The Butcher Shop

When we went to Hamersley's last week, we arrived in the South End with a bit of time to kill, so we decided to check out one of the bars in the area. There was a big line outside of the Beehive, so that was immediately ruled out. Across the street, though, there was a nice looking place that didn't seem too crowded. We walked in to see if we could grab a drink ad the host asked us to sit tight for a minute while he found us a place. This wasn't what I was expecting. Was this a bar or a restaurant? Turns out it was a bit of both. While I had heard of the Butcher Shop, I had never actually been there and wasn't paying attention to the signs above the door or wherever they post their name. I just saw it is a place to get a drink. Anyway, after a few minutes, the host comes back and says he found us a place. I thought that meant we had a table, but it just meant we had an assigned piece of floor space near the back of the room. We were right next to this:
While it has a great wine and beer selection, the Butcher Shop, as its name implies, also has a nice selection of charcuterie that you can get to accompany your drink. It's actually a pretty cool looking place, although I still can't quite get over the fact that we had to wait to get "seated" at a place with no chairs and no tables. Then, we had to wait for service, and after a few minutes it was almost time for our dinner reservation. We called it quits, waited out the remaining few minutes at the Hamersley's bar, and I ordered a Manhattan.