of the Old Canteen restaurant on Federal Hill.

Today, I'm gonna take you inside for a tour, and we'll take a look at what everybody's been talking about for 70 years.

(upbeat instrumental jazz music begins) Well, my father was a great restaurateur.

He opened this business in 1956.

This is the dining room and nothing has changed.

It remains the way it was in 1956.

My big question when I was young, when I asked my dad, "Why the color pink?"

With the pink lighting in the dining room and the pink walls, gives a reflection on people's skins and it makes their skin look a little healthier.

My dad was tough.

He was tough on me as his son learning the operation.

And until the day he died, it had to be his way, and I respect that.

On a Saturday night, a busy, busy Saturday night, the dining room in here is more or less, a play.

It's like going to the theater.

It's where everything has to be just perfect.

Once you get behind those doors in that kitchen, it's a whole 'nother world.

All right, order veal cacciatore.

'Cause that's where you hear sometimes the foul language.

That's where you hear a little bit of screaming and laughing and joking.

So it's like night and day between the two types of, the two things that are going on in this business, all trying to create this play.

It is pretty much organized chaos.

And I started working the dishwasher area, then I started making salads.

And then when I got to the hotline, they started letting me put pasta in a basket and dunking it in the water and putting it on a plate.

As the years went by, I became head chef.

I'm gonna just give you a little idea of the menu and and what the menu looked like back in the day, shrimp cocktail, 90 cents.

This dish right here, the broiled tenderloin steak with mushroom caps.

Now if you look at our menu today, it has, "Veal tenderloin steak a la Frank."

"(Saturday Night Is The Loneliest Night Of The Week)" ♪ Until I hear you at the door ♪ - And that was named after Frank Sinatra, 'cause he used to come here quite often after he did his shows at the Warwick Musical Theater or down at the Civic Center.

He used to come here for dinner.

♪ Saturday night is the loneliest night in the week ♪ (audience applauding) - All right, now we are at the bar of the lounge, and if these walls had ears...

There's been all kinds of characters, the politicians, some of the people from Federal Hill, there may be a little bit on the nefarious type.

Bookmakers have been here in the early days.

Raymond Pajaco was born next to my father.

They were born on the, right on the same block.

So they grew up together going through grade school together, they were friends.

And they'd be sitting next to the mayor or a judge.

When they're in the Old Canteen, they're here to have a good time, eat, drink, and be merry.

You know, we're Switzerland.

(instrumental jazz music begins) This is the table that Buddy Cianci and the chair that Buddy Cianci has, well sat in, pretty much right back to the middle 1960s.

He spent every night before every election just sitting in here alone, discussing things with my father, talking, doodling on the tablecloth.

As you can see, I mean, there's a picture of City Hall signed by him in the back of me, which has got a quote on it.

"Just remember, the toe you step on today, may be connected to the ass you have to kiss tomorrow."

Typical Buddy Cianci quote.

(music fades) For a couple of weeks after his funeral, we left this table empty with a candle burning on it, just in memory of him.

(instrumental jazz music begins) And this right here behind me is one of my favorite spots in the restaurant.

This is the spot that my father stood for almost 52 years and greeted every one of the customers every night of the week.

- [Interviewer] How often do you think about your dad when you're working?

- Every day.

(sighing) Every day.

This is his baby, this is what he created.

When I was younger, my father pushed me away from this life, but I won out.

I've been here, you know, 47 years.

I've been married almost 40 years now and I have two children.

When you put that much time into a business like this, there are other things in your life that you're not focusing on.

And I think he may have wanted me to have a life where I could juggle the both evenly.

This restaurant hasn't allowed me to do that, but I loved every minute of it.

So I'm gonna try to walk away when I do have a buyer.

Hopefully, somebody takes the restaurant and they run it the way it always has been.

Or maybe something else here, I don't know.

But I think the Old Canteen should remain here forever.

(music fades) - And that's our broadcast this evening.

Thank you for joining us.

I'm Pamela Watts.