Boston has long been an old city with a newness problem. This adherence to tradition also applies to beer. But veer off the path—into Somerville, Charlestown, or Everett—and you’ll find a vibrant subculture of drinkers, brewers, and restaurateurs doing their own thing.
Inspired by the successes of Bay Area breweries, Phil Bannatyne, a New Englander by birth, moved back to the East Coast in the late 1980s planning to get into the beer business. The space he could afford turned out to be in Kendall Square, a stone’s throw from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
