Lower Allston

Score Breakdown

About this Neighborhood

Lower Allston sits between Allston proper and Brighton Center, in the band of triple-deckers that absorbs Harvard Extension students, post-docs, and first-job professionals who got priced out of Somerville. Twenty-one restaurants — Big Daddy's, Sofra Bakery (the standout, a Mediterranean institution that draws pilgrims from across the metro), Kaju Tofu House for the late nights. Four coffee shops including Blackbird Doughnuts Brighton, which is an outpost of a Fenway cult favorite. Ten parks including the Hooker Street Playground and Penniman Road Community Garden — more green than the address suggests. The Boston Fencing Club as fitness anchor is one of the more idiosyncratic data points in the batch and says something specific about the neighborhood's non-mainstream resident profile. Allston Billiards is a 24-hour venue, which tells you about the 2am layer of the neighborhood's social life. Social Glue at 58 is the lowest in the US cluster — Lower Allston has high residential turnover, and community bonds form within micro-networks rather than across the full neighborhood. The 10 grocery stores are the surprise: strong coverage for a neighborhood at this density level.