This Connecticut Inn Has Hosted Sea Chantey Singalongs for Half a Century
Landlubbers are very welcome.
This Connecticut Inn Has Hosted Sea Chantey Singalongs for Half a Century
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In non-pandemic times, the bar is packed for chantey night. Caryn Davis
In This Story
On 8:30 p.m. on any given Monday before the pandemic, The Griswold Inn would be packed. A stately colonial building in the sleepy, coastal New England town of Essex, Connecticut, the Griswold Inn sits just steps from the water. Flying gallantly above the sidewalk was a flag featuring an anchor and the phrase “Chanteys tonight!” Small groups would huddle outside the Inn, finishing cigarettes or sipping Guinness in the breeze blowing in off the Connecticut River while, inside, throngs of people packed the front room. Young, old, regular, first-timer, salt-crusted, landlubber they all crushed together at the bar and fanned around the central heater and precariously mounted Christmas tree, which is on view al