Place to get a drink close to Craigie?

[Marisa23]

I have my birthday dinner planned at Craigie on Main. I'm looking for a place in the close vicinity to get a drink with my husband beforehand.

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Craigie on Main
853 Main Street, Cambridge, MA 02139

[nsenada]

A little late, but I just remembered that DG had an x-tudo on the menu, that looked really good.

[dfan]

The best place in the immediate area for cocktails is... Craigie.

If you specifically want to have drinks at a different location or are concerned about fighting for bar space at Craigie's very popular bar, Green Street and Rendezvous are both excellent.

[MC Slim JB]

The bartending at Craigie itself is extraordinary, though the bar is nearly always painfully crowded. Other nearby options:

Green Street -- outstanding craft cocktails in a casual neighborhood-bar setting.

Rendezvous in Central Square -- excellent indie restaurant with an overlooked, underrated cocktail program.

Hungry Mother -- more excellent cocktails, though it too is also often crowded.

Think Tank -- a steadily improving cocktail list in a bar now managed by the great Brother Cleve; try the real-Tiki cocktails when they're offered.

Cuchi Cuchi -- another usually-crowded bar, but rather good and attractive drinks. They're famous for their cocktails with muddled fresh fruits and herbs, but they've added a good list of Golden Age cocktail now, too.

The Blue Room -- especially good on nights when white-bearded cocktail vet Reggie St. Paul is working.

http://mcslimjb.blogspot.com/

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Cuchi Cuchi
795 Main St, Cambridge, MA 02139

Hungry Mother
Cambridge, MA, Cambridge, MA

The Blue Room
Hampshire and Portland streets, Cambridge, MA 02139

Think Tank
1 Kendall Square, lower level, Cambridge, MA 02139

[jgg13]

"a bar now managed by Brother Cleve"

Interesting. I thought he was just doing those Monday gigs. How often is he there now?

[MC Slim JB]

Can't say how many nights a week he's physically on the premises: Mondays (when he hosts the "Drink This!" specialty cocktail events) and Tuesdays (when he produces the live indie-folk lineup) for sure. More important, I believe he is overhauling the cocktail menu. The preview cocktails I've sampled are a significant improvement over the current cocktail menu, which features a lot of pretty creative drinks but isn't, well, Cleve-level.

I expect Cleve to do the kind of things he did at the B-Side with its opening cocktail list: many Golden Age classics and some witty originals. A lot of rye, rum, and pisco. The real-Tiki focus runs on Monday nights at least through the summer; those cocktails are really something else.

http://mcslimjb.blogspot.com/

[jgg13]

Cool, thanks. I've yet to make it over to one of those monday shin-digs, I should make an effort to rectify that.

[Canadian Tuxedo]

While I love Hungry Mother, like Blue Room, and have never been to Think Tank, I do have to say that none of them should be considered in the "close vicinity" to Craigie.

I used to live around the corner from Hungry Mother et. al. and have done the walk from Craigie/Cuchi Cuchi back (previous) home many times, and while it is not a particularly long walk for what most consider close in terms of dinner plans they do not fit the bill.

Though I suppose it is a relatively cheap cab ride, if cabbing rather than walking is within the OP's planning set.

Otherwise I support the numerous other calls to attempt to get a seat at Craigie's bar pre-dinner. Otherwise, Rendezvous than Green Street in order of proximity.

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Hungry Mother
Cambridge, MA, Cambridge, MA

The Blue Room
Hampshire and Portland streets, Cambridge, MA 02139

Think Tank
1 Kendall Square, lower level, Cambridge, MA 02139

[kobuta]

To each his own - I work right in that area and have walked to and from each of those places many times, and I would consider most of those reasonable walks, with Green street maybe the farthest. From Craigie, most of those locations are reachable in roughly 10 minutes at most, and on beautiful summer nights, I think they'd be great strolls before or after a meal.

[MC Slim JB]

Agreed: I purposely only chose places within about a ten-minute walk of Craigie.

http://mcslimjb.blogspot.com/

[barleywino]

if one is looking for a really good summer stroll before/after dinner at Craigie, one can always stroll across the bridge to the bar at Clio

[cpingenot]

Why not just get a drink at Cragie's bar? It's supposed to be excellent. Green street (a longish walk) has a well regarded bar. I don't know if their bar is a feature, but Rendezvous is close by.

[dfan]

Rendezvous's bar is great, especially when Scott Holliday (their bar manager) is working.