LOCATION:
87 Public Square

DATE:
Opened in 1925

NARRATIVE:
You can only imagine what life was like in Watertown, New York in 1925 when the Crystal served its first meal. The lively city was a growing metropolis with plenty of jobs in the paper industry. The city, and the world around it has certainly changed in the last 100 years but amazingly the Crystal has held on to its origins.

The Crystal remains a thriving piece of old Watertown, home to one of the last stand-up bars in the country, complete with original tile floors, tin ceilings, and a cash register from the 1930s that rang up Franklin Roosevelt’s tab.

From The Crystal Restaurant web site: http://thecrystalrestaurant.com/

The furnishings of the restaurant are original to the 1907 remodel. Indeed the restaurant is famous, in part, for its antique interior. The restaurant boasts one of the last stand-up bars in the country. It has retained its pressed tin-ceilings and the black-and-white masonry floor which are made up of thousands of half-inch tiles. The benches, tables, and twelve mahogany booths are also original. Astonishingly, even the mirrors, booth lights, and a three-pronged brass coat-hooks have survived the century intact.

To read the entire article by Kristen Semento go to:
http://www.upstatehistorical.org/items/show/71

The Crystal is Watertown’s oldest restaurant, replacing the early saloons that occupied Public Square at the turn of the nineteenth century. The Dephtereos family first became associated with the restaurant in 1928 when Otto Dephtereos was hired as head chef, later running the business with his brother, Nicholas. In 1943, the family bought the restaurant from Dennis and Jerry Valanos, and have continued to lead The Crystal, always with the belief that a good meal at a fair price should be available to everyone.
To read more go to:
http://thecrystalrestaurant.com/#history