Features

In 2019 the state let Encore Boston Harbor serve until 4 a.m., but only on the casino floor and only to people actively gambling.

What Prohibition did to Boston's bars, the cop who got rich enforcing it, and which rooms and speakeasy-style bars trade on that history today.

The 1984 ban, what it actually blocks, how bars work around it, and why every repeal bill dies. Even the governor now says she would take happy hour back.

Beacon Hill gave every city the same extra hour in 2026. Boston, Somerville and Cambridge each wrote a different night out of it.

How Boston zoned its red-light district in 1974, why it faded, and what is left on LaGrange Street, as Chinatown pushes back against its return.

A basement dive bar sold its liquor license to a Seaport chain, and the sale shows why Boston's old bars are worth more as paper than as bars.

What Massachusetts law takes from each rideshare trip, who is barred from billing it to you, what the state counts, and the one big fee at Logan.

The state caps Boston's liquor licenses, a full one trades for $600,000 or more, and a 2024 law added 225 for the neighborhoods that lack them.

Boston licenses the jukebox, the trivia host, the pinball machine and the DJ separately, and the price list shows how a bar's night gets built.

Where drag runs every week in Boston, brunch versus late shows, and the ticket prices the venues post.

Five Boston-area jazz rooms compared on history, seats, posted prices and how you actually get in.

Where to sing in Boston, from a private room in Chinatown to free weekly karaoke, with hours and prices as posted.

LGBTQ bars and recurring nights across Boston, Dorchester, Jamaica Plain and Cambridge, with hours as listed and what has gone.

Bowling, pool, pinball, shuffleboard and darts around Boston, with the price each venue posts and a plain note where it posts none.

Zero-proof menus, a non-alcoholic bottle shop, late food and shows after dark in Boston, with the prices and hours each place posts.

Time Out puts Boston club covers anywhere from nothing to $50 and up, and the city's own license rules explain part of why.

Laugh Boston, Nick's Comedy Stop and Improv Asylum each set a different door age, so the room you pick decides who can come.

Trivia nights cost players nothing, and the bar pays a company or a host to run them, so the weeknight schedule tells you which nights a room needs you.

Boston dive bars worth the trip: cheap drinks at Silhouette, a cheap meal at Delux, a band at Midway, plus Bukowski, Trina's and two close calls.

Boston live music venues sorted by room size, from an 80-person room to a 5,007-capacity hall, with a pick for each kind of night.

Where to watch the game in Boston: Sullivan's Tap for Bruins and Celtics, Cask 'n Flagon for the Sox, Phoenix Landing for soccer, plus neighborhood pubs.

Five Boston cocktail rooms, the prices on their own menus, and which ones are worth the money for which kind of night.

Where a cheap beer still exists around Boston, what it costs area by area, and why the bargain is always a brand.

The typical late-night beer in our Beer Index, the cheaper bars that stay open to 1 or 2 am, where cover is waived, and how to eat cheaply after midnight.

Where to eat in Boston after midnight, area by area: the all-night diner and bakery, the kitchens that run late, and a short list of bars still pouring.

Chinatown is where dinner still happens after the bars close, but the 3 AM and 4 AM claims do not all agree. What each place posts.

Somerville's Davis Square puts a 1914 theater, an Irish pub with two music rooms and the Red Line inside a few steps. Here is how to order the night.

East Boston's late food runs on Colombian and Mexican kitchens, a skyline park and the Blue Line. What posts late, what closes at ten, and how to get home.

Jamaica Plain runs on a tiny rock bar, a Scottish pub, a Spanish tapas room and a brewery that opens four days a week. How to string them together.

Lowell has one tavern worth the trip, two good second stops and a commuter line you should not count on, so plan the ride first.

After dinner on Hanover Street, the North End sorts itself by closing time: a pastry shop at ten, a cafe at midnight, a bakery that never shuts.

Beverly for a show, Salem for bars, Lynn for a brewery: the North Shore works as one good evening in one town, not a crawl.

The Seaport rewards two or three booked stops over a wander, and the best of them are the small rooms in Fort Point.

Fireplaces at Citizen, Bistro du Midi and Grill 23, igloos at Envoy and an arcade bar in Salem keep a cold night out worth leaving the house for.

Start in Central Square, the most compact route in Cambridge and Somerville, with Harvard-to-Inman and Union-to-Davis as the backups.

Boston date-night picks by situation: a first date, an anniversary, a walk-in with no plan, and a late nightcap, each with the neighborhood it is in.

What to do in Salem outside October: cocktails on Derby Street, a taproom, live music or open mics most nights, and a plan for the ride home.

For adults 21+ hosting a quiet night at home: check ages, set house rules, plan the ride first, serve real food and lock up products. Not for public use.

For adults 21+: how to find a Massachusetts certificate of analysis, match it to your package by batch number, check the test date and know its limits.