My spouse and I visited Dillon’s for happy hour drinks on a
Saturday afternoon in late May 2017. Dillon’s is open daily for lunch (or
Sunday brunch), dinner, drinks, snacks, and late night. The Glynn Hospitality
Group owns Dillon’s, along with several other bars including Black Rose,
Brownstone, Central Wharf, Clery’s, Cougan’s, Granary Tavern, Hurricane
O’Reilly’s, Sports Grill, and Sterling’s. The restaurant accepts dining
reservations online using Open Table.
Named after
Captain S. Dillon, the bar/restaurant occupies a former police station. Dillon,
a former policeman who was stationed there from 1920 until 1950, was known
around the “Hub” for his hospitality and enjoyment of drinking. The building
itself was completed in 1887 and has been designated as a Boston historic
landmark. The bar adjoins one of Boston’s oldest active fire stations. It pays
tribute to Captain Dillon with police-themed memorabilia and photographs. The
restaurant space previously housed establishments called Bar Code and Division
16.
You enter the building through the outdoor side courtyard,
which has its own small bar and television. The indoor space covers two levels:
the front barroom and the back dining room. The bar room offers a long L-shaped
bar, some high top tables, high ceilings with attractive ceiling fans, and a
front wall/ windows that slide open to join the indoors and outdoors. The rear dining room offers an open
kitchen, another bar, fireplace, sofas and chairs, and banquettes with
regular-height tables. One odd thing I noticed about the ladies room: there is
an unusual semi-reflective ceiling over the toilet stalls made of a sort of
opaque and shiny black material that produced an uncomfortable reflection of
the occupant.
Dillon’s offers
American cuisine, from a variety of appetizers (such as wings, charcuterie, spring
rolls, and hummus) to casual hand-held food (including wraps, burgers, and brick-oven
pizza), to larger entrée plates (like pasta, fish and chips, and macaroni and
cheese). Beverage selections include wine, cocktails, and over 10 beers on tap
and another 10 by the bottle.
Dillon’s worked
for us – it was a good place for a drink on our way from the Red Sox game at
Fenway Park back to our hotel, the Hilton Back Bay.
