South End bar owner says memento honoring neighborhood institution stolen

BOSTON — The owners of one of Boston’s newest bars are hoping that an item stolen off the wall will be returned once the culprit knows its significance.

The Kartal, located on Tremont Street in Boston’s South End, opened four months ago in the space previously occupied by the Boston Eagle.

The Boston Eagle, which closed during the pandemic, had been open for over 40 years and was one of Boston’s longest running LGBTQ+ establishments.

The Kartal’s owners, Elizabeth and Peter Georgantas, made a conscious effort to honor the neighborhood institution in their venue.

Eagle statues are on display in different areas of the bar, and a memorabilia wall pays tribute to the late owner of the Boston Eagle.

“It was a way for me to still have Jack here and for everyone who comes here to have a piece of Jack,” said Elizabeth Georgantas.

Jack Repetti died in November after a battle with cancer.

An item that went missing over the weekend from the memorabilia wall was something that offered a daily reminder of him.

“It was a firemen’s hat with a brass eagle on it,” said Georgantas. “It breaks my heart that someone would see something that’s so obvious on a memento wall, honoring the Eagle, and be so discourteous to think it was there for the taking.”

Georgantas said she was most heartbroken to pass along the news to Repetti’s surviving partner Leo.

He now sits at Kartal every night at the bar that he and Repetti once operated together for over four decades.

“We were together for 50 years,” he told Boston 25 News. “I walk around the house talking to him, and I ask why he died.”

The theft of the item that doesn’t have a price tag follows an on-going pattern of people stealing things from inside the bar.

Georgantas said that includes 18 table lamps.

“This is not supposed to be a place where I have to worry about my patrons taking from us,” she said.

She said the lamps that were stolen require a special charging plate and are useless to whoever took them.

“That’s personal property that you have absconded with that’s not yours,” she said.

She told Boston 25 News she remains most concerned about most recent item that was taken that cannot be replaced.

She said the person who took the fireman’s hat can return it with no questions asked.

“Maybe they thought that it was a fun souvenir to take off the wall and take home with them,” she added. “Maybe they’ll grow a conscience.”

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