With the beer gone and no buzz to speak of after leaving the Night of the Barrels, it wasn't a hard decision to agree to head to a beer bar for an impromptu after party. We climbed into a couple of cabs and went over to Brookline to invade The Publick House near Washington Square on Beacon St. (1648 Beacon St.) There I had McChouffe while waiting for a table. The place was jam-packed full of people, all twenty-somethings making my group stick-out as dinosaurs. By 10:45 the place had thinned a little and we were able to get a table. I ordered an Orval cheese platter for my midnight snack and paired it with (what else?) Orval.

Once we seated the place seemed a little less like standing in purgatory. Yes, I had a beer, but I had been standing for almost six hours (aside from the cab ride) and I could see this wonderful beer bar with tables and people eating Belgian fries out of conical paper wraps.

I wasn't hungry at all. I'd stuffed myself at the Night of the Barrels on the food catered by the Sunset Grill (another Boston beer destination). But when I saw that Orval cheese plate, I knew I would have to make some room.

It was well after midnight when I ended the evening with a Gueuze. Or thought I had ended the evening...

We snagged a taxi driven by a cabby with a sense of humor. He pretended not to know where our hotel was. When we did get back, I was ready to turn in, but B. lobbied the rest of us to hit a nearby bar for one more drink. (It's always just one more isn't it?) Bukowski was less than a five minute jog from our hotel so I led the group over there. (Boston is an ID checking town. I had my ID out at every place we went and they checked carefully. Even though I've got grey streaked through my beard, the ID had to be checked. One place the next evening even wanted two forms of ID, so when you drink in Boston go prepared.)

Bukowski isn't a place you want to take someone for a quiet conversation. The punk rock playing in that place will make your ears bleed, but the beer selection is decent. I really wasn't wanting another beer (secretly I was hoping they had a single malt or two), but when I saw the Hitachino Nest Red Rice beer and that they served it up in the proper glass, I couldn't resist. We closed down Bukowski and were tossed out on the street at 2:30 am to find our way back to our hotel.

There's actually two locations for Bukowski. The larger one in Cambridge (1281 Cambridge Street) I've never been to. The smaller one in downtown Boston (50 Dalton Street) is worth the stop if you are thirsty and don't mind the noise and want to read some of Bukowski's beer poetry conveniently copied onto the walls of the bar.