With Susanne Beck
The Sevens – Everyone feels like neighbors
This installation of “Behind the Counter,” is an ongoing series celebrating Beacon Hill salespeople and the places they work. If you have any suggestions for future pieces, please contact Susanne at [email protected].
Cheers may claim to be “the place where everyone knows your name.” But Charles Street’s own neighborhood pub, The Sevens, seems to go one step further, evidenced by its fairytale-like photo album, “We Met at the Sevens.” Filled with a mix of pictures and cute meet storylines, the book is a welcome bit of encouragement for anyone who believed that bar encounters can lead to romance and these days, for those who have had it with online dating. More importantly, it’s also a reminder that in places like Beacon Hill, community is alive and well and for so many, more valuable than ever.
“I love when people come in and they’re like, my god, I haven’t been here in 30 years,” beams bartender Mia Alexander. “Just to see how people react and how their eyes light up. It’s such a beautiful thing.” Alexander has worked at the Sevens for three years and admits that she is somewhat younger than some of her customers’ memories. But the connection she feels to the bar and those clients is just as warm. “I never came here when I was at Emerson,” she says. But her best friend from high school was related to Seven’s current owner Julianne Kylie. “She was just always kind of like the cool older cousin,” Alexander remembers, adding “I always saw the bar’s t-shirts and stuff around my best friend’s house.” When Kylie found out she was going to college nearby, she was insistent. “She said, ‘you have to come work here’,” Alexander recalls. “And the rest is kind of history. It just kind of felt like it was meant to be.”
Fellow bartender and newcomer Hailee Varvel echoes much of what Alexander says. “I honestly have just felt such like a sense of community from the regulars. I’ve never been into a bar or been a regular myself at a bar quite like the Sevens.” Varvel feels blessed to have literally stumbled into the job after she struck up a conversation with Alexander one night when she was in having a few beers with some friends. “She told me that three people had just quit and that they were looking for good people and people who would be fun to work with.” The chemistry was instant – and the offer, too. Varvel says that, happily, the job feeds into her current day job, as well – as a graduate student pursuing a mental health degree. “I like to watch people’s interactions and the dynamic between them and how things are going. It’s really fun for me.” Then she laughs. “I sometimes say I work in a psych ward during the day, and then I work in a psych ward at night!”
According to the duo, chemistry also explains the deep bond among all the Seven’s staff members. “It’s a very sort of intimate team we have going since it is a smaller place. It’s always a lot of team effort,” Alexander says. “I really love all my coworkers, so it’s always a lot of fun.” Varvel describes the team as “very go with the flow. We tell it like it is…Obviously we want to make sure we’re respecting all of the patrons and that everybody’s having a good time. But I definitely feel like we’re able to have a good time too.” Both women give a special shout out to fellow staffer, Alejandro, and the magic he creates in his seasonal sangrias.
The good vibes the Sevens crew shares with their customers makes every connection feel special, especially when they see new relationships turn permanent a la the bar’s book, “We Met at the Sevens.” “It’s just like little scrap receipt papers, napkins of anecdotes of couples from how they met,” Alexander explains. “You look through and there’s some from like some from the eighties, nineties, early two thousands, and they talk about how they brought their kids here after. We call ‘em sevens babies because their parents met here.” She goes on, a bit sheepishly with a chuckle. “I’m only 22, but I hope I’m in that book one day because, I don’t know, it’s such a lovely thing to see.”
Varvel and Alexander are both Hill residents who appreciate the area well beyond their short commutes to work. “I always see someone I know every time I leave my house which is great,” Alexander says. “It feels like a neighborhood in the city, like a very more intimate community.” Varvel has had the same experience despite her roots in Tip City, Ohio. “Coming into Boston and not knowing anyone when I moved here, it’s just been really, really cool to now like walk down the street and walk down Charles Street and like, say hi to four people who I recognize from the bar.” She has also discovered that while she may be behind the bar in Boston, her hometown often comes her way. “Recently, I turned around while I was working and a kid I went to high school with was behind me. We had just been in a wedding together,” she marvels. “That’s happened to me a few times.”
“I love times like that and interacting with regulars and really nice customers that come in. It’s casual so I can talk to people,” she says. “Like I’m not just serving people their beer, you know?”
Susanne Beck is a resident of Beacon Hill.