You may find it odd that not a single international or West Coast beer made this list considering where this article started. I tried to keep these selections relatively close to home because while there are some amazing beers out there, there are also plenty of great brewers worth supporting in our own backyard. One of the best parts of this absurd hobby of mine is that by drinking local, you are doing something good by keeping money in the community and encouraging the local craft beer scene. Let's keep these special places around: mix-a-local-six.
Josh can be contacted through his blog:joshsbeerblog.blogspot.com.
Related:
Coffeenomics, Go for the doughnuts, Restaurante Montecristo, More 
- Coffeenomics
In 50 states and 49 countries, the experience is the same: a placid sense of place, air suffused with the rich aromatics of fresh-brewed espresso. Customers dollop cream and sprinkle brown sugar into their drinks. Behind the counter, green-clad baristas grind beans and steam milk, smiling as they take orders in a made-up language.
- Go for the doughnuts
The French Press occupies the conceptual space matching its geographic location: to the left of Dunkin Donuts — more local, more artisanal, but hitting the same basic notes.
- Restaurante Montecristo
East Boston is a treasure trove of Latin American restaurants serving delicious, filling fare.
- Eco-friendly
Once upon a time, before the heyday of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, all beer was organic. And now organic is back for good.
- El Pelón Taquería
A 2009 fire in the Fenway destroyed an entire block of beloved independent restaurants, including the very popular El Pelón Taquería. It was the second fire in two years to hit this Baja-style joint, prompting my comment, “If there is a God, he’s an angry God, one who probably dines at Applebee’s.”
- La Galleria 33
As you go deeper into the North End on Salem Street, the pretense drops toward the levels of old, pre-gentrification “Little Italy.”
- Classic Italian
America has reached the point where strip-mall dining can make us nostalgic.
- Review: Blood Into Wine
Blood Into Wine 's combo of stoner profundity and brutal deadpan humor will be all too familiar to fans of Reverend Maynard
- Red Lentil Vegetarian and Vegan Restaurant
By now everyone knows Red Lentil is dog-plays-the-piano good. It’s the best all-vegetarian and lots-vegan restaurant Boston has ever had. The question before us is: is it actually good -good?
- Review: Eyes Wide Open
Though Hair Tabakman’s intense melodrama seethes with eroticism, for most of the film the only flesh on view is the raw meat in Aaron’s (Zohar Shtrauss, who with his beard looks like Dostoevsky) butcher shop in a stark Haredi neighborhood in Jerusalem.
- Campino’s
I rely a lot on my lumberjacks, as Dylan called them — specialists who can fill in my culinary ignorance.
- Less
Topics:
Liquid
, Dogfish Head, Allagash White, 90 Minute Ipa, More
, Dogfish Head, Allagash White, 90 Minute Ipa, Founders Breakfast Stout, Smuttynose Robust Porter, craft beer, Josh Smith, Thomas Hooker, Culture and Lifestyle, Beverages, Less
