My plea to improve the craft beer scene in South Boston/South End

Yes south end isnt great I would welcome any new business.

 

I feel like the South End and Southie are distinctly different places, but whatever. Downtown Boston really isn't great for liquor stores, but I'm surprised the South End has nothing considering that place is a hipster mecca. Cambridge (another hipster mecca) has much better liquor store options. I suspect the issue is mainly tied to real estate. It's just way too expensive in Boston so stores need to stay small, keep less inventory, and make sure they sell that inventory

 

Social wines in Southie is a very good store, not up to Julios or Granite level but a notch below. They have a great social media presence, tastings, and are starting a rare beer customer list like some of the other stores you mentioned. I'm lucky enough to have Granite as my local shop but I could be content with Social Wines being my weekly stop. Now getting a decent beer on tap in Southie, I'm with you there.

 

Southie isn't so bad. I shop at Social wines and American Provisions (since they can carry beer and wine now) and the selections are good. I found a case of BCBS at a corner convenience store on broadway this year. Getting the obscure imports might be difficult but I guess you could ask SW or Bayview if they could order it for you.

Local 149 has a very good tap list but my meals have been lousy. I'm upset about Lincoln blowing their potential. That bar is huge and most of the taps are filled with bro-craft.

Keep in mind Belmont was a dry town before CBC. They are lucky they have anything.

 

Open one up + good luck!

 

In terms of South End, try Urban Grape. I frequent the Chestnut Hill shop and the one in SE has 4x the craft space apparently. They are really expanding their craft scene. Follow them @UrbanHops. The beer manager, Ben Bouton, is a good guy and he gets it. That's not my area, but you mentioned South End and that's what I know for that area.

 

shhhhhh I just went there for the first time today. They dont have a ton but what they do have is worth taking a look at. Too bad I am switching offices to down town in a month this is literally 3 mins from my office.

 

Ha. I know Mike. Same with the CH store. Not a ton of stock, but usually something that catches my eye. Today alone, Lunch, Love Child #3. It is sort of out of the way for me, but I'll check in at the Chestnut Hill every once and a while.

 

You know nothing of craft beer wastelands, living in the South End or South Boston.
Try looking for craft beer, in East Boston.

 

Not sure I agree with this, at least for the South End. You have two Wine Emporiums, Bauer walkable in the Back Bay, and even Wine Gallery isn't that far. BWX and others are easily T accessible. There are many places in the greater Boston area in much worse shape than that.

Generally speaking, you should expect the better stores to live outside the city. Rent is cheaper outside the city, space is more readily available, and people have cars/houses to stockpile beer in, which drives up the average sale amount. City shops are more about buying a 6-pack or a couple of bottles at a time. At Julio's people are buying carts full of cases.

Point being - I think a store needs to be a bit more general purpose to pay the bills in a city location. I could see Craft Beer Cellar succeeding, but I could also see them succeeding in any town they want to go into, and if they can do better in the burbs, there is little incentive to dealing with the hassles of downtown.

 

My eyes are bleeding after reading your post. Why are you trying so hard?

 

Square footage. And I dunno about the drinking, I haven't seen too many beards in the South End, only mustaches.

 

With all the great restaurants and and all the fairly young people who live in the south end and have disposable income you'd figure the it would be a good beer neighborhood but it is merely an OK one with Picco being the only real destination spot. It is weird that great, hip restaurants like Toro and Coppa don't have any draft lines.

You'd imagine that people in southie would tire of Bud and Jameson eventually but that doesn't seem to be the case. If you venture there expecting decent food or beverage you will likely be disappointed.

 

Yea Southie has some pretty good food and of course Harpoon Brewery who's beer hall has a good selection of beer on tap now, and it's across from my office. But overall I don't know of any beer bars. I wish they would open up something down here as my office is down here and I'd love to have a cool beer bar to check out with my co workers or my lady in the evening. I work with a bunch of beer folks(here as Boston Beer Co.) and it would be great to have somewhere for all of us to head out to in the evening to share a few good pints! But this is very up and coming area and I think it has potential for something good!

Cheers

 

I don't know many generic shops with tiny craft displays that have BA framinghammer, Six point, Founders or anything from Nightshift/Mystic. With what little space American Provisions has for the selection I think it is well curated. Seems you want the super duper rare brews bro or something

 

The Southend is much happier with a great wine selection than beer. Southie will never really change. There's the old school dive bar people and then all the yuppies that moved in just want to crush a case of BL during a game. Nothing too complicated. You can find some great food though. And they have Lee Chen. There arent too many places serving Mexican and Chinese food in the same place lol