Restaurant Review

Bukowski’s
50 Dalton Street
Boston, Massachusetts
(617) 437-9999

Returning to Bukowski’s place is a little like climbing back up in the womb. It’s small and comfortable, warm, and you find yourself surrounded by wonderful liquid. In this case the amniotic substitute is a massive collection of over 100 beers, collected with obvious care from around the world.

The beers are organized by type and the menu doesn’t just tantalize you with the wonders it offers but educates you with descriptions, so you can make an informed decision even if you are not an expert.

We started with some beers from the Belgian tradition, Affligem and La Fin Du Monde. These beers have full bodies, lots of flavor, but are not cheap, and if you normally prefer a Bud Light, probably not the right choice.

While the beer could satisfy any appetite, if you insist upon eating, Bukowski’s provides a decent menu, with “bar fly” food and more formidable sandwiches. Now, Bukowski once said, “Show me a man who lives alone and has a perpetually clean kitchen, and eight times out of nine I'll show you a man with detestable spiritual qualities.” That may cause you some concern when considering eating there. But fear not, the food bears no resemblance to the unkempt lifestyle of Chinaski.

We started with the Spinach and Artichoke dip. The dip was full of parmesan, romano, water chestnuts, garlic and herb cheese and sour cream. It was excellent, rich and thick, a perfect complement to the second round of beers we were downing, a Casco Bay Red and an Ephemere, an apple flavored beer, which is perfect for nine year old girls.

When dinner came, I had something of a house specialty, a hamburger with peanut butter. It didn’t sound appetizing, but, for the sake of this review I decided to plunge into these uncharted epicurean waters.

Eating a peanut butter covered hamburger reminded me of the days as a kid when I would shove handfuls of peanut butter and crackers into my mouth until the roof became caked with peanut butter, flecked with pieces of crackers, and resembling a drying bucket of concrete. Well this was pretty similar, except the flecks of crackers were now big pieces of beef. But unlike the horror a peanut butter eating child encounters when the measly six ounces of Capri Sun would fail to help me, I had a bar with a hundred beers to quench my thirst.

With my thirst quenched, I realized, the peanut butter hamburger is good. In fact, despite my initial reluctance, I really enjoyed the combination. But a word to the wise, if you are going to eat a bunch of cheese-based dip, and then some peanut butter covered hamburger, you might want to have some fruit or some raisin bran or something, you know what I’m saying?

To top it off, you can get the burger for a ridiculously low price. From noon - 8 p.m. on weekdays you can get a burger with all the fixings for $1.69, rivaling the Poor House for cheapest satisfying meal I have found in Boston.

The other special takes a lot more commitment, the Dead Authors Club. If you want to join all you have to do is polish off one bottle of every beer on the menu, 99 beers in six months. If you do it, your name will be revered in perpetuity, you get an engraved mug featuring your favorite dead author, and you get a lot of street cred, at least among Back Bay booze hounds.

The crowd in Bukowski's was mixed, from some middle management looking guys in their button down corporate camo gear to the dreadlocked and punk rock bar patrons. The music was some good Indi rock and classic country music, keeping the energy level very downbeat but with the kind of coolness that attracts the Berklee kids from their campus around the corner and the rat racers. It’s not crazy partying or a pick up scene, but a good crew of drinkers having quiet conversations in a dimly lit room. The walls are covered with images of Bukowski himself surrounded by text from his poems and novels. There are two televisions hung in the corners, so a few seats had views of the college basketball that was on.

The waitress had a punk rock charm, meaning she acted like she was too cool to talk to us, even while we paid her to take our orders. She followed up that great impression by taking forever to wait on us and sighing condescendingly when we ordered drinks. On a previous visit, a waitress chastised my companion for leaving a sip of beer in their glass, and actually, that was kind of hot. In all fairness, waitresses during previous visits had been less off-putting.

For Cantabrigians and others north of the Charles, Bukowski’s has another location on Cambridge St. in Inman Square. While the food and beer are equally good, the place is too big, looks too cookie cutter cool and lacks the lived-in charm of the Boston location, where you can be assured a great beer and a fine meal.