Kenmore/Fenway

Recently 21 and a college student with little pocket change, I set out to find the best bars in Boston for someone on a budget. I wanted to find places with interesting drink menus and specific atmospheres. To tackle all of Boston at once would be ambitious, so I decided to break down my search by neighborhood. Up first: Fenway and Kenmore. Sports bars galore surround the oldest ballpark in the MLB, unsurprisingly, but I wanted to look past the baseball taverns and the casks and the flagons with their TV screens perpetually tuned to ESPN. I took a closer look and ended up at the following places, our Co-Creative Director Xochitl Lozano in tow.

 

Cheeky Monkey Brewing Co.

Cheeky Monkey Brewing Co., which recently celebrated its first anniversary, sits on Lansdowne St. outside Fenway Park. Surrounded by aged Irish bars (practical staples in Boston’s drinking culture), Cheeky Monkey offers a fresh, young alternative to those hyper-masculine watering holes. Neon and copper light the sleek tables and bar; busts of monkey heads line the walls. It manages to be simultaneously eclectic but austere — a seemingly impossible balance of kitsch and modernity. On tap they have their signature craft beers, brewed in-house. Does it happen in the copper tanks hanging above the bar? I’d like to think so. I ordered their seasonal jalapeño beer, a combo my friends scoffed at. It’s subtle peppery flavor led to a kick in its aftertaste. Not for everybody, but still remarkable.

Cheeky Monkey is a guaranteed successful night out. Pool, ping pong, and cornhole tables; large leather couches, high top tables, and a massive bar. Not to mention, a killer list of beers.

 

The Lower Depths Taco & Tap Room

Across the bridge to Kenmore and down a flight of stairs, my friends and I found our way to The Lower Depths. We were immediately assaulted by a “Cash Only” sign, a practical death wish in the age of the credit card. Below the sign was an ATM.

A smaller establishment than the impressive Cheeky Monkey, The Lower Depths offers a quieter, more intimate venue to drink beer and eat food, mostly tacos and street food reminiscent of the ballpark food around the block. A motley list of local beers makes it obvious that this beer list was well thought out. I had a Turtle Swamp from our own Jamaica Plain. More so a restaurant than a bar, Lower Depths is the place to impress a date with this seemingly lesser-known place with an edge. Almost a dive, but not; almost a restaurant, but not. Just don’t forget cash.

 

The Hawthorne Bar

Down the block and nestled between the front doors of the Hotel Commonwealth is an almost hidden door to The Hawthorne Bar. Even with directions on our phone we had to circle the block, check the back alley, and pass through the hotel lobby to finally ask the concierge where this alleged bar was. Once there, we were met with an upscale cocktail lounge, dimly lit.

There wasn’t a college student in sight. A bar where authors might go to sulk or business men might bring their mistresses, funky furniture and artwork give this space an artistic but still cool vibe. Their menu of craft cocktails had names that would make someone more cynical than I roll their eyes. My choice: the Bicyclette, subtitled “love is a bicycle, fall off then ride again.” An elderflower liqueur, campari, lemon, sparkling wine, served in a champagne flute: $13, standard for a more involved cocktail in a place like this. Sophisticated, straight-laced verging on sterile, but not boring; The Hawthorne is a good option for a drink with a coworker, a first date when you want to seem at your best, or somewhere to bring mom or dad.

 

Eastern Standard

Also accessible through the lobby of the Hotel Commonwealth, Eastern Standard stands tall and proud on Comm Ave., nearly behemoth in its size and grandiose (at least compared to the average watering hole). It was like that bar in Cheers where everybody remembered your name, except here someone was likely to forget it five minutes later. Like a bar they’d go to on an episode of “Sex and the City”, it was uber chic, but as if the bar didn’t know that it was. Merlot-colored lamps lined the restaurant, Kanye West acted as background music, the smell of oysters hung over the room, and real candles on each table provided practically the only source of light.

Their prolific drink list offered an array of cocktails for the seasoned drinker, along with an Autumn Harvest subsection. I ordered an Ivory Coast (subtitled “robusta and vine”) — what I assumed would be an earthy, October-y mixture. Needless to say, when I saw our waiter carrying over a tumbler of a dark liquor I nearly gagged. Eastern Standard is sexy and lux, somewhere you’d want to escape to on a bitter winter night. And the most expensive on my list, for a reason.

 

Cornwalls

Across Comm Ave. is your traditional Irish sports bar, Cornwall’s: a wooden bar, beers on tap you’d expect, and the necessary wall decor for any Irish bar. But, you know what they say: if it isn’t broken.

The star here was the pool tables that my friends and I immediately flocked to. One dollar a game and a quarter machine; they also have a very welcome shelf of board games. I would describe Cornwall’s as standard, but necessary representation. We were near Fenway Park, after all. Go to Cornwall’s to watch the game, to get a beer with some friends, to shoot some pool, and to ensure a good time.