Leave it to the Boston Herald to take a sad story and sensationalize the hell out of it. Like I mentioned the other night, I worked at The Six House for nearly a year and it wasn’t filled with Irish mobsters, stabbings are not a regular occurrence and if anything, it’s a yuppie bar. Yes, I said it – YUPPIES. Young Urban Professionals. Preps. White collar pukes. Trust fund babies. Whatever you want to call them. Tell me, where else do you find a young 20-something ask, “what types of ales do you have,” or request that his drink be served, “neat.”

In the Herald article, aside from this tragic incident, they cannot find other incidents to list. The worst offense The Six House has committed is being in the location of the FORMER Triple Os, mobster Whitey Bulger’s old hangout. FORMERLY, as in not anymore. Trust me, if I ever saw Whitey Bulger in there, you can be SURE I’d be calling the FBI. I’m not from Southie and that million dollar reward looks mighty nice. It’s unfair to say it should be closed because it’s in a spot that used to be a bar that Whitey Bulger used to hang out in.

I am not trying to make light of the death of a 26 year-old. It’s a horrible story and a young guy was killed, but the owners of The Six House are good guys. I’ve never been treated so well by a boss. They are good owners that just happen to own a last call bar. Maybe they should add bouncers at night, or remove the tables up front to open the place up (it’s very tiny). I think it’s a little harsh to shut the place down, putting 15 good people out of work because a bunch of assholes, who probably got wasted at other bars, decided to finish their night at the Six House and cause trouble.

I speak from experience as I was involved in a vicious bar room brawl last year that could have easily turned fatal (coincidentally, it was the night before I worked my first shift at the Six). Beers were thrown in faces, bottles smashed over heads, blood everywhere. That happened inside a Salem bar and I saw that was the SECOND incident that night. In fact, the weekend before, a kid in there was brandishing a knife and telling people, including my friend and me, he was going to use it!

Even the Hilltop Steakhouse, the classic family restaurant where I worked for six years, wasn’t immune to drunken violence. Once, we had a monster of a woman attack one of the waitresses, slamming her head into the walls repeatedly for no other reason than she was tired of waiting for her drink refill. She didn’t even attack her own waitress! It took four police officers and a can pepper spray to get this woman into the police cruiser! It happens and even with a huge cop on paid detail, it’s difficult to control drunk people.

If I hadn’t gotten pregnant, I’d probably still be working at the Six House. They have some of the best food ever, and it is meticulously clean (if you are not familiar, the kitchen is actually behind the bar, in open view of all customers). I never felt in fear of my life, I never before witnessed as much as a fight inside. Changes have to be made, of course, but forcing them to close is too extreme.