Boston’s Bistro and Pub

June 30, 2008
Boston’s has a reputation as a beer bar in the Dayton area, but that is more a statement of how weak Dayton is more so than Boston’s being good. The rotation of beer is odd and inconsistent to say the least. My last visit I saw Mojo Risin and Maharaja on the board only to find out that both kegs had blown earlier in the day. OK, i’m an understanding person, these things happen, but, there was no replacement for either with any hops. No IPAs, no IIPAs, ?????? They had Sierra Nevada Pale Ale(ho hum) and Lagunitas Gnarleywine. While the Lagunitas was very good, there was nothing for a hophead, NOTHNG. How do you go from two doubles to nothing. As for the food, the menu is a strange list of Hungarian foods along with pizzas. The pizzas were excellent, but took over an hour on a night that they weren’t very busy.

June 6, 2008
This place is basically a blue collar bar that serves decent beer - the two young ladies tending bar were friendly, although they were a little perplexed that on out-of-towner was visiting their bar - they had a handful of common regionals on tap (oberon, something from founders), three philosophers, and the latest avery special release - other than that there was nothing spectacular - they had a flier up for a 6 firkin cask event later in the week, so that was promising - seems like the kind of place that might occasionally get something interesting for the beer hunter, but is mostly focused on keeping standard regionals (judging by the area, I don’t blame them) - not a bad place, but I wasn’t thrilled.

January 3, 2008
Great local place. The barkeep had good knowlege on what was on tap. Good selection on tap. Bottled selection was pretty good. My fav. pub to visit every weekend.

December 21, 2007
Directly on Main Street with parking in the back. Clean brick and wood older building with entrance to the bar from the back. The bar is on left and tables on the right and in the front. Good selection on tap. All were drinkable brews. Not so freindly bartender but with good knowledge. Interesting selection of bottle beers that were as good as the taps. Interesting location.

December 19, 2007
(Visited 07/2005): Boston’s is located a couple miles off I-75 and has plenty of parking. It looks like a house from the outside, and in the lower rear is the Boston Wine Cellar and another completely different bar. The decor inside is very interesting - it looks kind of like a cheap hotel or bowling alley lounge with pool tables, cheap-looking booths and lots of bar stool tables. The bar itself is pretty small and there is also a bier garten in the back. Nice selection of draught beers here, about 10 total including Flying Dog Wild Dog, Old Rasputin, Oberon and other goodies. Loads of bottled choices too from GLBC, Bell’s, Thirsty Dog, Sam Smith’s etc. They also feature a cask beer periodically. Plus they have a beer club and organize pub crawls to other cities. The service here is really good - while they did not appear to have service in the seating area, the bartender went out of his way to bring popcorn over and ask how the beers were after I ordered our drinks and sat back down. No food is available aside from the popcorn. I am really glad to have visited this spot - it wasn’t too crowded or loud (aside from someone monopolizing the jukebox with Dave Matthews) and they obviously care about the beer they offer - their menu board lists both staff and customer picks for beers every week. A great stop for anyone visiting the area.

February 26, 2007
I was at Boston’s Bistro on 2/22/2007 for the Stone "The Most Arrogant Bar (Pub) in America" celebration. Apparently this place won and I happen to be passing through and stopped in for the tasting. They have 8 or 9 taps and 1 beer engine (I’m not sure there is always a cask offering available though) and the night I was there it was all Stone products (including a special cask of Double Dry-Hopped Arrogant Bastard). Usually they have other good beer on draught though and right now it is Unibroue Maudite, Summit ESB, Grolsch Premium Lager, Southampton Imperial Porter, Bare Knuckle Stout, Tommyknocker Maple Nut Brown Ale, Lindemans Framboise, EKU 28, and Leinenkugel’s Sunset Wheat. They also have 25 or so bottled offerings in a cooler. The food is pizza and pretezels and is pretty good. The night I was there the place was packed because of the event and things were pretty disorganized. It is probably much better on a regular night! Not a huge place, but they have quite a bit of seating and a couple of billard tables.

October 26, 2006
Oct 06 -- Kind of a dive in that down-homey midwestern fashion. This place includes a pretty expansive tavern upstairs and a small wine/beer retail area downstairs (and curiously another non-related bar, too). The retail side has a small collection of decent micros. Upstairs in the tavern the night I was there the taps included Victory Hop Devil, Urquell, Sweatty Betty, Hoster Gold top, Flying Dog Gonzo, New Holland Pumpkin, Weyerbacher Imperial Pumpkin, Franziskaner, Lindemann’s Framboise and A/B’s Bareknuckle and Bud Light. Not even close to the listed 100 bottles, they only had about 20-30 in their cooler, none of which were that unusual. At 6 pm on a Wednesday I was the only guy in the bar for a bit and when I left there was 2 other dudes. Bartender was friendly enough and very importantly poured the beer correctly into a glass that wasn’t frozen. Worth a visit in Dayton ... best I could find for a beer bar.

March 9, 2005
A nice cozy place. There is no way the 140 bottles is correct. From what i saw there is a cooler with bottles. A lot of main stream choices. Only a few odd ball beers such as Bert Grants Perfect Porter, DFH Raison D’etre, Great Lakes, Some Bells, but not to impressive. The tap Selections can be marvelous, but other times it can be so so. Only three taps are a for sure and those are Guiness, BUD LIGHT, and Barrel House Hefe. Has had great things as Corsendonk both brown and Pale, Arrogant Bastard, Bells Double Cream Stout, Summit Maibock (which was AWESOME) just to name a few. They sure do like to keep people guessing, but being 15 or so minutes from downtown it is depressing to go in on one of there so so nights. I suggest calling before going.