Mary Ann’s Bar

I’ve never had a worse experience at a bar. I went to Boston College and was accustomed to the warm staff and friendly atmosphere of the bar. We went tonight and were ignored for 30 minutes when trying to order drinks. When it turned 1:30AM we were told to leave and told them we hadn’t finished our drinks yet but they didn’t care. The bartenders proceeded to curse us out and insult us repeatedly for 15 minutes until they finally kicked us out at 1:45. I’ve never been called what the bartenders called us before and am incredibly insulted. This bar has gone extremely down hill I will never go again.

I am a long time MAs customer and BC alumni. I am very sentimental towards MAs as it is where I celebrated my 21^st birthday a few years ago. However, I have never been treated the way I was treated at MAs. I have never been called a c*** and was called this multiple times as I drank my beer around 130; I didn’t want to leave the bar until I had finished my drink, and technically the bar was still open. The few bartenders at MAs clearly don’t care about their customers and the tradition that is MAs. As a paying customer, I was verbally harassed by the staff and would do anything to get the people here fired. If changes aren’t made, this bar will go downhill very fast. Sad to see. #bringrickback

Place is an institution. Best bar set up around. Not to many gems like this anymore. Their draft beer is super cold and fresh because they sell a ton of it. BC is fortunate to have this as their spot. The staff is awesome. Their fast and have a great bar attitude.
I commend this place for giving the students a fun and safe environment while their in college.

When you say you’re open till 2 am you can’t kick everyone out at 1:30!!! So sorry bc lost today, that ain’t our problem.

Just shut up and drink G. D beer. You know what you’re getting into when you come in here, if you don’t like it– too bad– leave.

They let people take picture of you and then tell you that because they are regulars and you are not that it is acceptable. Will never come here again even though I go to BC. Sketchy, poorly kept bar that is not conscious of the safety of its female patronage.

I can safely tell you that’s a vocal minority of local students that love this place, and then a large silent portion that just want to fit in and pretend they love it too, although they avoid it at all costs.
I have been here on nights where it was dead and had to shout across a bar with 7 people in it to get service. The service was so bad, I was even able to take all my tips back as the bartender hadn’t collected any of them — he was too distracted watching the Simpsons. Just take one look at the bathroom, actually take in the condition of the glasses, or comprehend how much you’re overpaying for a Bud Light and tell me what the appeal is. That you know «so many people» there? Go to a party. Or tell your friends to meet you at City Side, are you that incapable of using a cell phone?
Cleveland Circle has a notoriously awful rodent problem, and you’re going to tell me that the glasses with visible dirt in them add charm? Any person that starts raving to me about how great MA’s is instantly becomes a lesser person in my eyes and I hope the next time the Health Department shuts them down is the last time.

MA’s holds a sentimental place in my heart because as many fellow BC alumni will tell you, it’s where many of us had our first legal drink. Going to MA at least once is sort of an initiation at BC.
Sentiments and lovely memories of debauchery and fun aside, you’re better served taking a sip from your toilet bowl– odds are that your toilet bowl is a lot cleaner. Odds are that you’re more likely to catch an STD from two minutes in Scary Ann’s bathroom than most developed and developing countries. However, if you’re an international student looking to lose your passport and pay SEVIS the replacement fee, this place is great. It’s also an awesome destination if the smell of urine, vomit, and cheap beer awakens your senses before finals. Otherwise, MA’s is disgusting and can be packed like a can of sardines– if those sardines were drunk bros. (One wonders: don’t capacity restriction laws exist?)
Heck, does this establishment even have any windows? Or was I just seeing dust…
Yes, this is probably one of the worst dive bars in the Greater Boston Area. If you go to BC, go once before you actually develop standards. If you don’t go to BC, come here only if you have a good sense of humor, a big bladder, and a stuffy nose. Even then, don’t bring anyone with you unless you’re looking forward to breaking up your friendship or romance with that person in the most hilariously hideous way possible. (Ironically, some of you reading this review will find that MA’s is SO BAD that it might merit one visit. If that’s the case, I encourage it at peak hours during the school year. It’ll be a sobering experience.)

