Boston’s Best Dive Bars

Boston's best dive bars, all laid out for us in a handy, interactive map. This might be the best thing since bottled beer.

I have to give credit where credit is due: this first came across my feed courtesy of this piece from Axios. As writers Mike Deehan and Steph Solis so eloquently put it: "Boston is a drinking city, and it's also an expensive one. That's why the humble dive bar has been a venerable institution for generations, helping out folks without enough money for the good stuff or with too much sense to overpay for it."

Deehan and Solis also astutely observed the decline of the beloved dive bar in Boston. If you're west of Dot Ave. in Roxbury, you won't find one. And if you're in the Seaport outside of Fort Point or in Mission Hill, you're in a bit of a dive bar desert. And don't even get me started on the Back Bay, which has seen so many dive bars fall to the villain that is gentrification over the last decade-plus. My stars, do I miss T.C.'s Lounge on Haviland St. Only savvy Northeastern and Berklee kids and neighborhood regulars knew about the cozy little dive with the sign flush on the side of the building. So many memories of that beloved bar, which was shuttered after a fire back in 2012.

So let's raise a glass to Nick Roy, who drew up the Best Boston Dive Bars map. Blue icons show the dive closest to you. Green icons mark joints with cheap, greasy food and sometimes cheap beer. You can even track the bars you've visited if you so choose. So start exploring, then scroll through my twelve (of course) favorite Boston dive bars that made Nick's map. Cheers. And RIP T.C's Lounge.

I used to drive by this one when I'd take my Leather District shortcut home from Dorchester.

"Hope you have the day you deserve" should be the motto of every dive bar in Boston.

J.J. Foley's has been a welcome refuge for me (and many others, I'm sure) during hard times over the years.

From Google: "Basic Irish pub dishes up comfort food along with pitchers of beer & a full bar of well drinks." Yup.

If you're not dealing in $3 pints are you even a dive bar?

If you're looking for a dive with retro vibes, the Silvertone is the way to go.

Most people think cheap pints when they think dive bar. But if I can get a discounted pour of Jameson, I'm a happy camper.

I could tell you stories about nights I worked events at Coogan's. But I won't. Because I barely remember them.

What can be said that hasn't already been said about the legendary Hong Kong?

They bill themselves as "Boston's Friendliest Dive Bar" and if you've ever visited you know it's accurate.

Right off the Red Line, Cambridge St., Boston. And they have brunch on the weekends, too.

Sully's by the Garden. Long may you run.