Best dive bar

What, exactly, are the criteria for "best dive bar"? To judge from this year's winner, Davis Square's Sligo Pub, they're something like this: an unlisted phone number (ask a Sligo bartender why it's unlisted, and he'll say, "For obvious reasons"), cheap booze ("booze" is the preferred term for what gets served), and a graying contingent of consistently quotable barflies (recently overheard: "Go walk a straight line," "He drinks beeah with a whiskey chasah," and "Stay drunk and you'll avoid hangovers!"). The Sligo Pub also scores points for longevity. Tom, the bar's owner for 11 years, says that the Elm Street premises have held a liquor license longer than any other place in the state. "A few other businesses have had licenses just as long, but they've moved from place to place," Tom explains. "This location has had a license as far back as 1934. Maybe even longer, but that's as far back as I could trace." (Note to Tom: Prohibition ended in December 1933.)

A place without quite as much history -- but with a listed phone -- is the Model Café, a grittily hip Allston bar that serves as the meeting hall for (what's left of) Allston Rock City. Far enough from the T to keep the BU and BC undergrads away, the Model attracts its own share of hard drinkers: mostly creative types who are professional purveyors of the rock-and-roll lifestyle. And although the Model's motherly waitresses keep the bar from being a total dive, it's worth noting that the bar serves champagne in plastic snap-on-the-stem cups.

Sligo Pub, 237 Elm Street, Somerville; Model Café, 7 North Beacon Street, Allston, (617) 254-9365.