Its a bad, bad, bad dive bar. In a city with so many good dive bars I don’t get why there is always a line to get in. When i moved to Cleveland Circle (august, before BC was back in session) i went to get a drink with a co-​worker at 6pm on a Friday night and we where the only 2 people in the bar under 30. If you want a dive bar, check out the model.

I agree with Dirt M. It does smell like a tinkletarium. For an April fools prank or any time for that matter, the BC kids should get the owner in the bathroom and hold the door shut till he cries uncle.
Nevertheless, I didn’t have any negative issues with the drinks.

It epitomizes the American dive bar. I understand the value of tradition, especially for college students, but this place is an awful bar. It’s frustrating to see such a long line of bros and biddies fighting to get inside a jam packed bar with barely any space to even stand. You’re better off wasting time at Cityside across the street, or some bar on Harvard Ave. The ONLY slightly redeeming quality is that the drinks are relatively cheap.

It’s a dive bar. It’s for students and it has cheap drinks. It also has very poor service and awful bathrooms.
However if you are a student then this is the place to be in the area. Great atmosphere and cheap.

It’s the people that make Mary Ann’s (or M.A.‘s as the regulars call it) what it is. Nobody goes there for the grimy, sticky floor. People go there because it is all of their friends in one centralized face where they can get cheap drinks (as of 2012 it was 3.50 for a whiskey sour, now that I live in NYC I have an even greater appreciation of MAs prices).
This bar had an event called «MAs open to close» where they were open from ~9am to 2am. Needless to say (despite people having classes) there were lines out the door at 8am. Boston College students have an obsession with Mary Ann’s and as BC alum I love it – so many great memories. Not worth it for a non BC affiliated individual though.

During the school year — and to only a lesser extent in the summer — the clientele consists almost, if not entirely, of Boston College students. And most BC undergrads & alumni love it because even though it’s a divey, disgusting place, it’s an essential part of the BC experience. There’s no place like Scary Ann’s: covered in beer, lacking in every kind of amenity (including windows), endowed with claustrophobic bathrooms that make you wonder if any obese person (aside from the old grouchy bouncer /​bartender) has entered MA’s, and often so loud you can’t hear yourself think.
Here, you can get wasted on $ 2 Narragansett tall boys or $ 2.50 Rolling Rock bottles that shatter somewhere every twenty minutes. A couple bucks more will buy you a mean whisky ginger or sour. Drinks are strong and cheap. They have Fireball. You can even do shots of it.
Craft beer is not a ‘thing’ here. Your only food options are from the vending machine tucked away in the corner, and though you could probably bring food inside, this isn’t the kind of place you’d want to eat a meal. They have arcade games like Hoop Fever, Photo Hunt, Big Buck Hunter and the punching bag game. People play them.
MA’s does this thing most of the time where they don’t play music, thereby forcing the patrons to pay $ 1 to play a song on the not-​so-​old-​school jukebox. The selection is decent to good. On any given night you will hear «Sweet Caroline» at least once, and I’d imagine Avicii’s «Wake Me Up» has been played there every night for the past few months.
Tuesday & Thursday nights are huge here. Lines wend around the block by 10:45pm (even during a snowstorm), and impatient students will defect across the street to Cityside, where there are windows, more non-​BC people, pricier drinks, and bathrooms with any semblance of privacy.
This apparent devotion to MA’s, might persuade you, BC-​unaffiliate, that Scary Ann’s is a bar worthy of your patronage. You would probably be wrong. It exists because it stands in for BC’s lack of an on-​campus drinking establishment. But if you are young (~25), enjoy gross dives, and you don’t find unappealing the prospect of a crowd that all go to school with each other, you might enjoy yourself. This isn’t the kind of place you come, on a Tuesday night, to «chill.» You come here to drink aggressively and get belligerently hammered.
Do make sure you bring two forms of photo ID. Also, you will be required to sign in at the door. It’s stupid, but in a way, it’s charming. It’s like it gives a fuck about anything.
Aside: who is Mary Ann?
Oh, and cash only.
I’m sure the city of Boston hates this place. Long live Mary Ann’s. I’ll be back.

