Small Victories
American restaurant · South Boston ·
Craft burgers, inventive wings, giant pretzel, and cocktails
Craft burgers, inventive wings, giant pretzel, and cocktails
"Industry vet Josh Loving’s intimate downtown cocktail bar serves well-done classics, like choose-your-own-adventure martinis. There’s also a small menu that includes cheese and charcuterie for snacking. The long space features a bar and booths that face the bar, so you don’t miss any shaker action." - Erin Russell
"Tucked away above a parking garage entrance is Small Victory, one of the city’s best cocktail bars around. Owner and bar veteran Josh Loving and lead bartender Laura Maddox are passionate about their crafts and it shows with their classic drinks. Plus there are snacks. There are indoor dine-in services." - Nadia Chaudhury
"The team behind the Quiet Few in East Boston has opened Small Victories in South Boston, a not‑so‑small whiskey bar and restaurant that's perfect for grabbing a group and hanging out." - Erika Adams
"Located in South Boston’s Andrew Square and opening in mid-May, this 2,550-square-foot bar and restaurant from the team behind East Boston’s the Quiet Few delivers larger-than-life flavors and generous portions in a warm-industrial space designed by Joe the Architect. Expect oversized plates meant “for four people,” like the aptly named Huge Ass Pretzel — a 24-ounce pretzel served with house Cheez Whiz–style sauce, whipped scallion cream cheese, beer-honey mustard, and mixed pickles — plus stadium-sized seafood enabled by a much bigger kitchen. The menu, described by executive chef Scott Jensen as a “fun mash-up,” ranges from hits carried over from the Quiet Few (the Hell Yeah Burger with two patties, house sauce and smoked onions) to chilled seafood in the Get’n Chilly With It section (Mama J’s Crab Salad made with lump blue crab and fresh oysters with a reduced vodka Bloody Mary–style cocktail sauce), heap-style herbed fries with caviar “crack,” and the enormous Tray ‘O Beyoncé platter (When He F*** Me Good I Take His Ass to Red Lobster) that piles oysters, peel-and-eat Cajun shrimp, crab salad, fried clams, fries and more. Other crowd-pleasers include a one-pound mozzarella stick antipasti, burgers and dogs with playful riffs (Big Tony, the It’s Always Summer in Southie Dog with a jumbo Peal dog topped with fried clam strips, and the Bourdain’s Burger topped with seared mortadella), and junk-food tributes like the Chester Cheetah Burger with Flamin’ Hot Cheetos and the Flamin’ Hot Trash Bag snack. A separate lounge with booth seating and shuffleboard invites watch parties and events, the cocktail program mirrors the Quiet Few while adding a “baller amaro list” and expanded nonalcoholic options, and a frozen espresso martini called the Bruce Chillis is already recommended; the spot aims to feel like a comfortable living room where the staff’s energy makes people feel safe and welcome." - Nathan Tavares
"A larger South Boston outpost from the team behind the cult-favorite whiskey bar The Quiet Few, this spot expands the original’s expansive whiskey list and pairs it with pitch-perfect drinking food like burgers and hot dogs. The owners describe it as very much aligned with the Quiet Few but turned up a notch — imagine the same craft-forward spirit with an extra jolt of energy." - Erika Adams