You can tell a dive bar is good when it looks like it’s actually just an Elks Lodge or VFW. And the Cantab, with its famed green awning, looks eerily similar to my grandfather’s Western Mass haunt, his favorite place to drink quarter beers during the early hours of the week when he didn’t feel like opening his skating rink. And thanks to Cantab’s 8am opening time, early drinkers are certainly welcome here to sample the menu of, as its website pointedly puts it, “a full bar and wide assortment of domestic and imported beers.” But aside from the dive bar charms, this Cambridge legend quietly has a fantastic bluegrass scene, with a range of talent playing on Tuesdays, and was the first and last place I ever saw a poetry slam. But maybe don’t tell the 8am drinking club about that. — Kevin Alexander, national writer at Large

https://www.thrillist.com/drink/nation/the-best-dive-bars-in-america

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