When a restaurant has been in business for more than eighty years, they have to be doing something right.

“It is a staple in the town, surrounding towns.”

“The food’s unbelievable.”

“Generations of people come through here.  My father, 47 years ago was drinking here.”

“It’s not only the food, it’s the people.  It’s the whole nine yards.”

“You should definitely come down and check it out.  It’s awesome.  Our longevity here speaks for itself. It’s a pretty special place.”

And if you haven’t had been able to get there since 1939, it’s about time you made your way to Lewis’. Located in Norwood Center, Lewis’ Bar and Grill is a local institution that has been wowing customers with big portions and even bigger personalities.

“Lewis’ is your neighborhood, family restaurant. We’ve been in business since ’39. … We’re like your everyday meeting place.  When you walk in what happened when you walk in. We have your old school used to be gentleman’s bar hasn’t changed since the third late 30s.  The dining room is more of like your family style restaurant. We also have outdoor dining.  We converted an old alleyway on the side of our building too. Super popular. Usually those things will fill up first and then the inside will fill up.”

That’s Joe Tropeano, who does double duty at Lewis’ as the general manager and chef, serving a menu with a little something for everyone- especially if you like burgers.

“We’re known for our burgers.  Our Lewis burger is our staple burger. Nobody really knows when it was kind of created a couple different people taking claim to it. But we think it was in the early 70s, late 60s.  Everybody has a burger with an egg on it now.  Ours has egg salad on it.  We take claim to be the first to put eggs on a burger.”

This outlandish combination has first time customers scratching their heads.

“I’ve had the Lewis Burger. I was a little skeptical but it was awesome. Most people are, but once people have it, everything meshes together.”

“It is an 8 ounce hand pressed burger. And then we put this half piece of scali bread in the middle that has egg salad, ham, onion, tomato, lettuce and mayo.  You get that creaminess from the egg salad, you know, it mixes great with the you know, the burger, the heat and, and you know, the crunch from the lettuce and the tomato. It all just kind of, you know, blends well together.  It’s a little daunting sometimes when people read it the first time but we say everybody has an egg on a burger now.  We just do it with egg salad.  It’s it’s pretty special to us.”

Diehards order the Mother Burger.

“So the mother burger is basically two of our burgers on the same plate. Two eight ounce burgers made the same way as a regular burger, but just on two pieces of scali.” Beyond burgers, Lewis’ offers an enormous selection of starters including crispy wings slathered in sauce.  A flavorful poutine featuring crispy fries topped with gooey cheese, hearty gravy and tender smoked chicken and one of the biggest meatballs you’ll ever lay your eyes on.

“It is a big guy. It’s 12 ounces.   When you’re on your meatball usually you’re expecting something you know what your standard size meatball and this comes out is almost the size of the bowl.”

And if the meatball doesn’t fill you up- the profanely delicious big ass pretzel will.

“We were putting them on the menu and I’m trying to figure out what to call them. And I’m like, well, it’s a big ass pretzel. So I guess we’ll just call it the big ass pretzel.”

There are swordfish tacos that are so popular, sometimes the kitchen staff feels as if they’re working at a South of the border taco spot.

“They’re great seller for us.   At nighttime sometimes we’re like are we Lewis’ Taqueria or are we Lewis’ Bar and Grill?”

Of course they do cover all of the classics, like tender steak tips smothered in creamy gorgonzola with caramelized onions and a massive plate of chicken parm served over pasta.

“Our chicken parm is to me the best around.  We pound our chicken you know pretty thin, breaded  homemade marinara sauce and great mozzarella cheese and then we have a choice different pastas we put over it.  You have to try it for yourself and experience the greatness.”

And no matter who you are and what you’re hungry for, you’re going to love Lewis’.

“You got a little bit of everything here at Lewis’ .you got your gentleman’s bar on one side, you got your family restaurant on the other side, you got some great outdoor spaces, great music, great bartenders. We don’t really pigeonhole ourselves into one specific area. We want to be a place that anybody can come to you can bring your kids you can bring a date. It’s you know, a place for everybody.”