It wasn’t so long ago that finding a dive bar in greater Boston was as simple as walking down the street. For decades, dive bars provided the backbone of the city’s drinking culture, and served as an easy shorthand for Boston’s image in the country at large (for better or worse). However, things have changed over the past decade, as many classic dives have vanished. For example, Charlestown, at one point home to dozens of blue collar watering holes, now boasts a grand total of two. And good luck trying to find more than a handful of dives in Boston proper, as it’s just too expensive to operate a no frills joint with real estate prices being what they are now. Still, while the dive bar may be an endangered species, all hope isn’t lost.
Boston’s Best Dive Bars: Drinking and Diving in Beantown uncovers ninety of the best, still-standing dive temples in the city, with opinionated reviews that verge between the hilarious and the downright heartbreaking. From Ace’s High in South Boston, to Whitney’s Cafe in Harvard Square, with stops in Somerville, Roslindale, Eastie and everywhere in between, this book is the Boston drinker’s guide to the worst bar in your neighborhood, which also happens to be the best bar in your neighborhood. For anyone who’s ever sipped cheap whiskey out of a plastic cup under a mounted elk head while scratching lottery tickets, or tossed darts and snacked on stale popcorn with a pack of slumming hipsters, this is the book for you.
Luke O’Neil has been covering arts and nightlife in Boston for ten years. For years he wrote a popular column called Barcode in the Boston Globe, where he still writes about cocktails and the restaurant and bar scene. He also pens a bar column called Thursty in the Boston Metro, and the Liquid column in Stuff magazine and has written about bars for Boston Magazine and Black Book.
