Best dive bar
It takes a lot of work to look like a tramp. The Abbey Lounge, a new winner in this category, is still
marked by a blocky electric sign for a cut-rate brand of beer, but accumulated dirt has given the sign a
sepia quality. Then there's the Web site (www.schnockered.com), which gives a line-up of live bands as far
as two months in advance. Pretty professional for a place with the motto "Cheap Booze and Rock & Roll." But
don't worry: this Inman Square bar is still a hole-in-the-wall overlooked by the better tourist guides to
the city. We don't need to let out-of-towners know that this is one of the best music venues in the area.
Our runner-up, the Sligo Pub, doesn't have a Web site. In fact, it doesn't even have a phone. It does have a
spiffy new sign, though, which briefly panicked some Davis Square denizens who don't want everything in the
neighborhood to be gentrified. Relax: it turns out that the new sign is merely shrewd camouflage. This is
the same cheap-beer joint it was on opening day in 1934, and some of the patrons look as though they haven't
seen sunlight since then.
Abbey Lounge, 3 Beacon Street, Inman Square, Somerville, (617) 441-9631; Sligo Pub, 237 Elm Street, Somerville (no phone).
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