Always weird to see where I live reviewed (the North End). Posting to subscribe. Need to do a 2+2 Boston meetup one of these days.

giacomo's mmmmmmm

there is a bar i heard about i want to check out, "Howl At the Moon" - piano bar. There is a place down the street from me called Walleyes, Mass Ave. and Columbus St. which is supposed to be a famous jazz place, I went there recently and it was pretty ghetto, and I was the only white person there. However, next door there is some terrific and cheap New York Pizza.

heh that reminds me, a couple years ago I went to a piano bar called "jake ivories" and had such a good time, but unfortunately when i remembered it and went looking for it it was closed down. it was right next to fenway, right on that famous street, ipswitch i think

Howl at the Moon is pretty awesome if you like dueling piano bars. It is a bit classier than Jake Ivories was but still a good time and gets fairly wild. There is also a club called "down" beneath Howl which is pretty awesome but you aren't supposed to freely walk between the two. To keep the thread to its point Howl at the Moon actually has pretty good bar food and the kitchen is open late which is nice since there aren't too many options in the financial district.

So far for restaurant week I have done Oishii lunch and doing Ruth Chris with some buddies in a few days. Also going to get lunch at L'Espalier from Mittens suggestion and then also thinking about Radius since I can walk there, anyone been?

What music do they play at the Moon bar?

Enjoy L'Espalier!

Radius is great, and probably the nice restaurant I go to most frequently (1 time per week+) because it's right next to my office.

It's hard to go wrong there, but if you like burgers I'd try theirs. It's won pretty much every best burger in Boston category with good reason. Unlike many other fancy places where the burger is a quick addition to the menu to account for the odd neanderthal who wanders in, this is a focus of a consistently creative and proficient restaurant.

If you had to pick one "semi-fancy" restaurant (in the $20-$30/entree range) what would it be?

For me, my parents and 19 year old sister.

Edit: My mother and sister don't eat steak.

Ten Tables, either location

Neptune Oyster in the North End is pretty spectacular

Sel de la Terre is quite good as well (near Government Center and also on Boylston Street near the Prudential Center)

I've also heard nothing but great things about Gargoyles on the Square (in Davis Square)

Hungry Mother's

Wally's is awesome. Prob the coolest bar in the city, just small.

It's not ghetto, just an old school black jazz bar. It probably will be majority black in there but it's a chill vibe and noone is unfriendly or will give you weird looks for being white in there.

The bands are almost always Berkely kids - and they are usually really good.

I would highly recommend this bar to anyone who wants to hear some good music.

Didn't know they had a second location. Have you been to Vee Vee's down the street? I liked it alot.

Standard Boston bar songs like "Sweet Caroline" "Living on a Prayer", and current hits like "I wanna be a billionaire" or whatever its called.

They were really good though, and were taking requests at the end. I asked them to play "Gin and Juice" and they did which was pretty hilarious.

+1

I agree about Harrisons......def overrated. Old school Riley's Roast Beef in Chelsea if I'm near the city. If you ain't afraid to drive 20 minutes north of the city hit up Blue House in Salem,NH. Super beef with sauce and cheese. Thing weighs like 5 pounds. Best around.

saw towne on phantom gourmet today, mmmmm looks sick

decent for drinks ime, heard from multiple people that the food is meh, which makes sense because iirc it's the back bay social club and sonsie people behind it.

lol this is exactly the type of place i would avoid like it were the plague: an expensive bar in boston which posses as a ghetto black jazz bar but attracts berkley musicians, hah, not even for a million bucks.

that sounds like a good idea

Your loss. And its not expensive/pretentious nor is it passing as anything. It's just an old jazz bar from the 40's that never closed down.

No, it would only be my loss if I were a hipster loser who needed a trendy place. Don't you see the difference between a jazz club in the Back Bay and a jazz club in Dorchester?

Only been to Wally's once but really liked it. Band was a bunch of Berklee kids who were really good.

Make generalizations about the crowd or w/e you feel like doing. I'm going to a jazz bar/club for the music and the music at Wally's was pretty spectacular.

LOLOLOL. wally's is so trashy and scary and legit ghetto in an older black hustler guy way. drinks are cheap but almost all water which is why you only buy bottled beer here.

also as a berklee grad and a 5 night a week regular at wally's during my berklee years, i can tell you that it is THE proving grounds for jazz musicians in boston. definitely one of the most cut throat, competitive jazz scenes around. it's been this way for 70ish years.

not sure what you know about jazz or jazz bars or boston but your post is straight ignorance.

dude, i hate jazz, don't know sht about it, and don't want to know about it. i lived one block away from walleyes, and have been inside walleys, so i know what sort of place it is, so even if you truly think it is ghetto, and i believe you do think that, you are after all a berkley student, and part of the reason i need to stay away from walleyes, but the fact of the matter is that it is right in the middle of back bay in boston where i was paying $2300 a month for a two bedroom, it is not ghetto. get in touch with reality, kid, instead of jizzing all of yourself in your berkley dream world.