Found a massive pubcrawl post I made for someone on another forum:
Since I did that I'm gonna make this more of a bullet list. IMO the best place by far is Cambridge, tons of options and they're great. Every square is on the red line T (except Inman) and you can walk pretty much the whole way across. Allston/Brighton would be second, there's several great bars there. Downtown/fenway is more of a bar/club atmosphere and all the bars are pretty much the same (Boston Beer Works is okay if you don't mind only liking 1 out of every 5 beers), in Cambridge you get more of a pub atmosphere with a LOT of great beer. Fenway is fun on gameday for the atmosphere, and Bleacher Bar is cool cuz you can see into the stadium from the right field wall. I personally dislike going out in the downtown-ish area, have never had a good time, I think it's just not my cup of tea.
I'm gonna go from square to square starting at Kendall, the one closest to downtown.
Kendall - must go, best spot for drinking IMO. MIT area.
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Meadhall - new place, lots of great beer, big couches. Expensive food, just drink there. Def check it out.
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Cambridge Brewing Company - best place in Boston IMO. Their beer is awesome, their food is awesome. Bar area isn't huge but it's fine, outdoor seating area rocks. Good place to sit and eat dinner or order a pizza or apps.
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Lord Hobo - prolly my fav bar, 30ish rotating taps, high end gastro pub (truffle aioli fries and calamari are amazing). Used to be kinda hipstery but that's gone away recently, has kind of an alternative feel to it. Bartenders know me and I get free beer sometimes, and they're awesome.
From Kendall you can either walk to Inman via Hampshire St (7min and you'll be walking past my apt
) or Central (little futher), or take the T to Central. If you walk to Central, stop in at the
Asgard, a huge Irish place with cheaper craft beer and a good sized bar area. If you're not walking this way, it's prolly not worth it to backtrack. Also on the way is
Miracle of Science, a decent bar with a few good beer choices that'd be a good spot to grab a beer.
Inman - overall not amazing but a few good choices for a pubcrawl. Less built up since there's no T stop. May be skippable. Taza Chocolate is nearby if you wanna do a chocolate factory tour, it's a tiny bean to bar chocolate maker, need a reservation.
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Bukowski's Tavern - Big place, good beer selection, a little overpriced but not too bad. Esp worth it if you get the buk burger with cheese and fries for $4, but that's only before 8 on weekdays.
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The Druid - a couple storefronts down, smaller irish bar with about 8 taps, decent selection and prices.
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Trina's Starlight Lounge - small place with a small bar, 6 or so taps, mainly a mixed drink place. Prolly not good for a group, but a good place. Check the website to see what's on tap.
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Thirsty Scholar - a little out of the way but a good bar, pretty big, kind of a sports bar I guess. Probably not viable on a pub crawl.
From Inman you'd want to walk to Central via Prospect St, there's not much on the way, it's about an 8min walk.
Central - kinda faceless and built up. One really good bar, several good stop-in spots. Falafel Palace is a great spot to grab a quick falafel or lamb wrap to eat as you walk.
Green Street - the good bar here. Nice pub, great beer and food.
The Field - Rugby/soccer bar you'd pass if coming from Inman. Mediocre beer selection, decent sized place. I stop in occasionally.
Tavern in the Square - big sports bar. Beer prices are stupid, you can get a bottle of Ommegang for the same price as a Sam Adams on draft (so get belgian bottles there).
Phoenix Landing - Surprisingly good beer selection, kind of a strange place. Usually turns into a club later at night, I go often on Thursdays for drum n bass night.
Middle East - pretty well known concert venue and restaurant, haven't been there to drink though, just go to shows.
From Central you'll want to head to Harvard via walking or T. It's a decent walk but not too bad. If you do walk there's a good place to check out,
Garden at the Cellar. I haven't been to the downstairs bar but the restaurant upstairs is one of the best palces I've ever eaten at in my life. The bar is always full so that's a good sign. Also on the way is
People's Republik, it looks like a commie bar, lol. I haven't been there so I can't really comment on it though I've heard it's pretty cool.
