Aside from visiting dive bars, one of my favorite hobbies is traveling. A personal goal of mine is to visit all 50 states, which is what prompted me to finally make it up to Boston, MA (that and a free ticket using my airline miles). I had never been before and I had a week off work during Memorial Day, so I booked a flight and was on my way!
Before I left for my trip, a friend who fully embraces the same adoration for dive bars that I have, pointed me to The Tam. By chance, I had booked an Airbnb that was within walking distance to the bar and I fell so in love with it that I visited The Tam two nights in a row.
The first night, a friend and I grabbed dinner at My Thai Vegan Cafe, then headed just around the corner to The Tam. I was immediately in love with this bar. The clients were lively, the beer was cheap, and it was everything I look for in a good dive bar.
The same friend actually asked me what makes a dive bar discernable from “just a shitty bar,” and I’m still fumbling around for an answer to that question. Maybe I just love shitty bars? But there’s just something in the air that I can’t quite put my finger on that has always attracted me to dive bars. Maybe it’s the fact that there’s no dress code and you can be as under or overdressed as you want and no one will really judge you? Maybe it’s that I have a soul connection with all the regulars who find solace and comfort in the monotony of their neighborhood bar? Maybe I just like shitty beer? One thing I know for certain is that you can always find a friend at a dive bar!
The second night I visited The Tam, I walked over from my Airbnb and was a couple of summer shandies into the evening when I noticed a guy come dancing into the bar. For the sake of this story, let’s call him Paul. I could tell Paul was many more drinks into the evening than I was, and I was not so surprised when he came up to me a little while after entering the bar. Paul was having such a great night, how could I say no? He offered to buy me a drink, so I asked for a PBR (what else?). Paul went up to the bar and came back with two small shooter glasses which were obviously NOT PBR. After switching my glass for his – a trick I learned from the timeless classic Princess Bride – I took one sip of the most horrendous beverage I’ve ever had. I’m pretty sure Paul had just ordered us two shots of mouthwash. He then went on to tell me about his shirt. Because The Tam is in Boston, it’s no surprise that Paul was a scientist working in a lab. He paid homage to this with a t-shirt that said Fact (written in scientific instruments) & Fiction (written in religious symbols). I told him I worked in veterinary medicine and it was so endearing the way he talked about his lab rats and how well veterinary technicians care for them at his university. And I mean that honestly, not sarcastically. We chatted a little while longer and Paul made sure he wasn’t bothering me by reminding me about every 10 minutes that if he was, I could just tell him to “fuck off.” Then just as suddenly as he appeared, Paul was off into the night in search of pizza.
That was my cue to close out my tab and head back to my Airbnb. It was pouring down rain, but I didn’t want to pay surge pricing on any of the rideshare apps just to go a few blocks around the corner, so I walked back in the pouring rain and it was actually a very delightful end to the evening.
