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Caffé Victoria
For absolutely superb cappuccino in a frilly parlor displaying antique espresso machines, grab a marble topped table and live it up in Victorian pleasure. Also on offer are ports and dessert.
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Cantab
While some nights feature bluegrass or low-budget open mics, the perennial draw is Little Joe Cook & the Thrillers, a soul inspired band with a top 40 hit from 1957 to their legendary credit (called 'Peanuts'). So come eat a greasy patty burger, grab a Miller and watch Little Joe rock the house and leer at the younger ladies in attendance (which they seem to enjoy).
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Cask'n Flagon
Boston's iconic sports bar has long served the Fenway faithful and occupies a conspicuous site opposite the Green Monster. What this means, particularly for those who are lucky and early enough to score a pre-game sidewalk seat, is that you'll have a prime spot from which to watch Lansdowne Street reach its frenzied best. It's also a popular destination for Red Sox fans watching away games.
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Cellar
Though it doesn't look like much from the outside, descend the stairs to find a rockabilly bartender trying to avoid a conversation about the merits of 7-card stud and a room where the acoustics are decent enough that you won't have to shout. The space really is a cellar, and a wall of crumbling brick-and-enormous-stone blocks provides an interesting cross section of old foundation techniques.
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Chamber Music Teas
On some Fridays, members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra get together to perform during afternoon teas in the Cabot-Cahners room of Symphony Hall (doors open at , concert at ). Consume coffee, tea and baked goods in the finest style.
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Charles Playhouse & Blueman Group
If you're in the dark tank that is the Charles Playhouse, it likely means that you're about to watch the Blueman Group embarrass someone seated near you. Why? Because the troupe has been playing here for years (in fact, the Charles Playhouse is their original home), and it is a rare occasion when another act uses the stage.
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Charlie's
Charlie's has two floors: downstairs is tamer and upstairs is where the scene thrives. Packed full by on a Saturday night, come inside to hear the Cars, Descendants and Pixies played at inordinate volumes from a rock-oriented jukebox. Otherwise drink Pabst and eat patty burgers and lobster rolls while bumping the tattooed elbows of your screaming neighbors.
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Clery's
Big, popular and very sanitized, Cleary's attracts droves of heads accustomed to wearing baseball hats to its weekly trivia night. Some criticize it for fake Irishness, and poor acoustics turn collective conversation into cacophony. Emblematic song played during visit: U2's 'She Moves in Mysterious Ways.'
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Club Cafe
For a glossy gay dance club, stop in this Boston mainstay where you can admire the fellas as you all listen to the Madonna dance remix of the moment. They must import their bartenders from a place that animates Greek statuary.
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Comcast Imax 3d Theater At Jordan's Furniture
For a bizarre and hellish experience, rent a car and allow yourself 45 minutes to an hour to drive to this suburban nospace. It's in a fucking furniture store on a fake street (Underprice Way!?).
Read more about Comcast Imax 3d Theater At Jordan's Furniture
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Comedy Connection
Of Boston's comedy clubs, you can most reliably find big name acts here. The room lies on the 2nd floor of Quincy Market, above the food court, and charges an obligatory two item admission fee (meaning drink or forgettable food) in addition to the cost of your ticket. Thursday features an R-rated hypnotist who despite being corny is also pretty funny. Seats are close together and the earlier you buy your ticket, the closer you will be to the gags.
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Company One
For inspired, independent performances, Company One has broken ground and hearts with fare like Den of Thieves , The Last Days of Judas Iscariot , and A More Perfect Union . While often esoteric, works that are staged are dynamic and engaging and they simultaneously appeal to youth culture, hipster and academic audiences. Most shows are performed in the Boston Center for the Arts (BCA) theaters.
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Coolidge Corner Clubhouse
A tiny closet of a sports bar, the 'three Cs' somehow manages to fit several dozen TVs onto its limited wall space, and you can reliably watch almost every major college and professional football match. Though the vibe is great for fanatics, the crowd is often uncomfortably large for the small space.