Harvard - mainly full of restaurants as far as I know. There's a bunch of places I didn't list that might work to stop in and get a drink but I've never really tried it, I normally stick to the other squares. The below are good pubcrawl options though.
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John Harvard's - Brewpub with a few choices at any given time, huge space. Never had a great beer there, but I've never had a bad one either.
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Charlie's - kind of a chaotic place, usually a few choice craft beers on tap. There's the downstairs, upstairs, and usually outdoor areas, you'd def want to do the outdoor. A lot of people looove this place, I wind up there with friends sometimes. Gets hectic but it's pretty cool.
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Tommy Doyle's - there's another one of these next to CBC in Kendall but I didn't bother to mention it. Figured I'd mention it here since there's not much else for me to list, lol. Irish bar, okay place. Kind of a bro atmosphere.
From Harvard it's a decent hike to Porter. The good thing about walking is halfway there is probably my favorite non-kendall bar in Cambridge,
Cambridge Common. Big place, solid choice of beers (~12 or so, and Ithaca Flower Power is always on tap), good for apps.
Porter - I typically think of Cambridge Common when I think Porter, but there's a couple places that'd be a good stop too.
Tavern in the Square - basically the same as the Central version.
Christopher's - good taplist, more of a restaurant until later on. Might be awkward if you can't get a bar spot but I've popped in just to leave several times so they're used to it.
Spirit - a little further down, kind of a crappy bar with all macro beers and Sam Adams (just like downtown or Fenway, basically). It's cheap and does its job well.
Davis is not far at all from Porter so you def should walk this one.
Davis - Tufts-ish area. One great option, a few good places to stop at on a crawl.
Redbones BBQ - awesome. Food is great, beer is great. Downstairs is Underbones which is where you'll want to go, it's the bar area. One thing to note is that if you order something big like a belgian triple or a RIS you HAVE to ask for a 10oz pour or else you'll get a whole pint and pay like $11. Other than that it's awesome, love it there.
Sligo - Terrible dive bar with terrible beer. But kind of awesome. The tables (all 2 of them) are all carved up and the place is just totally a ****ty dive. Kinda just worth seeing.
The Burren - friends of mine love this place, I think it's fine. Acts as a small concert venue and comedians perform here in the back area. Big place, usually there's a couple craft options. Not bad but if there's a cover I wouldn't bother. It's the only place I've been to in Boston that has a cover for something as common as a local 80s cover band.
Joshua Tree - Big sports bar, kinda turns into a club later at night. I used to watch Bills games at the one in Brighton, not a good beer selection and food isn't good. But it may be worth a stop.
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So that's my guide to drinking in Cambridge! As I said in my descriptions, highlights in my mind are CBC, Hobo, Meadhall, Cambridge Common, and Redbones. IMO, Cambridge is by far the best, esp given my understanding of your beer preferences
My other choice would be Allston/Brighton. American Craft and Publick House are great, the latter gets a bit crowded sometimes though. A pretty good walk away is Sunset with 100+ taps. It's huge and I don't think they mind you grabbing a table for just nachos and beer or something if there's no bar space (the nachos are HUGE). There's a few places around Sunset that would be good to stop in though none are real standouts. The last spot here is Deep Ellum, a smaller bar with an eclectic selection of usually great beers. And omfg the pretzels. Love this place. Also in a diff spot in Brighton is a place with a bunch of decent bars like Porter Belly's and Brighton Beer Garden. This one is kinda hard to get to though. The big problem with Brighton is that it's on the Green line which ****ing sucks. It's so slow and takes FOREVER to get anywhere (especially Cambridge). What you could do though is get on the T after Deep Ellum area and head towards downtown or Fenway which isn't too bad a ride. Or, get on the 64 bus from here and take it to Central Square or something.
:mytwocents:
