We are not not all that familiar with the burgeoning bar scene downtown, but it is apparently happening and we missed the boat. A downtown booster gives us the lowdown on the new bar, The Edison:
[They] had the first of their "soft opening" dates on Jan. 26 and 27th. I personally went on the 26th and hung out for a couple of hours, and it's hands-down the most inventively-decorated bar I've ever seen. And no, I don't work for them, so this is not a commercial. It's also HUGE--10,000 square feet, I was told--and they kept a lot of the original early 1900s architecture, including a giant boiler in the middle of the room that has been carved out into a candle-lit cave-like lounge room. The grand opening is sometime in late Feb., I think, but I also understand that they'll be open each Friday and Saturday till then. And clearly I wasn't the only one who heard about it--when I got there on Friday, it was empty, but when we left around 11pm, there was a pretty substantial line of people waiting to get inside. While I think Edison is the coolest bar to grace the downtown area since, well, ever, there are some other brand-new ones worth a mention: J Restaurant and Lounge on Olive St. and Tatou on Boylston just opened up (Tatou had its rollout on the 26th also), Library Bar
opened late last year, and Redwood was fairly recently redesigned in pirate theme. The Bunker Hill bar-crawl is now a real phenomenon!
If that didn't persuade you to get your drink on downtown, then we don't know what will. Eater LA has chimed in on The Edison too.