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Guides
5 Boston speakeasies worth finding
Finding the entrance is part of the evening at these Boston speakeasies. Carrie Nation has a lounge behind a red velvet curtain. Backbar asks you to find an orange door off a Somerville alley. Hecate sits beneath a restaurant you could walk past without realizing there is another room below. These are modern cocktail bars with a taste for concealed rooms and theatrical surroundings. Come for the drinks and the setting, rather than expecting an original Prohibition drinking den. Pick the room that fits the night: dinner with a reservation, a few drinks with a friend, or a small bar where you may have to wait. Carrie Nation’s speakeasy sits beyond the main bar, down a corridor and behind a red velvet curtain. Keep going and you’ll find a windowless lounge with leather seating, polished wood, billiards and its own bar. The back room gives you somewhere to settle in beyond the restaurant’s dining spaces, with a pool table providing an alternative to another hour of talking about work. The name is a deliberate provocation: the real Carrie Nation campaigned against alcohol. A cocktail club in her honor probably wasn’t the tribute she had in mind. Reservations cover the dining room only; the speakeasy and bar operate first come, first served. Book dinner if that’s part of your evening, but don’t mistake the confirmation for a guaranteed seat behind the curtain. They’re different rooms with different seating policies. Wink & Nod pairs its downstairs South End cocktail lounge with a kitchen that regularly changes hands. Its culinary residency program gives chefs room to develop their own menus, so check what’s cooking before treating this as a drinks-only stop. The current resident is Dorchester native Valentine Howell of Black Cat Eatery, whose cooking draws on Afro-Caribbean influences. The drinks list gives whiskey drinkers plenty to consider, alongside gin, rum, tequila and mezcal cocktails. My Favorite Things combines browned-butter-washed bourbon with maple, orange liqueur, bitters and cinnamon smoke; Scorched Rose takes chili-infused rum in a coconut-and-rose direction. There are spirit flights and nonalcoholic choices, too. Reservations are available through OpenTable. Wink & Nod opens daily at 5 p.m., making it a useful option on nights when several other bars in this guide are closed. Backbar’s orange door off Sanborn Court is easy to overlook. Once you’re inside this Union Square cocktail bar, the more pressing issue is finding a seat: there are only 39. The bar warns that groups larger than four have fewer places to sit and can face longer waits. Bring a couple of friends rather than recruiting everyone you know. Regular service is walk-in only, with changing cocktail menus and a separate nonalcoholic selection. For a more structured evening, cocktail classes and Closet Bar tastings can be booked separately through Tock. Those experiences are distinct from reserving a table in the main room. Backbar currently opens Wednesday through Sunday at 5 p.m., with last seating and last call at 11:15 p.m. It closes at midnight, so put this earlier in your plans rather than arriving for a final drink just before the doors shut. Saloon sits below Davis Square, with a substantial spirits selection and enough food to make dinner part of the plan. Whiskey is well represented, but the current drinks menu also has room for mezcal, absinthe and martinis that take some liberties with the format. One uses bread-and-butter pickle brine; another brings cacio e pepe to the glass. You can order three house martini variations as a flight in miniature glasses. The food goes beyond something salty to accompany a drink. Fried halloumi with chili oil and smoked honey, Portuguese mussels with chouriço, a burger and steak frites give you several ways to avoid leaving hungry. Reservations are available through Resy. Saloon makes sense when you want a downstairs cocktail bar but would also appreciate a proper meal and a table arranged in advance. Hecate’s entrance is in Public Alley 443, below Krasi in Back Bay. The dimly lit room takes its name from a Greek goddess, and the drinks give you plenty to discuss before the first sip. The cocktail menu brings together ingredients such as cedar smoke, sea moss and wormwood. Snake Oil pairs vodka and gin with eucalyptus; Nightmarch takes rum toward coconut, oolong and pineapple. Read the ingredient lists before ordering, particularly if you have allergies or avoid egg, dairy or animal products. Hecate’s zero-proof selection gets similar attention, including a drink with chicory, beetroot and fig. Choose this stop for an evening spent considering what is in the glass. For more on Hecate and The Wig Shop, read about the two Boston speakeasies that cracked North America’s top 100.
