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Allston/Brighton
Kinvara Pub, O'Brien's Pub
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MORE INFORMATION
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Kinvara Pub
Location: 34 Harvard Ave., Allston
Hours: Mon.-Sat., 11 a.m.-2 a.m.; Sun., noon-2 a.m.
Phone: 617-783-9400.
Get directions
O'Brien's Pub
Location: 3 Harvard, Allston
Hours: Sun.-Sat., noon-1 a.m.
Phone: 617-782-6245.
Get directions
Beers on tap: Kinvara, 15; O'Brien's 8.
Cover: Free to $5 at both pubs, depending on the night.
Food: Kinvara, traditional pub fare with specials $5-$7; O'Brien's, potato chips.
Games: Both have darts; O'Brien's also has cribbage.
Best picture: Large team photo of the '60 Red Sox at O'Brien's. Why the '60 Sox? No one seems to know.
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Anchoring Harvard Avenue, O'Brien's and Kinvara are the first two pubs in a part of town where it seems every third door leads to a hole-in-the-wall tavern. The area is home to thousands of college students, recent grads, and blue-collar workers - and it is at places like Kinvara and O'Brien's that these worlds meet.
If you haven't been to the Kinvara in a couple of years, you might not recognize it. The brick facade has been replaced with large, inviting windows, with outdoor seating added in the back. But the square bar still dominates the middle of the room and conversation still flows freely from one side to the other. You'll find more of a mix of patrons during the day. Live music nights, Wednesday through Sunday, draw mostly a younger crowd.
Hard-working, nice people - that's how bartender Billy Deehan describes his customers at O'Brien's. Some come for the suds, to borrow the bar cribbage board, or to play Keno; on music nights, as at the Kinvara, the younger crowd predominates.
Original rock electrifies the place Thursday through Saturday night, while on Sundays things mellow out a bit for acoustic night. "You can actually have a conversation," Deehan says of Sundays. The day crowd tends to be regulars holding bar-wide conversations (no introductions necessary).
Eclectically decorated - a deer head, a photo of Elvis shaking hands with Nixon - O'Brien's has everything but an O'Brien.
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