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After-Theater Drinks

Aria

True, your drink will cost almost as much as your theater ticket. But there are plenty of cushy couches to lounge on. Plus, Seth.

Band, Cutting Edge

Club d’Elf

The sound of the future is here. The band’s deeply hypnotic trance-grooves combine jazz, world, and electronica. Bass wizard Mike Rivard, percussionist Jerry Leake, sampler Jere Faison, and driving drummers J. Hilt and Erik Kerr preside over the jams, or “ceremonies.” The group performs as a hodgepodge ensemble that changes from show to show; past guests have included John Medeski, Mark Sandman, and members of Either/Orchestra. They usually perform at Lizard Lounge.

Way to hijack the world’s pertoleum supply:

Take hostages at M-80′s VIP room

Band, Jazz

The Fringe

Led by the thunderous cascade of sound created by drummer Bob Gullotti, the group doesn’t play compressed standards or dance tunes but always leaves its audience rapt and astonished. Each player is a jack-of-all-styles and master of dynamics. More than a quarter-century of playing together has lent an unsurpassed intensity to the band’s musical dialogue. Find them, too, at the Lizard Lounge.

Band, Rock

Groovasaurus

Maybe because they’ve changed with the times, but somehow remain the same. Or maybe it’s their style, or insistent lack of it. Could be it’s the ferocious, snapping beats of drummer Mike Piehl. But we know the reason we like Groovasaurus so much is because we’re haplessly, hopelessly in love with the sultry voice of Anita Suhanin, the siren of Somerville.

Band, Ska

Tie: Bim Skala Bim and The Allstonians>

Two acts ostensibly playing the same style, but each with a unique sound. The former’s catchier doubletime tunes rocket you from your seat; the latter’s more sluggish, sparse style digs a deep groove. Plus, you have to love the ‘Stonians endearing tribal loyalty: “Living in Allston is the final word!”

Band, Upstart Jazz

The Miracle Orchestra is made up of six guys who look like they’re in high school; actually, they’re in college-Berklee College of Music and the New England Conservatory of Music, to be exact. But their improvisational influences, building on everything from Maceo Parker to Miles Davis and The Grateful Dead, help develop a sound that’s way beyond the players’ years. Someday they’ll really find their edge: watch out.

Hall of Fame

Bar

F.J. Doyle’s Café

Could there be any other? Doyle’s is to Boston what the Elaine’s is to New York. Good eats, great atmosphere, and a who’s-who of Bostonians both proper and not.

Hall of Fame

Bar for Beer Selection

The Sunset Grill & Tap

True medical fact: If you sat down at the bar at the Sunset and drank only four ounces of each beer in stock, you’d die a horribly painful death, probably by exploding. But if you’re willing to take a more sober excursion through the world of malted, fermented beverages, the Sunset is your place. Silverback Gorilla Black Coffee Ale? Got it. Hacker-Pschorr Dunkel? You bet. All told, the Sunset boasts nearly 600 beers, including 111 on tap and three beer engines for those cask-conditioned ales.

Bar for a Business Deal

The Oak Bar

Ink the deal over well-mixed drinks served by a superb waitstaff. The bar’s high ceilings and oak-paneled walls provide an elegant setting for serious business chatter, and the spacious table arrangements keep everything discreet. Head into the adjoining Oak Room for steaks (see Best Steakhouse).

Busker

Roland Tumble

With a restless slide on a mottled guitar, Roland Tumble, who frequently perches in the Park Street Red Line station, plays rubbery melodies with all the melancholy of a heavy-hearted Boston evening rush hour-and just enough bounce to snap us out of the drone of commuting.

Cigar Bar

Punch Bar

Points off for being a dark cavern in the corner of one the city’s ugliest hotels (the Back Bay Sheraton). But the cushy chairs and cozy nooks lend a decadent air to the art of cigaring. The selection is immense-100 by our last count-and the bar staff is adept at guiding even novices to a satisfying stogie.

Hall of Fame

Cinema

Kendall Square Cinema

Culture and film buffs thank the celluloid gods for this place to see all the idiosyncratic flicks that get reviewed in The New Yorker and the New York Times. Still the sole straddler of the art house/multiplex genres, it offers a wide great selection on nine screens and in many languages. Great snacks too: real biscotti and cappuccino, and birdbath-size containers of high-quality popcorn. All this and gumfree floors.

Gay Bar

Club Café

One of the few gay bars you can go to where your friends-male and female, gay and straight-can all have a good time. Whether in a group or with a friend, this is the best bet for a good time. The weekend can turn into a meat market, but the atmosphere is friendly enough that you feel comfortable approaching that cute someone in the baseball hat.

Hotel Bar

Ritz-Carlton Boston

Dark, woody, and intimate, the bar at the Ritz is exactly the sort of watering hole weary travelers and high-end drinkers demand. The martini menu is extensive and intriguing, and the Five Star nut mix (no peanuts in the bunch!) adds salty cachet.

Impersonation of a Dutch Elm:

Quentin Tarantino in Wait Until Dark

Irish Pub

Tír Na Nóg

The name means “Land of Eternal Youth” in Gaelic, which is a fine motto for any drinking establishment. It’s small and boxy, with only a few tables squeezed around the bar and the corner where the musicians jam. But the Guinness is properly chilled, the food is suprisingly tasty, and there’s a bartender named Feargal. How cool is that?

Hall of Fame

Jazz Bar

Regattabar

Some may complain that it’s a bit pricey, but it still delivers the highest-caliber jazz acts in town. From Sonny Rollins to Herbie Hancock, Don Byron to Tito Puente, you know that Regattastars have earned their way to the top. Sure, the atmosphere’s more stiff upper lipstick than whiskey-soaked back-alley, but sit close to the stage and close your eyes. The music speaks for itself..

Jazz Scene

Lizard Lounge

As the new host to The Fringe’s (Best Jazz Band) Monday night jams-and occasionally to delights from the free-form experimental acid-jazz group Club d’Elf (Best Cutting-Edge Band)-this lounge has the coolest in-the-round setting. Owing partly to a respectable selection of booze and excellent vibes, the unassuming Lizard Lounge has slithered to the top.

Invitation-only art exhibit:

Rembrandt’s Storm on the Sea of Galilee

Lounge

Wonder Bar

Who needs comfort food when you have comfort drink? Lurking beneath the floorboards of the stiff-backed, black-attired glam scene at the Wonder Bar is a comfortable lounge downstairs. It has enveloping booths and sofas and a TV playing sports du jour. The jazz wafts down from upstairs; the pretense, fortunately, does not.

Mindless Entertainment

Lost World

It doesn’t get stupider than this-or more absorbing. Climb into the booth and fire at the lizardy dino-creatures from the movie. Coolest moment: When T-Rex emerges out of the dewy fog, plucks you out of the Land Rover in its teeth, and shakes the bejesus out of your animated persona. Messiest moment: When the herbivores smother you in steamy feces.

Pool Hall

The Rack

There’s something refreshingly different about this joint-starting with the fact that, with 22 tables the color of champagne and mahogany furniture, it’s way too upscale to be called a joint. Live music seven nights a week, above-average food, and a solidly yuppie bar scene set The Rack firmly apart from the video-games and bowling-alley genre

Sports Bar

Good Times Billiards

If you leave your own couch, bathroom, and refrigerator to enjoy a sporting event, then Good Times (aka The House of Fun) is the place for you. Huge TVs-12 feet by 12 feet-await, along with rambunctious fans and a couple of bars. You can feed your aggressive streak on the endless pool tables, video games, bumper cars, laser tag, and batting cages.