Blogging on Meds

Bleacher Bar view and the scene at C’s party c/o Flickr

The Lyons Group, purveyors of such Boston nightlife entities as Axis, Bill’s Bar, Avalon, Sonsie, and Game On, have about the worst track record in America. Despite two decades of trying, they could never open a decent club, bar, lounge or restaurant.

Or they couldn’t until now.

Somehow the Lyons Group wound up with a lease for the former storage space underneath the bleachers in dead-center at Fenway. They converted it into The Bleacher Bar, which opened last month.

I visited the space a few times in the past week. The bar’s ceiling is the actual bleachers, crooking down step by step ala MC Escher from about 25-feet at the Lansdowne-facing backside to 15-feet along the field. At over 3000 sq ft, the space could fit 400 comfortably. Its walls cut diagonally, making the bar’s widest area right in front of a garage door that, get this, looks out on a panoramic view of Fenway Park.

I mean, this is a better view than many bleacher or right field seats and you even don’t need tickets. Getting in to Fenway will cost, at minimun, $100. Best deal in Boston? Check. The Bleacher Bar is free and has cheaper beer than Fenway. It offers a full bar and serves excellent bacon cheese fries, sliders, and hot pastrami sandwiches at reasonable prices. A half-dozen high tables dot the area in front of the garage door. Wood booths line the walls. A grand, mirrored “Green Monster Bar” scales the back wall. The men’s restroom is elevated above the fray, but the architects were genius: a window above the urinal looks down on the bar and out to field. The light fixtures and ventilation system are exsposed and tastefully industrial, making the space like a Tribeaca loft/sports bar embedded inside a Fenway Park cave.

On a recent Thursday at 10pm, when the Sox had the day off, there were only about six or seven customers. We took a seat at the open garage door, a cool summer breeze a-blowing. Fenway Park was all epic hard-angled shadows, save a few emergency lights and the luxury boxes’ glow. Our waitress told us, “Yeah, we just opened so no one knows about this place yet. The Globe hasn’t done a story or anything.”

Were Boston any other city, Bleacher Bar would have a DJ and the place would be hopping on a Thursday night. Imagine dancing and raging in the shadows of Fenway?

A few day later I returned at 5pm on a game day. Bleacher Bar definitely had more customers, but it was still half-empty, and my party scored the best seats in the house—right in front of the garage door.

A few days prior, the Celtics, having just won their 17th title, had been invited to throw out the first pitch at Fenway. The team held a pre-party at Bleacher Bar. Our waitress refued to confirm whether the C’s were smoking weed. A bus boy, who was there all night, said he didn’t see anything, but did say that during a rain delay the C’s came back to the bar from inside the Park and partied with customers.

By 6pm the bar was packed with your usual Fenway rats and families, so many of whom said, “Wow, this place is great.” Suddenly, I looked out the garage door and saw Josh Becket, my hero and that night’s starter, stretching on the door. Like two feet from me!

Boston is a city with a lot of bars but very few good ones. Actually, I can’t think of one must-see bar in Boston, except Sullivan’s Tap by the New Garden. The Rat is closed. Allston’s Common Ground is good one night a week. The Middle East is in Cambrdge. Maybe there’s some other place, but there’s no chance they combine form and function as well as the Bleacher Bar.