Seating is at varied levels, from a long bar to the fashionably high table long enough for a board meeting, down to ordinary café tables. This makes a friendly tavern out of an over-large and hitherto difficult restaurant space.
The background music runs to blues and soul, and the crowd is young, but not exclusively so. Early on a weeknight, there were couples with babies taking advantage of the extensive outdoor seating. The inside gets loud, and it will only get louder when the outside crowd has to come indoors in cold weather.
A real strength for the Beacon Street Tavern is service, which is both quick out of the kitchen — despite the extra demands of outdoor seating — and friendly and helpful at the table. An oddity is that they refuse to sell take-out. The rationale given is that the chef doesn’t want people to judge his food after it travels. But they will pack up your leftovers for tomorrow’s lunch.
Beacon Street Tavern, 1032 Beacon Street, Brookline | daily, 5–11 pm | AE, MC, VI | full bar | no valet parking | sidewalk-level access | 617.713.2700
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Robert Nadeau: RobtNadeau@aol.com
