Burgers, Barstools & Beers By the Bay

By Cindy Hemper

Much like many people looking for something fun to do on the weekend, I have visited many of the taverns, clubs and restaurants on State St. and found great food, some of the best live music around and most importantly, a great time. The thing that usually goes overlooked by most in cities is the neighborhood bars, so I thought that I would check a few out.

One of the places that caught my attention was a place called Czartoryski’s Café, more commonly know to it patrons as By the Bay. This corner bar located at 302 Parade Street is one of the original bars on Parade Street, the original main street of Erie.

Founded just around the time prohibition had ended in 1933, By the Bay is Erie’s oldest family owned tavern with owners, Charleen and Richard Czartoryski as the current proprietors.  There are very few long time family owned taverns in Erie, one of the last to go was Herman’s Cafe on Old French Rd. that was established in 1934.

With an outside appearance of any neighborhood bar that once may have been someone’s home, By the Bay has a spacious dining room with Up-to-date décor and the bar located just by the front door and a pool table for your enjoyment.

By the Bay has a full service bar that carries a wide variety of beers including domestics, and imports along with coolers and of course just about any kind of mixed drink or shot that you might want, all of which are priced about the same as any other bar. By the Bay offers no regular house drink special, but does list weekly drink specials.

Similar to other bars in town that sell food, By the Bay offers a full Snack food menu of just what you might expect hamburgers, sandwiches and soups. Although their menu is competitively priced and the food is good, I am not quite sure it is worth the walk on the wild side when you can get the same style and quality of food but with a much safer atmosphere should you choose to dine or drink at another establishment.