A Night on the Town

Last night after work a few of us went on a running tour of the bars in Boston. My friend had a colleague visiting from New York and she wanted to show him around.

We ran down Mass Ave to Comm Ave and showed our guest the turns we take on Marathon Day. From Comm Ave – Right on Hereford and left onto Boylston. Then past the Boston Public Library to the Marathon finish line, which to my great dismay is no longer visible on the street.

Pub Number one: Emmets

We meandered through the Public Garden and Boston Common, past Beacon Hill and found a comfy little Irish pub on Beacon Street called “Emmets“. My friends had an Allagash White and I had a Guinness as they were out of O’Hara’s. The crowd was light with people coming in for a drink after work or to grab supper.

For a place on Beacon Hill it had a familiar, friendly neighborhood feel to it. It seemed like the kind of place I’d like to call, “My Bar.”

Freedom Trail wanderings

After about half an hour of conversation and beverages we went out to the street to pick up The Freedom Trail, which served as our guide through town last night. Pointing out historic sites to our guest as we went, we arrived at the Old State House. This was the scene of the Boston Massacre in 1770. Even around 7:30pm on a Wednesday night there were tourists taking photos.

We walked through Haymarket and Faneuil Hall and made our way to The Union Oyster House for a plate of mussels and a couple of Sam Adams Boston Brick Red. We sat in the bar and the staff was fantastic with great service and a few tidbits of history. The Union Oyster House opened in 1826 and is the oldest continually operated restaurant in America. It has never been shut down for code violations or even Prohibition.The building is a registered historic land mark and they cannot make any modifications or updates to the building. There is a 400 seat restaurant upstairs, but no elevator.

Check out the link to Sam Adam’s Boston Brick Red. It is one of their specialty beers, name one that isn’t!. They are donating $4 from each keg to the Samuel Adams Brewing the American Dream which provides micro loans and mentoring to small businesses. What’s not to love about that!

The North End

From The Union we headed towards The North End. For my non-US readers, The North End is a classic Boston neighborhood that has traditionally been an Italian neighborhood. For the most part it still is and you can get a great dinner, pastry and gelatto at many fine establishments.

We were on a mission to find Mike’s Pastry at 9:45 at night. I wasn’t sure they would still be open but Gail looked at me like I must have been high and said “It’s the middle of the summer, of course they will be open.” At Mike’s we all got cannolis and I grabbed some pistachio cookies for us. Mike’s makes the best pistachio cookies.

Peering over our cannolis, we walked down Salem Street to Paul Revere Park and walked through it on our way to The Old North Church. As we got to the end of the park I could see that the back gate on the alley to the front of the Church was closed and locked. We wandered down a dead-end alley into what must have been someones front yard, had a laugh and turned around.

After much circumnavigation of the streets of The North End we arrived at the front of The Old North Church. It is still an active Episcopal church with Sunday masses at 9AM and 11AM. At 10PM on a Wednesday night it was locked up and dark. It took us much longer to get there than it took us to look around and move on.

We wandered down Hanover Street and ended up at The Green Dragon Tavern. We walked into a half full bar and grabbed the only table by the open window looking out onto the street. The best seat in the house. We ordered a round of their Green Dragon Ale and settled in to enjoy more conversation and the scenery.

When the drinks arrived they looked like, and tasted like, plain old lagers. I’m not sure what we expected but I was a little disappointed in their lack of flavor. The Green Dragon has a long and rich history also. If you click on the link you can read about it.

Our last stop on The Boston Bar Run was the Waterfront Sports Bar and Grill. It was a cozy place with a neighborhood bar feel to it, and they served both Pretty Things and Slumbrew, so we were very happy to show our out-of-town guest more local flavor.

At 10:48PM we decided it was time to call it a night. I finally got home around mid-night and managed to get a few hours of sleep. As someone quoted Warren Zevon last night, “I’ll sleep when I’m dead.”

Run well my friends

Andy

©2012 Andrew nagelin