10 best rooftop bars in Boston
Some rooftops call for a reservation and proper shoes. Others call for a burrito. Boston has room for both, along with a brewery greenhouse, a North End roof deck and hotel bars where the harbor does much of the work. Our picks for rooftop bars in Boston include two across the river in Harvard Square. Choose by the kind of evening you want, then confirm that the roof itself is open. A restaurant downstairs can be serving dinner while its outdoor bar is closed for weather or a private party. Felipe’s brings the rooftop down to earth with tacos, burritos and margaritas in Harvard Square. Order something from the wood grill, which cooks chicken, steak and vegetables over hardwood, and take advantage of the seasonal rooftop patio. The drinks use hand-squeezed key lime juice. Come here when you want a casual meal with your drinks, rather than a hotel lounge and a separate dinner reservation. The restaurant’s late hours do not guarantee the roof stays open equally late. Deck 12 sits above the Seaport at YOTEL, with indoor and outdoor seating and views toward downtown and the waterfront. That gives you more flexibility than an entirely exposed roof. It serves evening food during the week and offers weekend brunch, making it an option before a night out or earlier in the day. Reservations are strongly encouraged; choose the time and seating you want rather than arriving at sunset and hoping for the best. Rooftop at The Envoy faces the harbor from Sleeper Street, with lounge seating, fire pits and cocktails above the Seaport. It is a good choice when the view is the main reason you are going. The hotel recommends reservations and accepts limited walk-ins. Outdoor arrangements change with the season, including winter enclosures, so look at the specific experience you are booking. Para Maria, the hotel’s restaurant, is a separate reservation. Daedalus is the Harvard Square choice for a roof-deck dinner with a proper plate of food. The menu includes mushroom risotto, steak frites, shrimp linguine and a bacon-cheddar burger, alongside cocktails, wine and draught beer. Its Mount Auburn Street location puts you a short walk from Harvard Yard. The restaurant currently serves dinner Monday through Saturday and closes Sundays, so do not build a Sunday brunch plan around an old listing. Contessa is the dressier option at the top of The Newbury, overlooking the Public Garden and Back Bay. The room was designed by Ken Fulk, and the menu follows Northern Italian cooking, with dishes such as ricotta gnudi and tortellini in brodo. The bar serves Negronis and Martinis, with an extensive Italian and French wine selection. Think of this as a rooftop restaurant where you can have a drink, rather than a casual open-air beer deck. Reserve if dinner is part of the plan. Mia is the roof deck inside Umbria on Hanover Street, serving cocktails and appetizers intended for sharing. It gives a North End evening somewhere to continue after dinner, but it requires more planning than simply walking upstairs. Mia is reservation-only and 21-plus, with a dress code that excludes hats, sandals, shorts and athletic wear. Book Mia specifically, since a table at Umbria and a roof-deck reservation are different things. The Overlook occupies the third floor of Legal Sea Foods Harborside, with a broad view across Boston Harbor. This is the rooftop to consider when you want seafood as well as drinks: the setting puts the water directly in front of you, rather than somewhere beyond a wall of buildings. Legal’s three floors have different uses, including a separate private-event level, so confirm that your booking is for The Overlook. Rooftop@Revere has lounge furniture, an outdoor bar and private cabanas above the Theater District. Its view takes in Back Bay, making it an option for drinks before or after plans downtown. The venue strongly encourages reservations on busy evenings and weekends, and even hotel guests are subject to capacity. If you want a cabana, check that booking’s terms separately. A casual table for two and a reserved cabana are different commitments. Cunard Tavern’s roof deck, The Layover, brings a walk-up bar and harbor views to East Boston. The menu leans toward tropical drinks, including rum cocktails, with beer, wine and food available as well. The roof deck has its own schedule, distinct from the dining room. Public service is seasonal, while private events can use the space year-round. Confirm rooftop availability before crossing over for it, especially outside the warmer months. Dorchester Brewing Company has the Hopservatory, a four-season rooftop greenhouse that lets you keep the upstairs plan when the weather turns. The brewery serves its own beers alongside cider, wine, cocktails and nonalcoholic options, with food from M&M BBQ. You can also visit the Museum of Bad Art inside the building for free. Beer, barbecue and a gallery visit make a fairly complete afternoon without requiring a second address. When booking, select the rooftop or ask the venue to confirm it. A general restaurant reservation does not necessarily buy you a seat upstairs. Check any minimum spend, cancellation terms and weather policy before paying a deposit. If the forecast sends you indoors, our Boston speakeasy guide has another set of places to settle in for a drink.
