Youngster savors final days of Dunning's Grill in Regent Square

The boy cried when he heard the news because this — like so many things in life — was not how it was supposed to end.

Brendan Lloyd visited Dunning's Grill regularly with his family since he was born in 2007. It was more than just a place to eat. It was where that nice waitress greeted him always with a smile, where she surprised him on his birthday with ice cream and singing. It was where his mom and dad once worked, where they met and fell in love. And it was where Brendan hoped to work someday, too, when he was old enough.

It wasn't fair. Everyone else had made their memories of Dunning's, the friendly neighborhood bar and restaurant in Regent Square, but Brendan hadn't finished making his.

“When mom said Dunning's is closing, I was like, ‘Forever?' ” said Brendan, 8, of Regent Square. “It was one of the saddest things in my life.”

Brendan's dad, Trevor, tried to console his son by bringing him to Dunning's one last time, before it opened, to show him the places he'd never been allowed to enter as a customer. The owner, George Smith, let them in on a Friday.

After the tour, Brendan thanked Mr. Smith and revealed his dream of working at Dunning's. Mr. Smith “put on his serious face,” Trevor Lloyd recalled, “looked at my son and said, ‘What are you doing at 11:30?' ”

The boy was free. Mr. Smith hired him as a busboy for the lunchtime rush.

“He busted his rear end and had a blast,” Trevor Lloyd said. “He got tips and then he got to eat for free. He thought that was the best thing in the world.”

Brendan ordered a cheeseburger and fries, and it was the best he'd ever had.

“I drank Pepsi!” he said. “I secretly didn't let my mom know. But now she knows. Because she's here. And she just heard me.”

He asked Mr. Smith if he could work the next day, Dunning's last day of business.

“I did all the stuff I did the first day,” Brendan said excitedly. He set tables and brought drinks — but not alcohol — to customers. The cooks let him help prepare food. “I can't remember what the food was, but it was green,” Brendan recalled.

And still, he wanted more. So Mr. Smith said he could work again that night.

The bar and restaurant were so packed, Brendan said with wide eyes, that “I had to crawl under people's legs. Literally. There was nowhere to walk, and I had to say ‘excuse me' like 100,000 times.”

When his friends Dom and Christopher stopped by, “they said, ‘What are you doing?' and I said, ‘I'm working.' They said, ‘Why?' and I said, ‘I got hired.' They said, ‘Why did you get hired?' and I said, ‘OK, you're asking too many questions. I have to work.' ”

He got tips. One was $11.

“I was like, $11? That's great!” he said. “I could literally see my money popping out of my pocket. I had to use the other pocket, too.”

Dunning's closed its doors for the last time that night, on July 18.

Today, the inside is empty. A new owner plans to open a restaurant there, named Ease, in the winter.

Last week, the Lloyds paid one more visit. Trevor Lloyd stood behind the bar he tended for years and recalled a Saturday afternoon in 1996 when he turned to the front door, which always squeaked, and watched a beautiful woman enter. He remembered how she walked the length of the bar to fill out a job application, how she was hired and how they went on their first date on Dec. 28 that year.

“Was it love at first sight?” he said of his wife, Glennen. “At least on one end it was.”

Roger Mayhall, who worked at Dunning's from day one in 1983, spoke of the day when George and his business partner Jerry decided to turn the previous establishment — a motorcycle bar known for mud wrestling events — into a friendly neighborhood joint. The bar was always packed. Regulars emerged, and Mayhall learned their first names and drink orders. “Everyone knew everyone's name,” he said. “That's a big thing, to come into a place like that.”

Brendan did not experience the old days, but he got to make his own memories. Just in time. Because like so many things in life, that was exactly how it was supposed to end: with Brendan becoming an official member of the “Dunning's Family,” a group George Smith addressed in a letter posted on the front door after the final last call.

Dear Dunning's Family,

After 32 years I will be retiring ...

It has been an honor & a whole lot of fun to grow alongside the neighborhood, families and friends who contribute so much character & history to Dunning's. ...

You have all made this a wonderful place to be every day ...

(Rides off into the sunset)

George W. Smith