Find us
PLACEHOLDER — replace with the room at night: warm lamps, brick, people in the booths.

Columbus Ave · South End, Boston · Open till 2am

Pull up a stool.

A neighbourhood bar on 433 Columbus Avenue, and it has been one for a long time. Low ceiling, brick, stained-glass lamps, sport on the TV. Big plates of Italian-American food out of the kitchen until 1:30 in the morning. Doors at 4, seven nights a week.

Find usWhat to get
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PLACEHOLDER — replace with the neon sign in the window, shot at night.
PLACEHOLDER — replace with the bar mid-service, backbar lit behind.
PLACEHOLDER — replace with a plate of pasta or the chicken parm, shot warm.
PLACEHOLDER — replace with the room busy, shot wide: brick, TVs, full tables.

A night here

  1. 01

    In from the cold

    A red awning, a neon sign in the window, and a door that opens straight into somewhere warmer and considerably darker than the street you just left.

  2. 02

    A stiff one at the bar

    Order something simple. It will arrive stronger than you expected for the money, which is a large part of why this room fills up the way it does.

  3. 03

    And then a big plate lands

    Whatever you ordered turns up larger than you pictured it, on a bed of linguine, still going at the edges. This is not small-plate dining and nobody here is pretending otherwise.

  4. 04

    The room hums till last call

    By midnight every stool is taken, the lamps are doing all the work, and the kitchen is still going. Nobody moves you along. That is the entire proposition.

What to get

The short list

A long menu of Italian-American plates, a beer list that runs well past twenty, wine by the glass, and eight cocktails that all land heavier than the price suggests.

  • PLACEHOLDER — replace with the chicken parm over linguine.

    Chicken Parmigiana

    Breaded, blanketed in cheese, served over linguine in marinara. The thing a lot of people are actually here for, and bigger than it strictly needs to be.

    $24

  • PLACEHOLDER — replace with the Italian nachos, shot from above.

    Italian Nachos

    Corn chips under braised short rib ragù, ricotta and cherry pepper. Ordered for the table, finished by one person, denied by everyone.

    $18

  • PLACEHOLDER — replace with the pot of mussels.

    Mussels

    A pot of them, in garlic butter or in marinara, and either way you will want bread you did not order to finish what is left in the bottom.

    $19

  • PLACEHOLDER — replace with the basket of truffle parmesan fries.

    Truffle Parmesan Fries

    A basket, ten dollars, and the single most likely thing to arrive at your table without anybody admitting they ordered it.

    $10

  • PLACEHOLDER — replace with the fried ravioli and marinara.

    Fried Ravioli

    Filled with jalapeño and ricotta, fried, sent out with marinara. Bar food doing rather more work than bar food has to.

    $12

  • PLACEHOLDER — replace with the espresso martini on the bar.

    Espresso Martini

    Espresso vodka, vanilla vodka and a splash of Irish cream. The one that quietly decides whether you are going home or staying for another.

    $18

PLACEHOLDER — replace with one of the stained-glass lamps, or the room beneath them.
The lamps do most of the lighting, and all of the atmosphere.

About

The same dark room
for a very long time.

Anchovies is the corner of 433 Columbus Avenue that the South End actually uses. Low ceiling, brick, stained-glass lamps over the tables, New England sport on the TV, and a bar people have been sitting at for decades.

The food is Italian-American and it is generous — parm, pasta, subs, calzones, a lasagna that changes with the day — and the kitchen keeps going long after most of this city has stopped serving. The pours have a reputation.

It is a neighbourhood bar in the way that phrase used to mean. Everybody gets a stool, nobody is hurried out, and if you look undecided somebody at the bar will tell you what to order.

  • 1:30 amThe kitchen is still going
  • 20+Beers on draft and in the bottle
  • 7Nights a week, no exceptions

The room

Low ceilings, warm lamps, no hurry

PLACEHOLDER — replace with the back of the room, pictures on the wall.
PLACEHOLDER — replace with a pint being poured.
PLACEHOLDER — replace with the taps and the backbar.
PLACEHOLDER — replace with two people at the bar, shot from behind.
PLACEHOLDER — replace with a stained-glass lamp against the brick.
PLACEHOLDER — replace with a cocktail on the bar top, late.

Find us

433 Columbus Avenue,
the South End

433 Columbus Avenue
Boston, MA 02116

On Columbus Ave in the South End, a few minutes from Back Bay station. No reservations and no dress code — it is a bar, walk in. It gets full after ten and fuller after midnight.

Call (617) 266‑5088Get directions

Open

Monday – Sunday
4 PM – 2 AM

The same hours seven nights a week. No bookings, no dress code — walk in and find a stool. The kitchen runs late; the bar runs later.