Best of Boston

Best Dive Bar

The Jeanie Johnston Pub and Grill

Jamaica Plain
This character-filled institution checks all the dive-bar boxes, from trivia nights to live music to legendary karaoke. read more»
2017 Best Dive Bar

Croke Park Whitey’s

Boston
The bad news is that the nearly windowless room feels like the perfect setting for a bar brawl. The good news is that most nights, [...] read more»
2016 Best Dive Bar

Courtside

Cambridge
This stark brick joint stands out in a neighborhood being rapidly overrun by coffee shops and concept restaurants. Step inside and catch the last half [...] read more»
2015 Best Dive Bar

The Cantab Lounge

Cambridge
Proper dive bars may be a dying breed, particularly in developing neighborhoods like Central Square, but amid all the ATMs, one redoubt of a bygone [...] read more»
2014 Best Dive Bar

The Eagle

Boston
Were it possible to manufacture the ideal dive bar, you'd first need to reverse-engineer a comfy, lived-in space complete with quirkly local characters, no-nonsense bartenders, [...] read more»
2013 Best Dive Bar

Biddy Early’s

Boston
Biddy Early's is the city's best dive every day of the year, a fact that was proven on Friday, April 19. That day, while police [...] read more»
2012 Best Dive Bar

TC’s Lounge

Boston
(IN MEMORIAM) This place was notorious for many reasons: dirty floors; a weird sign hanging from the ceiling advertising an "Oxycontin shot"; the fun-house women's [...] read more»
2011 Best Dive Bar

TC’s Lounge

Boston
There's something refreshing about TC's after a Sox game, if you think of its griminess as a filter that keeps the pink hats out and [...] read more»
2010 Best Dive Bar

Silhouette Cocktail Lounge

Allston
The recipe for a superlative dive bar is simple: cheap drinks, good music, and a feeling of belonging for every sad sap who saunters in. [...] read more»
2009 Best Dive Bar

Silhouette Cocktail Lounge

Allston
If you require more than two ingredients in your cocktail (ice and booze), the Silhouette is likely not for you. True to dive décor, the [...] read more»
2008 Best Dive Bar

TC’s Lounge

Boston
Like any great dive bar, the insanely cluttered TC's Lounge looks as though it might have grown into its space organically, like a mushroom filling [...] read more»