When a friend recommended going to The Pour House Bar and Grill in Boston, Mass., before attending a Red Sox game that night, I thought of a Yogi Berra line: “No one ever goes there anymore, it’s too crowded.”
True, The Pour House is one of those wildly popular Copley Square area restaurant/bars that seemingly has crowds as large as Fenway Park in a couple thousand square feet of space, but when my friend said “Meet me downstairs,” I drew a complete blank. They have a downstairs?
Turning out to be a great hidden Boston restaurant within an unhidden Boston dining spot, the downstairs at The Pour House was uncrowded with a comfortable old school Boston pub look featuring a larger bar area. Even with that extended bar space, the downstairs at The Pour House offers plenty of seating space while offering quick, courteous service and more of a consistently mature audience than upstairs (no stentorian college kids trying to outdo each other). What a nice alternative to the wall-to-wall madhouse upstairs!
Of course, the trademark Pour House “cheap eats” comfort food meals (burgers, nachos, wings, etc.) applies to the downstairs setting, too, with several meals coming in at under $7. My friend enjoyed a towering glass of beer that he mentioned also had a very low price. Our meals of burgers, cheeseburger sliders with bacon, New
England clam chowder, and fries were as good as any other place I’ve tried in the Boston area, and with prices half that of many other dining establishments.
The Boston dining scene can get mighty crowded and expensive, so it’s nice to know that dining spots like The Pour House still offer affordable dining for those that love a crowded, no frills bar scene — or for the dining patron looking for a quieter space but with all the classic bar/restaurant atmosphere and cuisine fully intact.
The Pour House is located at 907 Boylston St., Boston, MA. Tel. (617) 236-1767
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