A bartender might chase me down to usher me back inside the restaurant or to the outdoor dining section.
Strangers, taking me for a misguided tourist, might politely remind you: We don’t do that kind of thing around here.
Not anymore. At least, not while the World Cup is in town.
Much to the surprise of locals, the city of Cambridge has begun allowing people to order cocktails, beer, and wine to-go, then enjoy them in so-called “open container districts” — huge swaths of its major squares — as long as the drinks are poured at a participating bar or restaurant.
Boston is now following suit, opening public drinking zones of its own starting Friday.
The moves came after the state Legislature this month cleared the way for local governments to allow public drinking and last calls as late as 3 a.m., if they choose. It’s a big shift in a state that famously still doesn’t allow happy hour drink specials and a last-minute perk few saw coming. It’s now the law of the land in busy squares through the end of July.
Lexie Daniells drank a to-go beer from Grendel’s Den during a watch party for the FIFA World Cup game between Iraq and Norway in Cambridge.Christian Kantosky for The Boston Globe
Officials here had been preparing long before the state ultimately signed legislation enabling the outdoor drinking rules, then rolled them out almost immediately.
“We were ready,” said Matt Nelson, the city’s director of administration and operations, who was a key architect of the outdoor drinking plan.
People who want to take a drink to go need to order it from a bar, show ID, and put on an orange bracelet showing they’re of age. The drinks must be served in plastic cups and labeled with the name of the restaurant. You can’t start a drink inside a bar and then finish it on the move. So far, about two dozenbars and restaurants across Cambridge have signed up to take part.
Starting Friday, Boston will allow public drinking in two social districts, one at the Blackstone Block Historic District at the corner of Union and Marshall streets near Faneuil Hall, and the other on Temple Place in Downtown Crossing.
Like in Cambridge, all the drinks have to be poured by a restaurant and served in a labeled plastic cup.
Kathy Weller and Matt McGovern carried out beers from Grendel’s Den in Cambridge.Christian Kantosky for The Boston Globe
So just like that, it‘s open season.
After ordering a Grendel’s Ale from Grendel’s Den in Harvard Square in the middle of the afternoon on Tuesday, I was among the first to take the new policy for a spin.
As advertised, it turns out you can in fact walk, frothy beer in hand, around the zone in Harvard Square where public drinking is permitted, watch the prep for the night’s World Cup celebrations come together, chat with city workers and the police officers keeping watch, and no one will get in your way.
Not a single other person was spotted also partaking over the course of about an hour. But it was still early.
Meanwhile, restaurants were preparing, waiting to see if this whole open-container thing catches on. By Tuesday, Harvard Square’s Russell House Tavern had rolls of stickers with its logo ready to slap on plastic cups.
Katanya Magrey carried drinks while wearing an age-verification wristband during a watch party for the FIFA World Cup game between Iraq and Norway in Cambridge.Christian Kantosky for The Boston Globe
“We just jumped right on it,” said Jordan Nelson, the restaurant’s dining room manager. “I’m excited to see how this turns out.”
By Tuesday night, the vibe shift was palpable. As the Harvard Square watch party for the World Cup match between Iraq and Norway got underway, there were plastic cup-toting revelers on every corner.
A young couple wearing the orange wristbands with drinks in hand canoodled on a wooden bench. A group of a half-dozen ladies swirling rosé stood in a circle laughing. Two guys lounging in Adirondack chairs on a patch of grass had a pair of half-full plastic cups sitting on their armrests.
“It feels like Paris,” said Daniel Ingram, the general manager of Alden & Harlow, which was kept busy with to-go drink orders Tuesday night thanks in part to its prime location next to the watch party.
By the end of the night, Ingram said, the bar had sold more than 350 drinks meant to be sipped on the go.
“We were shocked,” Ingram said. So were the locals who took them up on the offer. “These are people who’ve lived around here for a really long time, and it’s the first time they’ve seen anything like this.”
It was an abrupt shift from just two weeks earlier, during the city’s annual MayFair celebration, when anyone who wanted to have an imported beer in the festival’s Asian market had to do so while penned into a tiny barricaded beer garden.
But on Tuesday, things were much more laissez-faire.
People filled Brattle Street during a watch party for the FIFA World Cup match between Iraq and Norway in Cambridge.Christian Kantosky for The Boston Globe
“To walk out with a hard liquor cocktail and come chill in a beautiful park is very special,” said Jeff Costello, 31, who had come from Somerville and was sipping an old-fashioned. “I’d be cool with this, like, all the time.”
“I hope this proves that we can handle it,” said Zach Bauer, 28, and also from Somerville, who’d ordered a specialty cocktail with rum and lime.
City Councilor Tim Flaherty, who was mingling with the crowd and holding a non-alcoholic beer, said he was pleased to see how low-key and calm the first days of the open container rules had been so far. Police said there were no watch party or open-container district-related arrests Tuesday.
“Nice thing to have on a summer night,” Flaherty said. “People seem to enjoy it, and they’re behaving absolutely, 100 percent appropriately.”
Ian McGullam of The Pinewoods Morris Men grabbed someone from the crowd to join in dancing on Brattle Street after a watch party for the FIFA World Cup game between Iraq and Norway.Christian Kantosky for The Boston Globe
Down the road, in Winthrop Park, another city councilor, Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler, was taking bites out of a slice of pizza while polishing off an espresso martini. He was thrilled that he and the rest of Cambridge didn’t have to wait long to see the city take advantage of what the state now allows.
“It’s nice when government can actually respond to things fast,” he said.
Even in these first days, local decision-makers have begun imagining what it might look like if the city and the state simply embraced this more European attitude toward urban outdoor drinking, maybe for other special occasions — or maybe, just maybe, all the time.
A lasting legacy of the World Cup, perhaps.
“Even if it’s maybe not every day, maybe it’s seasonal. Maybe it’s weekends. Maybe it’s district-specific. Maybe it’s everything,” said Nelson, the open-container district plan architect. “It’s worth continuing to ask the question.”
See restaurants participating in to-go orders.
Spencer Buell can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @SpencerBuell.
