Places You Can Go to Be a Boston Hipster

The other weekend my girlfriends were visiting me in Boston; while out for drinks I ordered a Brooklyn Lager and my friend proceeded to call me a hipster. Granted, I was wearing a plaid shirt and had just bought a screen print tank top from H&M, but the whole experience made me go into a bit of a self-reflection on what really defines a hipster hang-out.

Here is my list of places you can go in Boston if you want to be a hipster.

1.) The Other Side Cafe: This location is full of waiters in urban outfitters tees donning black plastic framed glasses. Other Side has reasonably priced food with a lot of vegan options for our healthy hipsters. You'll find a chalkboard behind the bar that lists the specials, beer types, and random graffiti drawings.  Also the first beer listed on draft is Narragansett, which is the hipster kool aid. Though it would be cooler if served in a can.

Wave your hipster flag high

2.) Model Cafe: Model is always swarmed with a 20-something urban population on the weekends. Skull decor hangs proudly around the liquor bottles behind the bar while you sip your PBR to the sounds of an old school jukebox. Model is located in the back parts of Allston (aka the Brooklyn of Boston) and they also have a Myspace page instead of a website.

Love your motorcycle boots

3.) Almost any bar in Central Square: Bars like Cantab Lounge, People's Republik, Middle East, and Zu,Zu! are all located in Central Square and all equally awesome in their dive bar ambiance.

Middle East and Zu,Zu! have a consistent indie band loving, beer can drinking crowd.
Cantab can attract different crowds depending on the live band of the night, but the downstairs cellar always attracts jam band loving youngsters and their pitchers of cheap booze.
People's Republik has a slavic feel and reminds me of a bar called Fidel in Saint Petersburg (a Russian hipster joint).  Urban youngsters can come to People's Republik to discuss Che while playing darts.

Acceptable attire for all the above bars is skinny jeans, converse sneakers, and a ripped Beatles tee shirt.

2 for one hipster block

4.) Silhouette Lounge: Tall boys of Naragansett for $2.20? Yes, please. Silohuette's red walls and skull decor attract a more goth hipster (the "gipster" if you will) plus tons of non-hipster locals. There is a pool table hounded with pool sharks (some with their own pool stick), a dart board littered with surly punks, a quaint smoking area in the back. Oh and they serve free popcorn for all! 

Bum a self-rolled cigarette?

You might be asking about my credibility as your hipster expert. But as you can see, my taste for plaid, Narragansett and live music lead me down the hipster road more often than you would think.

Plus ...

There's a little hipster in all of us

Don't I blend?