. “We’re a punk rock pizza shop and they’re a dive bar. It’s been a great partnership.”