Best of Boston

When the Verb Hotel opened last summer, it was the cherry atop Boylston Street’s transformation from gas-station-pocked urban blight to nightlife destination. Tim and Nancy Cushman’s Japanese izakaya anchored that metamorphosis with their gastronomic Tilt-a-Whirl featuring fluorescent cocktails swilled from plastic guitars. Now postgame watering holes are sprouting up around Fenway like kudzu, but the best fetes still end on the Verb’s lantern-lit ground floor, the sounds of karaoke echoing into the night.