Sipping 'Pop Culture' (the drink, not the zeitgeist)

Harvard. MIT. BC. BU. Northeastern. Emerson. Tufts. UMass Boston. Suffolk. Simmons. Bentley. Brandeis. Wellesley. Babson. Wheelock. And those are just the Boston area colleges I can think of off the top of my head. There’s a reason why Boston is known as a college town. But every May, a city full of college students becomes a city full of college graduates. Thousands of twenty-two-year-olds armed with shiny new bachelor’s degrees start slaving away at low-paying jobs and putting down deposits on shoebox apartments. Once they’ve paid the rent and learned to tune out their coworkers in neighboring cubes, it’s time to move on to the next problem: what to do for fun.

It shouldn’t be that hard to figure out what to do in a city in which you’ve spent four years going to school. But here’s the thing: after college, all the rules about going out change. Suddenly, half the bars you used to frequent are off-limits. You need to drink somewhere more appropriate for after-work cocktails than for a twenty-first birthday celebration, a place where you won’t meet people who are getting drunk to avoid studying for midterms, and where you don’t have to see undergrads at the school you just graduated from yelling, “Hey! You’re still around?” You have to find the bars that are more “twenty-something” and less “college student.” But you also can’t drown your meager paycheck in a martini glass.

So where do you start? Well, first you have to know which places to avoid. If you went to BC, as I did, you can say goodbye to Cleveland Circle, home to Mary Ann’s, Cityside, and Roggie’s. (Although a late-night snack here is always acceptable since there open until 3 am.) Also avoid anything within the vicinity of the Harvard Ave/Comm Ave intersection, especially noted college haunts like The Kells, Wonder Bar, and Our House. It’s usually best to steer clear of Lansdowne Street. If you’re on the other side of the river, stay out of Harvard Square. And the Faneuil Hall bars offer a double whammy—crowded with both college students and tourists.

Avoiding places is the easy part; it’s finding the appropriate places that’s difficult. So one Saturday night, three of my fellow BC grads and I decided that we were up to the challenge of finding the best twenty-something bars in Boston. We got dressed, did our hair and makeup, and set off to see where nightlife after college lives. We started off in Allston-Brighton, an area infamous for its high concentration of twenty-somethings. It’s also full of bars that are frequently patronized by BC and BU students. So how do you find the Allston-Brighton bars that aren’t full of business majors fumbling with their fake IDs? Easy—you get away from the B line.

SoHo

That’s the thing about college kids—they live and die by the T, and they’re unlikely to seek out the bars that aren’t easily accessible by public transportation. So my friends and I headed for one of our favorites: SoHo in Brighton Center, which is only a short cab ride away from us but hard to get to by T. There’s usually a good crowd there, but it’s safe for the claustrophobic. It’s spacious enough that you usually can afford to choose whether to duck into a booth for some food, people-watch from a table, or sit right down at the bar. And without many other bars in its vicinity, it isn’t likely to become full of drunken pub-crawlers. I’ve talked to a lot of recent college grads at SoHo,and half the time, they know a friend-of-a-friend or someone in my high school class. (“You know Jane? She’s my friend’s girlfriend’s roommate!”) But it’s not a pretentious yuppie bar—you get the impression that most of the people there just want to sip beers, watch a game on one of the many TVs, and boogie down with their friends on the dance floor downstairs. It’s stylish and upscale, but not too full of itself, kind of like that cheerleader you could never bring yourself to hate.

After taking a cab back to the B line and disembarking at the Hynes Convention Center stop, our next destination was Match, located in the Back Bay. The place was crowded with twenty-something professionals—key word: crowded. The tables were all full, people were packed together in front of a large-screen TV to watch a football game, and cocktail waitresses could barely squeeze by customers so squished they could barely move. But I’m told it’s a lot less jam-packed and more abundant with business suits on weekday nights, so if you can get a table or a seat at the bar, Match is well worth the trip for its well-mixed drinks alone. Unlike SoHo, Match screams “yuppie hang-out.” A quick glance at its patrons reveals an abundance of martini glasses. In fact, the full name of the establishment is Match Burgers & Martinis. I’ve yet to try the burgers, but inventive martinis are their specialty. I tried a great one called the Pop Culture, which comes with pop rocks around the edge of the glass. The drinks aren’t cheap, but one huge plus is the lack of a cover charge.

Inside of Felt

We left Match and hopped back on the T. At the Boylston stop, we headed to Felt, next-door neighbor to the Opera House. With four floors, Felt has a little bit of everything—a first-floor restaurant, billiards, and a club. On “True Music Thursdays,” they have live shows featuring up-and-coming artists like Callie Lipton and Leah Randazzo Group. The second floor has the pool tables along with a bar, and although there’s usually a good crowd there, somehow the line for drinks is never very long. Same goes for the club upstairs, where the dance floor is full enough to be fun but not packed. Everyone here always seems relaxed and happy. Maybe it’s due to the club’s laid-back atmosphere—or maybe they’re all just ecstatic that there is, amazingly, no cover charge at Felt.

Green Dragon

While I stand by my assertion that those hoping to avoid college kids and tourists should steer clear of the Faneuil Hall bars, there’s an exception to every rule, and this exception is our next destination, the Green Dragon Tavern at the Government Center stop. The original Green Dragon was a meeting place during the Revolutionary War, hence the sign that reads “Headquarters of the American Revolution” and the George Washington bobble-head doll inside. And indeed, its location on a tiny cobblestone street gives it an old-fashioned vibe. Yet somehow, it doesn’t feel like a tourist trap, possibly because so many people come to hear the local bands that play here most nights. It’s a small establishment, so after the music starts, it gets crowded and very loud. But when it’s quieter, it’s a great bar at which to get a table with some friends, have a beer, and enjoy some nice conversation. The bartenders are friendly and the mixed drinks are great, but the atmosphere is the real draw. It’s neither a college bar nor an ultra-trendy scene—it’s just a casual place to hang out, have some drinks, and talk to both your friends and the people in the crowd.

After that, we grabbed a cab and headed to Umbria in the Financial District. This relatively new establishment has five floors: an upscale Italian restaurant on the first floor, a private function room on the second, and three floors that make up the weekends-only dance club. While the $15 cover charge is a bit steep for those of us cursing our entry-level salaries, with Barfrog (www.barfrog.com) you canfrequently get on a VIP list and dodge the fee. The crowd is a sea of young professionals, many of whom, I’m guessing, work in the neighborhood. But on weekends, they’re there to dance and mingle. The multiple floors are great—if things get boring, the crowd is dull, or the music sucks on one floor, you simply seek out another. The restaurant also has a great margherita pizza—but my friends and I had a different idea for some late-night food.

That’s right. We ended the night seated around a huge plate of nachos at Roggie’s. Yes, we may be working adults who’ll never sit in the student section at a BC football game again, and we may have ditched our favorite college bars in favor of SoHo and Match, but even when philosophy tests are a distant memory and on-campus parties have reached “Remember when?” status, some things will always remain acceptable options for ending a night out.