Brendan Behan Pub — Restaurant in Boston

Went to the bar last night hoping to catch the vibe before attending a session in the next coming days while visiting Boston. They would not accept Canadian driver’s license or military ID as acceptable pieces of ID, wrongly citing that they weren’t recognized ID. They also said ‘it would have been fine if you were here earlier in the day’ with the same ID. We arrived at 10pm, 3 hrs before close, since we travelled 7hours from Ontario just to go to that bar.

I didn’t appreciate being lied to, nor the subjective way they determined ID. Massachusetts law also confirms that establishments actually make their own determination of what they CAN accept as ID, but it does not allow them to say what they CAN’T accept based on the list of valid identification. To explain, an establishment can accept a gun license, birth certificate, etc as acceptable ID if it is legally issued by any foreign government if the establishment is familiar with the form of ID. Though the 3 foreign IDs that are universally accepted in Massachusetts are: Drivers License, Passport, and Military ID.

For obvious reasons, many people leave their passports secure while travelling. The fact that they wouldn’t take 2 pieces of valid ID for 1 person gave the impression that this establishment is using practices to discriminate on patronage. Something that, from previous experience, has not been their form of practice. Don’t know what changed here, but the vibes are...

Edit to my review:

OK, reducing my review here since I came on a Monday night and was SO disappointed. We placed our order for 1 hot dog and 1 cheeseburger around 6:30pm when we arrived (sat on the back patio). By 7:45pm it still had not arrived (we had also ordered a salad...the waitress came at 7:15pm saying they were out of salad...fine.)

Completely unacceptable. No offer to comp our drinks or anything, a very lukewarm cast-behind-the-shoulders apology. Really disappointed. Beers are still great, and the waitress seemed overworked—1 person for the entire back patio and inside bar at least as far as I could tell, but the food service was just atrocious.

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Original review:

I've lived in JP for years and have never visited—rectified that yesterday with the wonderful weather! Sat on the patio for two beers ($7 each) and it was just such a lovely time! Service was excellent and fast, decent selection of draft and bottle beers, and food looked good as well; I'll be back...

It's great for what it is; a super low key neighborhood Irish pub, that's dog friendly, doesn't serve food, and is cash only. The facilities and crowd are a little rough around the edges, but it's all part of the charm. It's certainly no Ritz, but never tries to be. Want to enjoy a pint of beer with your pooch indoors to escape the winter cold? This is literally one of the only places you can do it in the greater Boston area. Because of this, they do not serve food, however I hear they are ok with you ordering in delivery (I didn't witness this directly during my visit however). They are also CASH ONLY. They do have an ATM on site, but you should still prepare...