Bartley's Burger Cottage

Bartley's Burger Cottage

OH yes. Great burgers in many styles. Awesome french fries and onion rings. Lime Rickeys. Such an amazing greasy spoon! Closes relatively early and is packed at prime hours, so beware. I wanted to hit this place up after an evening of drinking, and was crushed to discover that they close around 8... tragedy. The burgers are huge, juicy, and come with a ton of different fixings, all named after famous world and boston personalities, many of whom have visited and left memorabilia behind. I'd say it is a not-to-be-missed cambridge classic!!

Around Cambridge: Bars

So I have been making the bar rounds near Harvard, and wanted to share my finds:

Grendel's Den

This average looking pub has an amazing secret: 1/2 price menu from 5-7 every day, and 7-9 pm thursday-saturday. Yep, EVERYTHING is 1/2 price with a drink. College wallets dream!! The food is not fantastic, but it's solid. The wine selection is atrocious, but beer and their margaritas are just find options. Also has seating right on the square in summer, so a great spot to people watch!

Tommy Doyle's

Great irish bar with some solid traditional food, featuring traditional music as well... Gets insanely packed on thursday and friday nights so be forewarned. Has 3 floors of bars, so explore!

Queenshead Pub

The Harvard bar, located underneath memorial hall. Has a great english pub feel, free pool and darts, and cheap wine and beer. You have to be a Harvard student or know one to get in, so makes friends with the locals!

John Harvard's

I say it's just a bar. Reminds me of TGIF decor inside...

Charlie's Beer Garden

Great in summer for outdoor drinking and dining.

Allen & Delancey and 'inoteca

So it's been a while since I've properly got my food on. Alas, grad school has sent me into a bit of hibernation. But last night I got a chance to check out Allen & Delancey on the LES. We'd heard it was very romantic, which it was, although for us old farts the music was too loud and totally incongruous with the scene. Sorta hipster rock tracks? There are candles everywhere and library books and black and white photos. Very tiny, so be prepared to get bumped on your way in and out. We had a drink at the bar before sitting down, and my prosecco was not properly chilled- which might sound totally snobby, but folks, at $12 a glass, the least they could do is keep it nice and cold! The menu is quite small, featuring about 4 appetizers and entrees to choose from, but a nice variation in proteins. We shared a salad that had a great tart vinaigrette and some awesome tomatoes, not sure what had been done to them, but I think they had cooked them just enough to soften the skins. Ryan had the beef- he reported that it was well cooked, but a little under-seasoned, and was room temperature when he got it. I had the chicken roulade which was very savory- the chicken was extremely tender and the liver mousse was nice and salty. The chicken was in a very vegetably broth, and the combo reminded me of flavors I had last year at Blue Hill. Overall, I was a little disappointed. The dining room was very noisy, both from music and nearby tables, and the food was good but clearly had some service issues. I was also a little surprised by the mixed crowd- if you would have blidnfolded me I would have thought I was in the mid 50's and not the LES, judging by the number of patrons sporting white hair for the evening.

After dinner we took a spin around the block and came across a cute little wine bar, 'inoteca.

We were too full to sample the cuisine, but we did try several of their wines. The imported cheeses looked great, as did their paninis. Nice casual crowd, and we were lucky to get a seat at the window table. Some fun people watching on Saturday night! I'd definitely go back and check out the food!