Sullivan's Tap sits on Canal Street in Boston's West End, directly across from TD Garden, where the Bruins and Celtics play. It is a long, narrow room with one of the longest bars in the city, and it has poured cheap beer here since the day after Prohibition ended.
Who would love it: a fan who wants a cold draft, a clear view of the game, and zero pretense before walking to the arena. Who might not: anyone after craft cocktails, table service, or a quiet seat, because this is a loud, packed, get-to-the-bar kind of room on game nights.
The history is the hook. Sullivan's Tap opened on December 5, 1933, the day after Prohibition was repealed, and bills itself as Boston's oldest sports bar. Time Out Boston files it under the dive bars that locals point newcomers toward, and the room has kept that no-frills character through decades of arena crowds next door.
The layout does one job well. A single long bar runs most of the length of the room, lined with stools and backed by a wall of taps, so the whole space is built to move drinks fast when a few hundred people pour in before a puck drop. Televisions hang the length of the bar, which means there is no bad seat for the game even when the floor is shoulder to shoulder.
Priya Nair's read: come for the price and the proximity, not the menu. A draft here costs a fraction of what the arena charges fifty yards away, and that math is the entire point. Arrive at least an hour before a Bruins or Celtics game if you want a stool, because the room fills from the door inward and does not thin out until the crowd crosses Causeway Street.
The drinks list is short and honest. Domestic drafts and well pours do the heavy lifting, buckets of bottles come out on big nights, and nobody is going to ask whether you want your whiskey from the top shelf. Order a cold draft and a shot, settle your tab early, and keep your spot.
The crowd is pure pre-game and post-game energy. Bruins and Celtics fans dominate from the afternoon through last call on event nights, with a steady mix of West End locals and TD Garden concertgoers filling the gaps. Quieter afternoons turn it into a plain neighborhood tap, which is when regulars say the place is at its most comfortable.
Best time to go: a weekday afternoon if you want to actually hear yourself, or roughly ninety minutes before a Garden event if you want the full game-day surge. Either way the appeal is the same combination of cheap beer and an unbeatable address.
What regulars consistently flag, across Time Out and Tripadvisor listings, is the value and the location. The low prices and the across-the-street walk to TD Garden draw constant praise. The common caution is equally consistent: it is a dive, it gets jammed and loud on event nights, and the appeal is the beer and the spot rather than the food.
It earns its place among the city's game-day rooms by being the cheapest reliable pour next to the arena. See where it sits among the best sports bars in Boston, read our wider guide to the best sports bars in Boston, or browse the full Boston bar guide and the city's best dive bars.
Pair this bar with
For another TD Garden game-day room with a bigger menu, compare Banners Kitchen & Tap Boston. For the Fenway side of the city, Cask 'n Flagon Boston is the classic ballpark bar. And to drink literally inside the outfield wall, Bleacher Bar Boston makes the natural next stop.
Sources
Time Out Boston · Sullivan's Tap official site (accessed 2026-06) · Tripadvisor · Yelp (accessed 2026-06)
Reviewed by Priya Nair, barsforKings. Published Dec 9, 2025. Last reviewed Feb 11, 2026 · How we pick bars
