Near you in Boston
Boston spreads its dives across the river, so the nearest honest pour depends on your side of town. The West End and downtown hold the old taverns near the centre. South Boston keeps the City Point corners.
Cambridge runs the densest student-priced run, with Central Square and Harvard Square a short Red Line ride apart. None of these rooms ask for a reservation or a dress code, which is the point. Pick the one closest to you and bring cash.
Bukowski Tavern holds a narrow, dim room on Dalton Street near the Prudential, all dark wood and a long wall of taps. $.
Sullivan's Tap pours cheap beer across from TD Garden in the West End, a long narrow room that fills on game nights. $.
L Street Tavern is an old-school Southie corner in City Point, known to film fans as the Good Will Hunting bar and to locals as a plain cheap room. $.
J.J. Foley's is a narrow downtown pub on Kingston Street, cheap and friendly, built for a cold pint among strangers. $.
Cantab Lounge has held the corner of Mass Ave in Central Square since 1938, with live music seven nights and a rock room downstairs. $.
Charlie's Kitchen has poured the cheapest cold one in Harvard Square since 1951, under one stubborn red sign. $.
The complete ranked guide to best dive bars in boston, neighbourhood by neighbourhood.
The same query in every city, with the top room in each.
The rooms above are the honest local picks by Boston neighbourhood, grouped so you can find the nearest one fast. For the full ranked dive guide, follow the link to the city guide.
If a bar here has closed or changed hands, tell us. We keep the page honest by correcting it, not by inventing a replacement.