It takes cheek to build a deadly-serious beer bar - with two dozen craft-brew taps, a hundred bottled options, and a cask-conditioned ale - and still offer top-notch shaker cocktails. Max Toste, co-owner of casual hipster hangout Deep Ellum (477 Cambridge Street, Allston, 617.787.2337), loves discussing the many permutations of the Manhattan (canonical rye, or more modern, less authentic, but arguably tasty bourbon?) and the history of 19th-century classics like the Sazerac. Then he'll mix one up for you with 1920s-Ritz-level precision and the right bitters. Ignore that incredulous beer snob on your right: to each his own connoisseurship.
[Photo by Joel Veak]
