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Dine at the Boston table famous for JFK’s proposal to Jacqueline Bouvier
You'll find it at the Omni Parker House.
This winter, America has been brushing up on the late John F. Kennedy Jr.’s romantic life through the FX television series “Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette,” set in New York City.
Boston visitors hungry for more Kennedy family history can dine at Parker’s Restaurant inside the 1855 Omni Parker House, the oldest continuously operating hotel in the United States and where a plaque marks the engagement location of Kennedy’s parents.
A plaque at Table 40 at Parker’s Restaurant signifies where president-to-be John F. Kennedy proposed to Jacqueline Bouvier in 1953, said Susan Wilson, the official historian at Omni Parker House and the author of a book about the hotel. But it’s not the only plaque with that claim, Wilson said.
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Martin’s Tavern in Washington, D.C. also claims JFK proposed to Jackie there, and a plaque marks that spot as well.
Wilson said she reached out to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston about it.
“I said, OK guys, what’s the deal? What do you think? Because both of us have been saying this for decades,” Wilson said. “They said they don’t have any specific information about which place it was. Obviously, Jack and Jackie went to both places. There’s no question about that.”
John F. Kennedy’s great grandfather Patrick Kennedy arrived in Massachusetts in 1849, and the future president was born in Brookline in 1917. The Kennedys are part of the fabric of Boston history and spent a lot of time at the prominent Boston hotel, Wilson said.
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“Since no one can disprove our claim, we’ll continue to claim it because it’s been told forever and the Kennedys had such a close connection to the Parker House,” Wilson said.
The hotel was the setting for John F. Kennedy’s first public speech at age six in 1923, Wilson said, when he stood on a table in the hotel’s Press Room during a party for his grandfather, Mayor John “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald, and told the crowd that he was “the best grandfather a child ever had.” It is where JFK announced his candidacy for Congress in 1946. His bachelor party also took place there in 1953.
Today, hotel visitors attend conferences in the Kennedy Room and stay in the Kennedy Suite. Parker’s Restaurant is the birthplace of the Boston Cream Pie, so couples who make reservations at Table 40 for their own proposals have been known to place an engagement ring in the famous dessert, according to the hotel’s blog.
The historic hotel underwent a $65 million renovation in 2025.
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