Allston’s Model Cafe Is a Great Neighborhood Bar | Eater Boston

"There's always a line in front of the Model Cafe after 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday nights, no matter the weather, and with good reason: it's one of Allston's best and oldest bars. Opened in 1932 by Greek immigrant Harry Anthony, it began as a three-shift bar (8 a.m. to 2 a.m.) serving factory workers from U.S. Steel, Ryerson Steel and Dorothy Muriel’s Bakery and truck drivers traveling North Beacon Street, and originally operated as a full-service restaurant—filets for 15 cents, fish caught that day, everything butchered in-house, and produce from Harry's backyard garden during the growing season. After the elder Anthony died in the mid-1960s his son George took over and shifted the menu toward modest fare like burgers (at one point, "for five bucks, you could eat and drink in here all night"); his grandson Harry was fired in 1972, spent nearly 40 years running other restaurants and nightclubs, then returned and has been at the helm for the past eight years. Over nearly 90 years and three generations of Anthonys the Model has continually adapted—today it's adopted by whoever lives here and is known for hipsters, artists, and musicians chugging cheap Miller High Life, dancing to '80s and '90s remixes and playing the World Cup '94 pinball machine; as Anthony says, "I love all these kids; they keep me young." - Terrence Doyle