The full ranking
Cheap pitchers, sticky floors, and decades of student tradition. The bars that defined every Ivy campus.
Charlie's Kitchen (Harvard)
Open since 1951 at 10 Eliot Street, Charlie's Kitchen has been named one of Boston's best dive bars and trades on a double cheeseburger that earned it the title Double Cheeseburger King. Tattered vinyl booths, a killer jukebox, live bands upstairs, and a clientele that runs from Harvard Kennedy School students to neighborhood cops and tattooed locals.
Smokey Joe's Tavern (Penn)
Penn's most beloved bar has been pouring since 1933, owned by the Ryan family since 1952, and earned a passing mention in Gerald Ford's 1975 commencement address. Grace Kelly and Candice Bergen are in the alumni book; the U-shaped bar, Penn athlete photos, and three-generation family ownership define a room that has outlasted every trend.
Ivy Inn (Princeton)
A shot-and-beer joint on Nassau Street owned by the same family since 1966, charging 40 cents for draft well into the 1980s and still among the most affordable rooms in a town full of overpriced options. A kitchen was added in 2013, but the real draw remains cheap beer and a genuinely diverse clientele that includes Princeton professors and local tradespeople.
1020 Bar (Columbia)
A former barbershop and funeral home converted into a Columbia anchor bar in 1994, with a vintage oak bar top salvaged from a demolished Morningside Heights institution and booths from a New Jersey Denny's. Daily 4 to 7 PM happy hour, pool table, darts, and hours to 4 AM position it as the reliable fallback on a block with limited alternatives.
The Anchor Spa (Yale)
Opened in 1933 and moved to College Street in 1939, the Anchor Spa was named among Esquire's top 25 bars in America in 2014 and was a favorite of Thornton Wilder before Yale shut it down for nonpayment and then allowed it to reopen 18 months later under its original name. The cocktail program is more serious than the exterior suggests.
Toad's Place (Yale)
A New Haven music institution since 1975, Toad's Place hosted the Rolling Stones in 1989 during rehearsals for the Steel Wheels tour and a four-hour Bob Dylan set in 1990 that sold out in 18 minutes. Performance magazine ranked it the number-one club in the US from 1995 to 1998, and its York Street address is as close to the Yale campus as the music ever got.
Graduate Center Bar (Brown)
Brown's members-only non-profit bar has occupied a basement in the Graduate Center since 1969, originally nicknamed the Jelly Bean Lounge, and remains one of the most unusual drinking institutions in American higher education. A disco ball, beer-tap chandeliers, a bust of Elvis in a lei, and gallery-quality art share space in a room the Boston Globe called the best bar in Providence you've never heard of.
Model Cafe (Harvard)
A 75-year-old Allston institution on Harvard Avenue that started as an actual restaurant and became, through no conscious effort, the social center of the Boston rock scene and the college crowd simultaneously. Family-owned, vintage fittings, one of the best jukeboxes in the city, and a no-pretense policy that survives every wave of neighborhood gentrification.
Broadway Dive Bar (Columbia)
A no-frills barroom at Broadway and 101st where Columbia students and Upper West Side lifers share twenty-plus taps, fish tanks, and open-mic comedy nights. The most storied outpost of the neighborhood's Dive Bar family.
Murphy's on the Green (Dartmouth)
The longest-standing family-owned business in downtown Hanover, where Dartmouth students and professors have shared pints on South Main Street for decades. More polished pub than pure dive, but the college-bar soul is intact.
Ranked across 4 sources: Yelp Top Picks Near Campus; Campus Newspapers · Alumni Reflections; Tripadvisor Top-Rated; Time Out · The Infatuation · Boston Mag. Full scoring is on the Methodology tab above.
Related lists
Browse every Top 10 List, see the experts and aggregators behind them, or play the day’s puzzles.