Though I am not a BCer, I fit well into the realm of person who is under 25, has little concern for aesthetics, and enjoys getting drunk on the cheap. If you fit that general criteria, and are comfortable in a dive, this is the dive for you.

I found it funny how I had to sign in with my signature and license number just to sniff raunchy assey stenches and drink liquor that was rejected by Guatemalan standards. Walking in there was like being in a mace orgy; the stench will literally burn your eyes. And to top it off, there’s just way too many young people in here. The girls are entirely too naïve for my tastes. The guys in here are still high fiving their friends because they got to first base with a girl.
In short, I’d say come in for a cheap and outrageously gross pregame drink, and then get the fuck out.

If you are over 25, seriously don’t even try come in here unless you wanna feel super awkward or you are already intoxicated enough that you do not care. IF you fit that happy careless population of 21 – 25 year old students that thrive in the area, this can’t really be beat. You do not come here to watch the game or make conversation, you come here to get trashed for as little money as possible, and that is not bad a thing. Enjoy your youth!

Oh GOD. I am way too old for Mary Ann’s. I’ve lived up the hill from Mary Ann’s for a month and a half now and haven’t been ballsy enough to set foot inside until last Saturday night when a Cambridge/​Allston/​Brighton dive bar crawl culminated with a beer here.
+I can walk home from here.
+My Bud Light came in a bottle and was like 3 bucks.
+The bouncers didn’t stop me from taking my beer home with me.
–Everyone in here is an 18 year-​old douche.
–Glass all over the floor.
–BFF tried to go to the bathroom and almost crouched in someone’s garden instead of using the one here.
–Can’t. Breathe. Can’t Move.
I would have loved Mary Ann’s when I was 21, but now that I’m closer to the other end of that decade, it’s just a little too much.

If you want a dive bar and a place to perv on sweet undergrads… this is the place for you! Mixed drinks 5 bucks! Beer’s one dollah man! The music situation is a bit suspect as they have a juke box with things like Maroon 5 and The Rolling Stones… HOWEVER, you’re so drunk with cheap booze to ever care. What?! Sure I’ll sing «Don’t Stop Believing» (even though sober, you hate that song) ironically with a slew of BC undergrad frat boys!
This place is mostly known as BC hang out, and why not? It’s T accessible as accessible gets! Mary Ann’s being right in front of a C line T stop and across the way from good greasy eats like Pino’s Pizza and Chipotle… this is an undergrad mecca! Sure it kinda smells of pee and beer, but remember DIVE BAR! The bar staff and bouncers are friendly and if you’re not an undergrad here’s the one annoying bit. They make you sign into the bar… why? I dunno, but doesn’t it make you feel young like you’re in the dorms again… awwwww.
To truely enjoy this place for what it is you have to be either A. A BC youngin’ B. Drunk… very very Drunk.

Oh dear god. I’m sorry, this is the stinkiest dive bar I’ve ever been in, smelling (at 5 pm on a Monday afternoon) worst than it probably did the night before — of puke, cheap beer (well actually relatively expensive beer, considering) from a dirty tap, and urine.
I’m sure it’s fun for the BC bunch. Everyone needs a solid dive bar, but Mary Ann’s? Oy…
You’re probably wondering what the heck I was doing at this bar at 5pm on Monday, but do I really need to explain? Dive bars should be accessible and give you that lovely dive bar vibe without the smell worst than that of a dumpster/​homeless person. I also bought a Stella because I knew the best chance I had to get the smell out of my nose was to drink a heavy hitting beer and Stella was the best choice available. Next time: straight to the cheap well vodka.