O’Sullivan’s Pub, or, A Beef with the Boston Globe
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
So this morning’s Boston Globe had an article about burgers, and an incomplete list of approved local burger joints. They failed to mention O’Sullivan’s.
I’m not surprised; it’s a half-mile out of Porter Square, across from the Ghetto Star, in a mostly-residential neighborhood. So even though it’s won Best of Boston awards for its burgers multiple times, and crowds spill out its doors on weekend nights, it still flies under the media radar somewhat. For the first few years I lived here, I dismissed it as the corner bar; only later would others let me in on the secret of O’Sullivan’s burgers, then be shocked that I lived around the corner from it and had never been. Granted, when I walk home in the evenings, it’s usually just too late to catch the kitchen open, and I need food to go with my booze, so the timing just hadn’t worked out.
Admittedly, it felt a little intimidating the first time I set foot inside. My mistake was going at lunch on a weekday afternoon; I was the only not-fully-white non-mustachioed non-male person in the pub at the time, nor was I wearing the uniform of a flannel shirt and jeans. The taciturn lunch crowd differs drastically from the chattering, neighborly folks in at dinner, who are there for burgers, beers, and sports.
So, the burgers? Huge. Lightly-toasted buns surrounding thick, juicy, flavorful half-pound patties result in monsters that you can’t fit your mouth around, not even on a frat-boy dare. According to their menu, they go through “400 pounds of ground sirloin a week,” and their burgers reflect this. Yet somehow, they still find room in each bun to slide in the requested toppings and condiments - bacon and mozzarella on a Papa Burger, onions and Cheddar on the Paddy O’ Melt (we are in an Irish pub here), and Swiss cheese and avocado on the Cape Codder, among a couple of dozen other options. Leftovers are a guarantee for me.
I haven’t ordered anything but burgers from them, but my mom gives the rib-eye steak a big thumbs-up. (She, too, had leftovers, until my dad came along and scarfed them up, not knowing she’d intended them for her lunch the next day. Oops.)
O’Sullivan’s Pub, 282 Beacon St, Somerville. 617.492.7773. Open 11 am-1 am daily, though the kitchen closes at 10:30 on weeknights.