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Welcome back to Food Crawls (or in this case, Booze Crawls), a series in which Eater Boston staffers guide you (virtually) on various food and booze crawls in the Boston area.
When we go out, we often find ourselves wanting to try more than one restaurant (or bar) at a time — a drink and a snack here, another drink and perhaps a dessert there — and want to share our favorite multi-stop combinations with you. These crawls are meant to be relatively walkable, and the amount of food and drink is meant to correspond roughly to a couple of average appetites (so bring a friend), although your mileage may vary. Email us if there’s a particular theme, specific dish or drink, or neighborhood you’d like to see covered in a future installment.
A drinker can booze at more than just Irish bars in Brighton, but Brighton has great Irish bars, so drink at at least one — but probably two or three — of them. Two are conveniently located on Washington Street, and another — the very literally named Irish Village — is right down the street on Market.
A good thing to do is to go watch some international football or rugby at any of these bars, especially if you’re an American with absolutely no concept of either sport. The collective excitement — angst? — inside an Irish bar when Liverpool is playing will have any non-football (fine, soccer) fan singing “You’ll Never Walk Alone” by the final whistle.
Here are some good places to drink in Brighton (and no, they’re not all Irish bars).
Stats for this booze crawl:
- Total stops: 4
- Total mileage: About a quarter of a mile
- Irish bars patronized: 3
- Pints of Guinness swilled: At least 3. It’s the world’s best drink/meal hybrid; enjoy many of them within the setting they’re meant to be enjoyed.
- Fernet Brancas downed: Just the one
A Jameson at the Green Briar
304 Washington St, Brighton, MA 02135
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Start the night off with a shot because why not? The Green Briar has a patio (which would have come in handy last week) and live music. Be a walking, talking cliché and get a shot of Jameson. It’s smooth and easy and will get the good vibes flowing from the jump.
A Lower Allston Breakfast at Brighton Bodega
328 Washington St, Boston, MA 02135
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For the uninitiated, Lower Allston is an enclave in Allston that used to be (and sort of still is, but not really) a haven for people without boat money — the rare Boston ‘hood creatives and working class folks could afford, effectively — but that bastion of American thought Harvard has done all it can to ensure that’s no longer the case by buying up all the land. The title of this drink combo, which features a PBR tall boy and a shot of Fernet Branca, is a bit flippant and a bit ironic, but it’s still a good combo. Go drink it.
A Guinness at Porter Belly’s
338 Washington St, Brighton, MA 02135
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If there’s no football or rugby on, fine. If there’s football and rugby on, bless you. Grab a Guinness, be a cliché again, and enjoy. There’s live music every Friday and Saturday night, and the cottage pie will pad the stomach (although maybe this should be the first stop because science dictates that we should eat before we drink, not while or after we drink, to remain somewhat together throughout the evening).
More Guinness and More Jameson at the Irish Village
224 Market St, Brighton, MA 02135
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Step out onto Washington Street, walk west for a block, and hang a right onto Market Street. Walk about 900 steps, and enter the Irish Village for the last pops of the night: a Jameson and a Guinness. There’s a weird, almost members-only type section in the back with nice chairs and couches — don’t sit there. Sit at the bar for a few rounds, and then call a cab.