The Beacon. Courtesy of Sturgis Library.
THE BEACON RESTAURANT
Where it’s a treat to eat.
Address: 720 Main Street, Hyannis
Years Active: 1936–1968
Many years before Thompson’s Clam Bar became the standard bearer of popularity among Cape Cod restaurants, there was another spot that matched what the legendary Harwich establishment would do in the latter half of the twentieth century. That place was The Beacon Restaurant. Located in the West End section of Hyannis, The Beacon attracted visitors to Main Street decades before the Melody Tent. It was the patriarch of all the major restaurants that followed.
This giant of the restaurant industry on the Cape was created by Edward Kneale in 1936. Looking for a new venture, he came to Cape Cod after retiring from the manufacturing business in New York City. Kneale settled seasonally in the high-class village of Oyster Harbors and wintered in Florida. The spot he chose was land that was once owned by famed nineteenth-century sea captain Alvin S. Hallett, who once sailed from Boston to San Francisco in 104 days and then back again.
Before it was even built, The Beacon was being hyped as the “best restaurant on the Cape” by local newspapers. With architectural plans drawn up by Walter Gaffney calling for the structure to be set far back from the road to allow room for ample parking and beautifully landscaped grounds, Kneale’s spot would be as modern as a restaurant could be pre–World War II. Kneale erected a large white building that caught the eye of those passing by—Hyannis in the 1930s was nothing like what it looks like now. The Beacon would seat seventy-five people, which was unheard of in a time when many restaurants were little more than a counter and a few small scattered tables.
Its success was immediate. In April 1936, two dinner parties were held to celebrate the opening of The Beacon. On each night, nearly one hundred people from Hyannis and then Osterville enjoyed inaugural meals at this grand establishment. More than two hundred requests for reservations had to be declined due to the capacity of the restaurant. Its five dining rooms and seventy-five-seat capacity were not enough.
The first year, The Beacon opened as a seasonal restaurant in late April. The patrons dined on simple favorites like hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken pie, fish chowder, Beacon rolls and homemade ice cream. One item, however, needed to be revisited, and that was the clam chowder. Being from New York City, Kneale brought with him the idea of Manhattan clam chowder, which is tomato-based rather than the cream-based chowder New Englanders were accustomed to. The restaurant’s popularity was immediate and overwhelming, and Kneale knew he had to do something to allow more people access to his establishment.
Kneale added The Beacon Snackerie due to the high demand for seats at his establishment. This outdoor dining area next to the main restaurant could accommodate up to 150 people and was adorned in blue and white. It opened in July 1936 and became another instant hit. The restaurant closed in late September after serving as many as 1,800 people per day in its first season, rivaling the peak of Thompson’s Clam Bar.
Kneale promised that the next year would see improvements to The Beacon—a restaurant that was already exceeding what any restaurant had done in the past on Cape Cod. So successful was the Snackerie idea at The Beacon that Kneale opened a sister spot at his winter home in West Palm Beach, Florida, in time for Christmas 1936.
The year 1937 saw The Beacon become a year-round establishment and Kneale become a year-round Cape resident. He and his family rented out a cottage on Long Beach in Centerville. That same year, Kneale acquired a liquor license for The Beacon, the oldest liquor license on Cape Cod. It was little more than three years since the end of Prohibition.
A new enclosed dining area at the Snackerie allowed for up to two hundred people to be served at once. Business was only helped by the addition of a full-service Gulf gasoline station directly across the street. The two worked in tandem, with customers having their cars worked on going across the street to dine at The Beacon while they waited.
The Beacon had become the biggest name in Cape Cod dining after only two years, and it would not let go of that mantle easily. In 1938, Kneale began to offer special breakfast, lunch and dinner combos beginning at fifteen, thirty and forty-five cents, respectively. Friday nights became all-out dance parties at the Snackerie. Music was pumped out from The Beacon through loudspeakers, and folks could dance, if the urge should take them, that is. Business increased by a third in The Beacon’s third year. In 1940, Kneale opened The Beacon Junior in Sagamore, up near the bridge. His imprint established, Kneale left The Beacon in the capable hands of his son Edward Kneale Jr. and headed up to Boston to run the Hotel Puritan in the early 1940s before ending up back down in Florida in the early 1950s.
The Beacon continued to serve loyal customers into the 1960s. By then, many new restaurants and attractions had come to claim some of the pie that the restaurant once dominated. Once things changed in Hyannis, they would change quickly and often. In 1968, The Beacon ceased to be. In the time since, the property became the Brass Rail, Slade’s of Boston, MD Armstrong’s, Cranberry Boggs and the Hyannisport Brewing Company. As of 2016, the property that housed the original king of Cape Cod restaurants lies vacant.