Get to know Boston
Fenway Park is the oldest active MLB ballpark
Fenway Park has been the Red Sox’s home since 1912. It remains the oldest active ballpark in Major League Baseball, ahead of Chicago’s Wrigley Field, which opened in 1914. The age shows in the brickwork, the narrow seats and the steel column that can insert itself into your view of the pitcher. It also shows in how the park fits into Boston. Streets run tight against its walls. Apartments, restaurants and bars surround it. On game days, the crowd starts well outside the gates, spilling through Kenmore Square and along Lansdowne Street. You are visiting a ballpark built for another era. Fenway makes very little effort to hide that. Fenway Park’s first game went into extra innings The first regular-season game took place on April 20, 1912. Boston beat the New York Highlanders, the team now called the Yankees, 7–6 in 11 innings. Tris Speaker drove in the winning run. The crowd presented its own complications. According to SABR’s account of opening day, spectators stood behind ropes in the outfield, and balls hit into that overflow crowd counted as doubles. Fenway was finding unusual ways to affect a baseball game from the start. The opening came five days after the Titanic sank, with coverage of the disaster overshadowing the ballpark’s debut. Boston’s season ended on a happier note: 105 regular-season wins and a World Series victory over the New York Giants. The Red Sox had moved from the Huntington Avenue Grounds, their home since 1901. The new park took its name from the Fenway neighborhood. The Green Monster wasn’t always green The left-field wall stands roughly 37 feet high, with the foul line marked at 310 feet from home plate. Its height can turn a potential home run into a ball rattling back toward an outfielder. Its proximity can reward a fly ball that would stay in the park elsewhere. The wall was once covered in advertising. It received its green paint in 1947, the same year Fenway introduced night baseball. Seats arrived on top in 2003. Below them, the manually operated scoreboard remains part of the game. Someone still has to change those numbers. The rest of the outfield refuses to settle into a predictable shape. Right field reaches just 302 feet at Pesky’s Pole, named for longtime Red Sox player and coach Johnny Pesky. The deepest center-field corner stretches to 420 feet. A ball’s destination matters as much as how hard it was hit. Boston nearly replaced it Fenway’s survival was a choice. In 1999, Red Sox management announced plans for a replacement ballpark across the street. Preservation advocates organized, and financing the proposal proved difficult. The ownership group that bought the team in 2002 chose renovation. As SABR’s ballpark history documents, a structural study found the existing park viable, and substantial investment followed. Fenway had already undergone a major rebuild in 1934. The surviving wooden grandstand seats date to that renovation, rather than opening day. Later improvements expanded concourses and added seating without erasing the park’s recognizable shape. The result is a working stadium with more than a century of alterations. Some brought better facilities. None made every seat comfortable. More than a baseball field Fenway has accommodated football, soccer, hockey, concerts and political speeches. The Boston Patriots played home games here from 1963 through 1968, decades before their Foxborough years became the default association. Baseball supplies the moments most fans remember, including Carlton Fisk waving his home run fair in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series. Fenway also hosted the first two games of the 2004 World Series, when Boston finally ended its 86-year championship drought. The clinching win happened in St. Louis. Going to a game or taking a tour For the full experience, go when the Red Sox are playing. Arrive with time to walk around the neighborhood rather than heading straight from the train to your seat. Official tours offer another way inside, with access subject to availability. Check the particular tour before booking. The address is 4 Jersey Street. The MBTA’s Fenway directions identify Kenmore on the Green Line’s B, C and D branches as a nearby stop. Fenway station on the D branch is also within walking distance. Commuter rail passengers can use Lansdowne on the Worcester Line. Before buying game tickets, check the view from the actual section, row and seat. Grandstand support columns are part of the architecture, but you don’t have to spend nine innings admiring one.
