there are two of them and they are both super clean and the drinks arent even cheap, anyone else ever been to them?
Bukowskis (bar in boston)
- Thread starter Michael Conrad
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thats correct, and there is another downtown by berkley music... memory is fuzzy, been on the west coast for too long...
it just doesn't seem right...
clean bars named bukowski.
ah. contradications.
clean bars named bukowski.
ah. contradications.
Lifelong Bostonian here, yeah, Bukowski wouldn't appreciate the Bukowski's in Boston. I haven't been to the one in Somerville, I believe, close by. The one in Boston I hear has no hard liquor. The first time I noticed it I was walking up a street and saw the name in red lights through a dismal night and thought, "It could just be someone named Bukowski who owns it now," but when I got closer it had, "To all my friends." in neon on the side window.
A good bar is about a block and a half form there. It's across from Berklee School of Music on a side street and is called TJ's Lounge. Has a weird mix of young music students and older drunks. The jukebox has a lot of jazz on it and they have a fake burning log fireplace that goes year round. The ceiling is covered with car posters with scantilly clad girls on them that look like they've been up there since the seventies. Actually saw American Indians drinking there once.
A good bar is about a block and a half form there. It's across from Berklee School of Music on a side street and is called TJ's Lounge. Has a weird mix of young music students and older drunks. The jukebox has a lot of jazz on it and they have a fake burning log fireplace that goes year round. The ceiling is covered with car posters with scantilly clad girls on them that look like they've been up there since the seventies. Actually saw American Indians drinking there once.
Massachusetts is chock full of Bukowski-esque bars, but them two ain't. Hell, what do I know?, Buk might have loved them. I always got the impression he hung at working class joints, places that let you run a monthly tab, places that sold on Sundays out the back.
The kind of place where you could smell the urinal mints from the front door. Places with outdated jukeboxes that functioned intermittingly, if at all.
Places where individuals had their personalized barstools, and woe be to the bastard who didn't move when Gladys or Three-fingered Louie came in the door.
A place where it's known a hogleg is kept under the bar, a place that's got a working back door, for when the old lady is spotted steaming toward the front one.
A place that's got a ceiling blackened with tobacco smoke, and that's open and rocking on Christmas Day, a place that...
The kind of place where you could smell the urinal mints from the front door. Places with outdated jukeboxes that functioned intermittingly, if at all.
Places where individuals had their personalized barstools, and woe be to the bastard who didn't move when Gladys or Three-fingered Louie came in the door.
A place where it's known a hogleg is kept under the bar, a place that's got a working back door, for when the old lady is spotted steaming toward the front one.
A place that's got a ceiling blackened with tobacco smoke, and that's open and rocking on Christmas Day, a place that...
I wish I'd noticed this thread earlier. I live about a quarter-mile from the Cambridge location (it's in Inman Sq. on Cambridge St., just over the Somerville line). I've been to that one at least ten times, and to the Boston location three or four times.
They are remarkable in that they are totally unremarkable. I don't recall the Boston location having all that much to do with Buk, but I haven't been there in a few years. I was last at the Cambridge location last Friday; the burgers are average, the beer is beer, you can't smell the urinal cakes, and it is clean. The bloody mary's are worth a mention however. There is a mural devoted to Buk on the main wall in the Cambridge location, and while it is done well, it's rather, er...uninspiring.
If you're in the area, either one might be worth a visit, but don't make a special trip. I'd wager no one who works there has even read "Post Office."
They are remarkable in that they are totally unremarkable. I don't recall the Boston location having all that much to do with Buk, but I haven't been there in a few years. I was last at the Cambridge location last Friday; the burgers are average, the beer is beer, you can't smell the urinal cakes, and it is clean. The bloody mary's are worth a mention however. There is a mural devoted to Buk on the main wall in the Cambridge location, and while it is done well, it's rather, er...uninspiring.
If you're in the area, either one might be worth a visit, but don't make a special trip. I'd wager no one who works there has even read "Post Office."
I think I'll make it my life's goal to open one hell of a dive bar, the kind as described above by bogthing. The name of the bar will be a tribute to Buk, but it isn't going to be an obvious reference and the bar won't be trendy. I really hope that lame bukowski-"inspired" bars don't do well. It isn't that I'm not a fan of the cheap money grab, I'm just not a fan of overcharging, hipster bars. They suck.
To be fair, the Bukowski Tavern down the street is reasonably priced and the food is pretty good. And while this area probably has a reasonable number of people who have heard of Buk, being a college area, I doubt the name is drawing too many people there.