GREAT SCOTT

By COURTNEY COX | PHOTOS BY JOSHUA PITTS

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I'll be honest: This wasn't the first Sunday afternoon I've squandered on Great Scott's people-watchers' paradise patio. As an Allston resident going on six freshmen-dodging, vomit-sidestepping years—how else could it have been? But as cocktails supplanted tallboys and I could exercise free license to chat up the otherwise avert-your-eyes-from regulars, I rediscovered this Rock City staple, which I can just about see from my front porch.

Drink 1: Blue Laguna ($7). Aaaand ... it's an Easter egg. The kind of sour-sweet-pastel cocktail guys brazenly hand to girls along with a grin that says, "I don't know your name, but I ordered this over-the-counter roofietini concoction for you." But Chris the bartender seems like a decent, gentle-giant-type of guy. So, what gives, Chris? "It's my favorite drink when I go to Vegas," he explains. Natch. But it goes down easy—not as sweet as it looks, and actually a refreshing breakfast. Speaking of which ...

Drink 2: Pabst Blue Ribbon ($3). We order some sandwiches, which come from Marty's Liquors' famed deli across the street, to go with our PBRs—among the seven other barflies, there are two of these classics sitting tall. Most nights, this live-music venue is packed with punk fans, but by day, the lack of pool or Buck Hunter is conspicuous (somehow Golden Tee doesn't cut it). Alas—Keno. I shade in Chris' not-so-lucky roulette numbers. No wonder he has to drown his sorrows in girly drinks when in Vegas.

Drink 3: Bloody Mary ($7). Scanning for the clincher? Chris mixes the Bloody Marys from scratch, in the glass—a rarity at any bar. My friends audibly gasp when he adds a dash of cinnamon. Favorite drink in hand, I approach the least depressed-looking regular. Allston resident Kevin Powell tells me he's been coming to Great Scott "every day, twice a day, for 48 years." I believe him. "Apparently my mother was carrying me here in the womb," he says. Chris mumbles something about Heineken amniotic fluid. Have to go, er ... check on my friends ...

Drink 4: Allston Sunrise ($9.25). Kevin (who's led my crew outside) announces he wished there were such a drink as an "Allston Sunrise." Whoops, cheers and slurs rise from the patio crowd. Chris promptly whips up two choices: guava rum, pineapple and cranberry juice in one glass, and Stoli O, guava rum, pineapple and OJ in a second. We proclaim the first as winner. Jessy Drastic from The Mess Me Ups pulls up on her Vespa: Joanie Cunningham/Leather Tuscadero analogies abound.

Drink 5: Ol' Cranberry Puck ($9.25). Heading inside to order this Stoli O-Apple Pucker-cranberry blend, I feel kind of fruity chatting up the Sam Adams-favoring crowd that's arrived to watch the Pats game. "Cash-only keeps me from spending too much," says Marty Swartz, a Boston University senior, of Great Scott's "no tabs" policy. I point out that the ATM is broken. Back outside, where the wind is blowing empties off the tables, the sun hasn't yet begun to set over the scenester-y intersection, and I'm considering another Bloody Mary. Better find an ATM ...