By Michele Taranto

Over the years, Norwood has attracted numerous movie studios. Many have included the historical Norwood Theatre and the quaint Town Common, but recently, a town landmark was featured on a YouTube production, and its content a far cry from a holiday movie.

In 2018, after working 27 years as head bartender and manager of the Café Venice, Mark Hannon was thrilled to purchase the popular restaurant with Karen Walsh. At the time, they thought they pretty much knew everything about the oldest restaurant in Norwood. What they didn’t expect were some unexpected patrons.

It was after some renovations to the function and dining rooms in 2019, that they started noticing some unfamiliar changes.

“A lot of things started happening around that time that were unexplained,” Walsh said. “Office papers all over the floors in the basement, a glass would fall off a shelf, empty beer boxes on the floor behind the bar when arriving in the morning.”

Even their dogs noticed something was amiss. They would stare into the empty dining room growling; maybe not unusual on its own, but according to Walsh, no one was in the room.

Walsh knew Susan Ahern, a medium, who is affiliated with Mass Hauntings and asked her if she would take a look. Ahern and her crew spent four hours one night and returning another evening.

“Their findings validated everything we thought we saw and heard,” Walsh said. “A few different presences in the restaurant, absolutely.” 

Mass Hauntings, a tv series originated in 2021, is hosted by Owen Myre and his team. They investigate purported haunted locations around Massachusetts. Their chilling Café Venice results became a YouTube production, ‘The Investigation of Café Venice-Norwood.’ 

The good news is, through some research and evaluation of their findings, the Mass Haunting crew concluded whoever continues to visit Café Venice mean no harm. In fact, many family members have either been contacted or have commented on the YouTube page and echo those conclusions.

“They let us know that the spirits that are there are not malicious which made everybody feel better,” Walsh said. “They are just trying to get everybody’s attention.”

There is more footage not included in the first film and plans are being future visits by Mass Hauntings as well as other paranormal teams. These invitations, however, may not produce more information as Norwood Community Media was recently filming a special on the restaurant, and their camera lens had trouble focusing the interior shots, while outside, the equipment worked perfectly fine.

For now, it is work as normal for Hannon, Walsh, and the rest of the staff at Café Venice. They continue to serve their loyal patrons and manage the books from their ‘active’ basement, but now they equipped with a little more knowledge and validation; a comfort that their visitors are just there for no more than a little attention.  

Café Venice is located at 1088 Washington St., South Norwood. They are open Wednesdays through Sundays, lounge at 12 noon, dining room at 4 p.m., and close Wednesdays, 9 p.m., Thursdays, 9:30 p.m., and Fridays and Saturdays, 10 p.m., Sundays, 8 p.m.