From Scary Ann's to Mary Jane's?

From Dave "Binge Drinker" Brigham:

Mary Ann's in Boston's Brighton neighborhood is like a second home for Boston College students and alumni. This Cleveland Circle dive bar is so legendarily gross that it's known as Scary Ann's. Or should I say, was....I never set foot in Mary Ann's, which seems like it was Boston College's version of St. Elmo's, the bar from the Brat Pack touchstone movie, "St. Elmo's Fire." Except with less famous people and more vomit and urine stench.

The bar closed recently (it did have a sign, but although I've walked past this joint dozens of times in recent years while on subway rides with my son, I didn't ever think to take a picture until it was too late). I'm sure the legions of BC students and alumni (Go Eagles!!) are heartbroken -- there is no on-campus bar and no other place in the Cleveland Circle neighborhood that's as tawdry and disgusting as Mary Ann's evidently was. Sure it was gross, but it was their gross. How gross and disgusting was it?

From Yelp:

"There's no place like Scary Ann's: covered in beer, lacking in every kind of amenity (including windows), endowed with truly claustrophobic bathrooms that make you wonder if any obese person has entered MA's, and often so loud you can't hear yourself think," says Jess Y.

"It's also an awesome destination if the smell of urine, vomit, and cheap beer awakens your senses before finals. Otherwise, MA's is disgusting and can be packed like a can of sardines- if those sardines were drunk bros. (One wonders: don't capacity restriction laws exist?)," says George S.

I'm guessing that many in Cleveland Circle are happy that Mary's Ann's closed. I can only imagine the drunken idiocy that strutted around the neighborhood. Don't get me wrong: I did more than my fair share of drinking during college and for quite a few years afterward. But even in my boozing days, I had no tolerance for loutishness (is that a word?).

Some of those same people, however, are not happy about what might become of this former booze bunker. Where once neighbors and business owners had to step over pools of vomit and plug their nose to prevent wafts of urine entering their nasal passages, now they may have to deal with the sweet smell of cheeba and the fear coming face to face with Cheetos-covered wasteoids.

Yes, a shop selling Sweet Leaf is likely to open here in the near future.

As the Boston Globe reported in early January, Happy Valley Ventures, a purveyor of medical and recreational cannabis, agreed to buy the building, contingent upon its ability to secure permits and zoning approval to operate a Mary Jane dispensary.

In addition to Boston College's chief of police and its vice president of governmental and community affairs, some residents in the area feel Happy Valley is blowing smoke up their asses. "Property value, potential smoking in the area, potential creation of more black markets for selling weed, and the proximity of a dispensary to schools — most notably to BC’s campus — were other issues brought up by opponents over the course of the two hour meeting," according to this article in The Heights, the independent newspaper on BC's campus.

Reefer Madness, I tell ya!

Greater Boston Bar Co., which acquired Mary Ann's last year and entered the agreement to sell to Happy Valley, has indicated it may reopen the putrid joint after some renovations. If Happy Valley is unable able to secure its permissions, that may happen. But I'm sure it won't be the same sh*thole all those screaming Eagles loved. Stay tuned....