Boston, MASports Bars

Cask 'n Flagon sits across the street from Fenway Park at the corner of Brookline and Lansdowne, a pre-game stop that fills before every Red Sox game and stays packed through the last inning once the playoffs start. The patio puts fans close enough to hear the roar carry over from inside the ballpark on a big play. A long beer list runs alongside a menu of fried bar food that pulls a mixed-generation Sox crowd. Order from the fried menu and take a patio seat when the Sox are playing next door.

Bleacher Bar sits beneath the center field bleachers at Fenway Park, with a garage window that looks straight out onto the field, so a visit during a Red Sox game doubles as a view of the action without a ticket. The room draws out-of-towners for that view as much as it draws regulars for the game playing on the screens around the bar. A standard bar-snack and beer menu runs alongside the view. Order a beer at the window and watch the game from a seat with a sightline onto the field itself.

Game On! is a two-level sports bar connected to Fenway Park's Lansdowne Street side, built around big game nights with giveaways and prizes when the Red Sox or another Boston team is playing. Screens cover the room on both levels, and the upstairs runs its own coal-fired pizza kitchen alongside the standard bar menu. Order a pizza from the upstairs kitchen and find a spot facing a screen for a Boston game.

Sullivan's Tap is a true dive a block from TD Garden, the pre- and post-game stop for Bruins and Celtics fans since 1933. There is no kitchen here, only beer and shots poured fast between periods or quarters. The room fills hardest right before puck drop or tipoff and clears out again once the crowd heads across the street to the Garden. Order a beer and a shot at the bar and time the visit around a Bruins or Celtics game night.

Banners Kitchen & Tap sits beside TD Garden under a screen the room is built around, forty feet across and the biggest in the Northeast, backed by dozens more televisions and rotating beer taps through the room. It draws the Bruins and Celtics crowd before and after games at the Garden next door. The kitchen runs a sharper bar-food menu than the room's size might suggest. Order from the kitchen and claim a seat with a sightline on the big screen before a Garden game.