Man creates mapping tool to help locals find Boston’s best dive bars

If you’re looking for a place “where everyone knows your name”, a new mapping tool could help you find it.

A lot of swanky bars and restaurants with plush lounges and expensive cocktails have opened around Boston.

One local man prefers a reasonably priced draft and some home style cooking. He’s on a quest to make sure dive bars don’t get squeezed out of the area.

Nick Roy created www.bostondives.com which is a free mapping tool. It will tell you where the closest dive bar is based on where you are at that moment.

“I think there’s still places to be found and that was kind of what I wanted to highlight on the map,” Roy said. “It wasn’t the, here’s the cool foodie dish, but here’s the local places that are still hanging on and places we need to support.”

Julius Sokol owns the Tam on Tremont Street as well as a couple of other dive bars in the area.

“A dive bar is great because it gives you that neighborhood feeling that you can’t get in a lot of places,” explained Sokol. “It brings back that feeling before the internet, before cell phones. If you want to come to see your friends, you can meet them at the local bar.”

One Tam patron told Boston 25 that she likes dive bars because they draw people from all walks of life.

“This is the grit. This is where your locals come. Your construction workers, your lawyers, your bankers, and your service industry. And that’s why every time you visit, you come back again and again. That, and the prices.”

Sokol thinks the mapping tool will boost business “because it really helps people coming from out of town who really want that dive bar feel, and to really understand what the neighborhood is all about, and a lot of dive bars don’t advertise.”

Roy said he is shocked the map has received so much positive feedback. Last month, 8,000 users came on the site.

There isn’t a rigid set of requirements to get listed on the map. Roy says he likes to find places that are locally owned. He says cheap drinks and unpretentious food are two big plusses.

He also said he’s getting more recommendations as the site’s popularity grows.

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