Biggest Loss: the Sale of the B-Side Lounge
The 1998 opening of the B-Side lounge (92 Hampshire Street, Cambridge, 617.354.0766) spearheaded the great revival of Golden Age cocktails that Boston is currently enjoying. Now mourning cocktail connoisseurs may console themselves with two thoughts: 1) Bartenders are still plying their B-Side-honed skills at similarly artisanal cocktail bars like Eastern Standard and Green Street. 2) Incoming owner Daniel lanigan, proprietor of Western Massachusetts beer-geek bars the Moan and Dove (Amherst) and the Dirty Truth (Northampton), vows to maintain a classic cocktail list even as he adds 40 new craft-brew taps. RIP, B.

Best Local Food or Drinks Blog: Drinkboston.com
Seeking trustworthy reviews of boston bars and restaurants online is often a frustrating crapshoot. Opinion sites like Citysearch are overrun with paid shills, disgruntled ex-employees, and callow frat boys. like much of the blogosphere, our skillful food-and-drinks bloggers are vastly outnumbered by unoriginal amateurs. Atop this online slag heap, local cocktail savant Lauren Clark’s blog glitters with entertaining, well-written reviews of Boston’s worthiest drinking venues, best cocktails and ingredients, and most gifted bartenders (with a focus on skills, not glamour quotient). Required reading for discriminating dipsos.

Best Revitalization of a Faded Glory: Restaurant Marliave
Restaurant Marliave (10 Bosworth Street, Boston, 617.422.0004), a one-time Downtown Crossing institution, opened in 1875 but had wilted into tatty senescence before closing a few years ago. Chef/owner Scott Herritt of Grotto fame restored its fin-de-siècle architectural detail and now serves food on three levels. Fresh oysters are shucked at the ground-level, six-seat raw bar, while the first-floor bar/café offers modestly-priced American fare and well-crafted old-school cocktails. the top-floor restaurant serves pricier Continental cuisine in an airy, window-wrapped room. Even Bostonians who don’t wistfully remember dining here with Grandma after Christmas shopping at the old Filene’s will be glad for this revival.

Win dinner on us! Text FEED, followed by a space, followed by the name of your favorite restaurant, to 22122.

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