Best dive bar

Looking for model citizens? Try Beacon Hill. Model students? Harvard kids are supposed to be wicked smaht. Fashion models? Take a walk down Newbury Street on a Saturday afternoon. Nude models? You can find them at MassArt figure-drawing classes. Model boats? Get your ass straight over to the Lannan Ship Model Gallery on Atlantic Avenue. Looking for grimy, gritty, loud, lewd, leering, beering, boozy, anti-schmoozey, sweet, sour, surly, shady, jukebox-fueled old dudes, hipster chicks, sticky floors, and two-buck PBRs on draft? Why didn't you say so? You'll find all that and more at the Model Café. According to Phoenix readers, it's the Cindy Crawford of dives, with a well-earned reputation for a bitchin' jukebox, Allston-rock-type patrons, and a sweet old lady for a barkeep. No one's too sexy for the Model.

You may not feel like a model at this year's north-of-the-river pick, but a lot of people surely fancy themselves rock stars Thursday through Saturday at the legendary karaoke nights at the Courtside Restaurant. On a recent Monday evening, a man sporting a handlebar mustache and a black mesh hat with an image of an eagle ripping through the American flag (a model hipster, if you will, save that he was pushing 65) sat at the corner of the bar and hummed along to Elton John, no doubt gearing up for Thursday night. And if the karaoke doesn't lure you, the Courtside offers more specials than you can keep track of. Half-price wings on Mondays. Free meatballs and sausages on Saturday from noon to 4 p.m. A pitcher of PBR and a large pizza for 13 bucks. Free this, half off that. Dive in.

Model Café, 7 North Beacon Street, Allston, (617) 254-9366; Courtside Restaurant, 291 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, (617) 547-4374.