Best of Boston

2009 Best Dive Bar

Silhouette Cocktail Lounge

If you require more than two ingredients in your cocktail (ice and booze), the Silhouette is likely not for you. True to dive décor, the walls are cheaply paneled and the floors cheaply tiled; the windows are largely covered to keep swillers insulated from school, work, the light of day, etc. The Tam may have the craziest clientele and TC’s the most Big Buck Hunter nuts, but the Silhouette reigns as the best no-frills place to be, or start becoming, hung over.

200 Brighton Ave., Allston, 617-254-9306,