In 2018, the owner of Stearns and Hill's Bistro, located directly across the street from our flagship restaurant, Turner's Seafood Grill & Market at 506 Main Street, Melrose, approached us about selling his property. It's not that we were looking to open another location, but this unexpected opportunity got us thinking. 505 Main Street is, in our opinion, the finest building in downtown Melrose, and since we don't own the Turner's building, we decided to give it our best shot. A week later we had ourselves our third restaurant location. The obvious question became what type of restaurant would enhance the Melrose community and be successful in this location. Because Melrose was formally a dry town, it lacked a local pub or tavern concept that served as the community's unofficial gathering space. So, the question then became what type of a pub / tavern concept - Irish, English, ...? There were lots of suggestions accompanied by lots of potential names. There was a third possibility, however, but seriously, how much American Revolutionary history could there have been in colonial Melrose? A visit to the Melrose Public Library instantly changed this misconception. How is it possible that our local schools don't teach us that Melrose, then a neighborhood of Malden, cast America's first official vote to secede from England? Opening the Rising Eagle has become a remarkable journey into a time long since passed, littered with some of the most extraordinary and famous people in history. Come and experience what we have discovered.
