I thought it was going to be a Scape housing project (same company that built one at the Baseball Tavern site). But I could be stuck in the past... I know these things change.

Plans were changed after that was presented to the public

By boo_urns on Fri, 05/05/2023 - 12:28pm.

See: https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2022/10/24/davis-square-lab-build...

edit: looks like someone beat me to it in a comment further down with the same link.

https://www.universalhub.com

By schneidz on Fri, 05/05/2023 - 3:48pm.

https://www.universalhub.com/comment/905620#comment-905620

If I recall, I think these whole block from McKinnon's to the corner of Grove Street is going to be torn down and a taller building will be put there with retail on the first floor. It could very well happen.. seems the rent is often too high for most SBE's so the banks and the chains rent them. So you might be right.

Paging Ron Newman for correction about the building that may take its place.. (am I right? did i recall correctly)

4 story Life Sciences

By downtown-anon on Fri, 05/05/2023 - 9:06am.

Says here.
https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2022/10/24/davis-square-lab-build...

Rezoned to "Disallow Residential Use"?!

By Pete X on Fri, 05/05/2023 - 9:11am.

That can't be right, can it? Somerville is supposed to be the sensible one.

Let it go in dignity and not

By anon on Thu, 05/04/2023 - 9:41pm.

Let it go in dignity and not the disappointment of what happened to Doyle's.

Ugh. They don't make 'em like that

By MC Slim JB on Thu, 05/04/2023 - 11:56pm.

Ugh. They don't make 'em like that anymore, even the cleaned-up version, never mind the original dive.

Cash Only

By John Costello on Fri, 05/05/2023 - 6:14am.

Bathrooms the size of a phone booth.

Back door entrance.

Just the right amount of schmaltz on the wall.

Confused Tufts students thinking they are in a Departed theme park.

Somerville has won over Slumerville.

Liquor license

By Ah-Clem on Fri, 05/05/2023 - 7:00am.

I wonder what big chain is buying the addition we liquor license?

Somerville gets to decide how

By NoMoreBanks on Fri, 05/05/2023 - 8:20am.

Somerville gets to decide how many licenses they, unlike Boston. So they get to have a thriving small restaurant scene and not deal with an insane black market on the ability to sell beer.

What?

By bgl on Sat, 05/06/2023 - 6:25pm.

Not true, the state controls liquor licensing across all 351 towns and cities in the Commonwealth. Somerville cannot just make up new licenses and like Boston needs approval from the State.

Somerville License

By Pete X on Fri, 05/05/2023 - 8:25am.

Not the same dumb process that Beacon Hill imposes on Boston. (probably a different dumb process)

Process

By bgl on Sat, 05/06/2023 - 6:27pm.

The process is the same AFAIK for all towns and cities, as the state controls liquor licensing just like in Boston. Differences can be that the state is more apt to approve more licenses in Somerville, but the process is the same.

Will they give away their Bud

By Chris77 on Fri, 05/05/2023 - 10:49am.

Will they give away their Bud Lights?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12049101/Boston-Red-Sox-fans-di...

Hilarious

By Kaz on Fri, 05/05/2023 - 5:16pm.

https://www.universalhub.com/comment/931659#comment-931659

1) It was in the mid-50s and windy on Monday at the ball park. Nobody wants a beer.
2) If they did want a beer at Fenway prices, it's probably a draught not a can.
3) If they did want a can, it's probably something better than a Bud Light (nor a Sam Summer which was the other thing that stand sells that nobody was buying at the moment either).
4) If they did want a can of Bud Light, then about 100 feet away, there's a self-service fridge full of everything from Bud Light to Lord Hobo and it never has a line either because it's self service.
5) That stand he's showing is tucked underneath Section 37 (which is probably why it doesn't have any taps)...to the RIGHT of Gate C (where the camera is first aimed). Literally the only people who would even see that stand are people in the furthest center field bleachers. Everyone else in the entire stadium is to the left of that stand. Fenway is U-shaped underneath because of Landsdowne St and the Monster and he's at one end of the U.
6) There are 15 places selling Bud Light in the entire stadium. He didn't do a tour of all of them.
7) Luis Tejada isn't some rando...he was a Chelsea City Councilor who regularly pissed off people with conservative & inflammatory posts on social media, so fuck him and his "take" on what "Red Sox fans" are doing. He doesn't know shit.
https://chelsearecord.com/2016/09/15/councillor-tejada-gets-heat-again-f...

This is to make way for

By anon on Fri, 05/05/2023 - 12:00pm.

This is to make way for offices (biotech) and a parking garage. I've heard McKinnons is going to be pushed out too, which is a shame bc I love having a local meat market. The city is pouring tons of parking garages and biotech offices in union, why ruin Davis too? How many more cars and trucks do city leaders want coming into the Somerville?

Sick of the term "dive bar."

By deselby on Fri, 05/05/2023 - 1:53pm.

It's mostly misused in the classic sense of a truly degraded and dangerous place.

Now it's applied to any Irish pub or bar with a mixed clientele. For example, Brendan Behan in JP, the old Beacon Hill Pub, The Burren in Somerville, Bukowski's. If you think those places are dives . . .

The Sligo was not a dive. It was what Bostonians call a "tavern."

In other words, the term "dive bar" is applied to any place where the clients aren't 100% affluent blow-ins and doesn't have 15 "craft" beers on tap and Aperol spritzes.

These people have no idea what a true dive is, like the old Bamboo Lounge on Avery Street, half the clients were having the DTs.

Using the term "dive bar" is trying to signify social superiority through condescension.

Yeah, well, that's just, like, your opinion, man.

By Pete X on Fri, 05/05/2023 - 2:09pm.

Sligo is a small, dark, dirty bar with sticky counters where you can drink for cheap, the bartender will glare at you if you take too long to order and you won't be troubled with fancy cocktail menus or kitschy decorations. If any bar is a dive bar, Sligo is a dive bar. Consider it a term of affection.

The Burren is NOT a dive bar, nor would I consider Behan a dive bar.

Further examples: The Tam and the Cellar are dive bars. The Druid is NOT a dive bar.

I could go on...

The Cellar in Cambridge? Not

By Scratchie on Fri, 05/05/2023 - 3:15pm.

The Cellar in Cambridge? Not a dive bar unless it's gone way downhill since I lived nearby.

It Has

By Pete X on Fri, 05/05/2023 - 6:30pm.

But I still dig it.

I fall somewhere in the middle on this. My notion

By MC Slim JB on Fri, 05/05/2023 - 4:57pm.

of a true dive has all the hallmarks you cite, but I also think it should carry at least a whiff of potential violence from a disreputable element. If you are routinely in the company of DTs sufferers and have to watch your back every minute at the prospect of a stab wound, it falls from dive bar to "bucket of blood".

The bygone Waltham Tavern in the South End fell into this latter category. I frequented it in the 2000s, often saw some very sad late-stage alcoholics and the occasional hammer-headed set-to. It was a wretched hive of scum and villainy, but it was very close to home and featured a decent jukebox, dollar pool, a puck bowling game, and the last $2.50 Bud longneck in the neighborhood. Unlike many regulars, I never participated in the goodfella owner's illegal sports book, nor bought any coke or Oxy there. RIP.

Somerville's Sligo Pub to shut down

Comments

Perfect location for a

Grasshopper

Life Sciences?