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Coolidge Corner Theatre
An art deco neighborhood palace, this old theater blazes with exterior neon. Inside, view select Hollywood hits, cult flicks, popular independent fare and special events such as 'pen mic for movies' where you bring self-made masterpieces less than 10 minutes in length (all formats including 35mm, super8, VHS and DVD) for a pastiche of amateur weirdness.
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Cornwall's
For an extensive list of English and Scottish beers plus a few interesting local brews (Tuckerman's Pale Ale), stop by this family-owned pub where the bartenders (Billy and JR) commonly pour samples should you be curious about an unknown ale. Though close to Fenway Park, the crowd doesn't get too ridiculous during Sox events and there are board games, darts and pool tables in good repair. The lamb steak is a bargain.
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Cottonwood Café
Dressed in warm 'southwestern' tones, come to this bar and restaurant for well-prepared margaritas made from a decent list of tequilas. Big glass windows overlook sidewalk action, and a pleasant patio is open most of the year. Beware the food; the quality varies greatly.
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Crossroads
Being a low-budget, cheap drinks kind of place, it attracts lots of students, sports fans and folks looking for a good game of darts. It's heavy duty Irish and isn't the kind of place where you want to order Bushmills.
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Delux Café
If Boston has a laid-back hipster bar, this is it. The small room on the first floor of a brownstone comes covered in knotty pine paneling, artwork from old LPs and Christmas lights. A small TV in the corner plays silent cartoons (not sports) and a noteworthy kitchen serves incredible grilled-cheese sandwiches and inspired comfort food, including coleslaw that you actually want to eat.
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Dick's Beantown Comedy Vault
In the basement of Remington's (a restaurant), local comedian Dick Doherty and a collection of regular helpers work the room into painful howls with surgical precision. Note that Sunday nights are open mic, and the pain you feel on such occasions might feel very different than at other times during the week.
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Diesel Cafe
One of Boston's best late-night coffee houses attracts a regular patronage of lesbians. It has a large industrial room decorated with over-sized street signs and boldly painted walls of blue, green and orange. In the back, desperate Tufts students compete for space at worktables with old mechanical pencil sharpeners. Meanwhile sharp-shooting ladies run the pool tables.
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Dish
For a romantic date spot in an old brick room redone with intentional graffiti and Mondrian-esque bathroom doors, this trendy bistro serves a dozen wines by the glass and has a small terrace if you feel like lounging outside. It's used more as a restaurant and less as a bar until around . The bartender likes to play The Sea and Cake.
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Diva Lounge
For cocktails made from ginger infused rum or allspice vodka, check out this trendy bar with a decor crossing the ship from Space Odyssey and a Lego set. The walls and ceiling are entirely covered with large panels of formed white plastic bubbles against which pastel lights reflect. Decent DJs spin on weekends.
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Doyle's Cafe
This Irish bar dates to 1882 and provides an unadulterated glimpse into some vanishing bits of Irish American culture. Distant pressed tin ceilings hang far above a completely worn out floor that was long ago covered in linoleum, itself almost entirely worn away. No tourists come here, just locals and off duty cops drinking from a huge selection of ryes. Also see an enormous (and ghastly) mural of Paul Revere high-fiving a minuteman.
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Druid
Inman's main bar is a small Irish place serving pub food that costs a few dollars more than it should. It's a comfortable spot, though locals grumble about the loss of its cool edge when the place changed ownership a few years back. Bartenders suffer the indignity of lame, logo-bearing polo shirts.
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Excelsior
A trendy(ish), tame crowd of 30-something urbanites drink in style under a ceiling covered with sophisticated geometric tapestries. The room swims pleasantly in warm tones of dark teak and amber, the whole thing set around a glass -and-steel cube that contains the wine collection. Efficient, professional staff will hurry oysters to your table as you admire the Public Garden across the street. We lament the lame out-of-character flatscreen TV.