The famous Boston accent and its obsession with the letter R
Say “car,” then say “car engine.” For someone with a traditional Boston accent, the R can disappear in the first version and return in the second. The next sound makes a difference. That detail gets lost in plenty of Boston impressions. Removing every R gets you only so far, and eventually gets you somewhere nobody here is from. The accent has patterns involving consonants, vowels, and the way words meet in a sentence. It also varies considerably among the people who use it. Which R’s does the Boston accent drop? Linguists call the traditional accent non-rhotic. In ordinary terms, speakers often leave out an R after a vowel when another consonant or a pause follows. Think of “park,” “card,” or “car” said on its own. The R at the beginning of “red” stays. So does the one in “bring.” A Boston speaker is not applying a blanket ban to the letter. An R can also return at the end of a word when the next word starts with a vowel sound. In “car engine,” the words connect through the R. This is called linking R, a pattern also found in other non-rhotic English accents. Try saying the phrases naturally rather than giving each word its own pause. The difference is easier to hear in a sentence than in a list of words written with “ah” at the end. And where do the extra R’s come from? Then there is intrusive R: an R sound between words where no R appears in the spelling. “The idea of it” can sound like “the idear of it.” The vowel at the beginning of “of” creates the setting for that extra sound. It does not mean every Boston speaker says “idear” whenever the word appears. The University of York’s explanation of linking and intrusive R describes how one pattern developed from the other. Speakers extended an existing way of joining vowel sounds to words that did not have a written R. The extra consonant helps two vowel sounds meet. It follows a pattern, rather than arriving wherever an actor decides to put it. The vowels matter, too Listen to “cot” and “caught.” For many traditional Boston speakers, those words sound alike. That shared vowel is another important part of the accent, although it receives considerably less attention than “pahk.” Some speakers also use a broad A in words such as “bath” or “half,” bringing the vowel closer to the one in “father.” These features are not a checklist every Bostonian completes. A person can have a recognizable local accent without using all of them. You can hear examples in WBUR’s recordings and explanation of Boston speech, which includes Dartmouth linguist James Stanford discussing the sounds. Listening is more useful than trying to reconstruct an accent from exaggerated spelling. How Boston came to sound this way Boston speech belongs to the broader Eastern New England dialect region. Its history includes the English spoken by early settlers and the region’s continuing connections with England. Boston University linguist Neil Myler points to settlers from East Anglia as an important influence on the region’s R-dropping speech. Stanford also emphasizes the close contact Boston maintained with southeastern England, where non-rhotic pronunciation gained social prestige. That history helps explain the connection, but the accent has continued changing here. The way someone speaks also reflects their family, community, education, and social surroundings. Four centuries of Boston life did not leave the original dialect untouched. “Wicked” and “frappe” are a different part of the story An accent concerns pronunciation. A dialect includes vocabulary and grammar as well. “Wicked,” used to mean very or extremely, is vocabulary. In “wicked cold,” it increases the force of “cold.” It does the same job in “wicked expensive,” with less pleasant financial implications. “Frappe” is another regional word, pronounced “frap” in the familiar local usage. Merriam-Webster records both that pronunciation and the thick-milkshake meaning. Someone can order a frappe, complain that it is wicked expensive, and pronounce every R. Knowing the words and having the accent are separate things. Not everyone raised here sounds the same Research has documented differences across age groups and communities. In a 2010 study of Boston and two New Hampshire towns, linguists Naomi Nagy and Patricia Irwin found that younger speakers pronounced more post-vocalic R’s than older speakers. Education and other social factors also mattered. Those results concern the people in the study, rather than every younger person in Boston. They also measure one feature: someone who pronounces more R’s can retain other local sounds. The accent does not disappear the moment one pronunciation changes. For some people, sounding local is a source of pride. Others have felt pressure to soften their pronunciation to avoid being judged. Both experiences help explain why a city can have such a recognizable accent without all its residents sharing it. Pronouncing the R in “Dorchester” does not cancel out having grown up there.