Wally’s Cafe

Dive joint with serious jazz. Wally’s keeps it lowkey — crowd is here to enjoy some good music. Space is fairly small, so cozy up and enjoy a stiff pour from the bartender. Protip: sit near the entrance if you don’t want to be on full blast, up/​close with the performers. If you’re all about that jazz, no frills, check out Wally’s.

Best hole in the wall for jazz in the city. Gets crowded easily, so try to arrive early to snag a chair. Great for date night or night out with friends.

Wally’s Café is a small divey Jazz Bar and by small — I mean real small! You’ll most likely feel like a sardine standing unless you are lucky enough to snag a seat by the bar or sit down at one of the limited tables. Nonetheless, it’s a great place to enjoy free live music.
Ps. the bartender will make it known that it’s a one drink minimum per person.

Legendary jazz joint. If you’re looking for comfort and great service look elsewhere. If you’re looking for a great live music venue steeped in history come here.

A great evening of live jazz in a very small venue. Getting in before the man band (before 9:30pm) is key to getting a seat; otherwise, you’ll be standing. Well drinks were quite expensive ($ 12) but beer is $ 5 so that’s probably the cheaper option.

Wally’s has a delightful live music, most commonly Jazz played by Berklee students. They’re very good. Regrettably, my feelings for Jazz are pretty lukewarm, hence the three-​star review.
There are no bar bites/​snacks, only drinks. The beers and cocktails are fine — nothing special/​extravagant.
The hole-​in-​the-​wall atmosphere suits the place well, but it does get somewhat difficult to keep up a conversation over the sound of the music. But if you’re at Wally’s, you’re probably there for the music anyway.

It’s a small place with great live music. The people who go there are casual.
Mondays are BLUES!!!

What a cool place! Free live loungey jazz music. No cover! Wish they had draft beer tho. Not much seating and it filled up fast, so arrive early or you’ll be standin’!

Epitome of a jazz club. Small, hot, and great. Good star, great drinks. Thursday salsa has hot hot hot music and great dancers. It’s just small, so dancing gets tight-​authentically what I’d find in Havana. WORTH IT.

Free live music here. It is a small divey bar that makes you forget about the past. The beautiful brick walls are covered in in black and white photos. The tables are so close
Together so that as many people as possible can sit and just listen the beautiful music coming from the stage.
The bartender was quick and efficient though the price of the drinks were a bit much for what it was. 3 mixed drinks will cost you over 30 dollars. No they aren’t huge or specialty just one liquor and one mixer in a highball.
The door guy starts putting up the chairs at about 1:00am to let you know to get the heck out.

Great jazz venue. Talented cats from Berklee jam every night until 9. No food so grab your bite somewhere before or after.

I was looking forward to experiencing this place based on recommendations, but I ended up having the worst bar experience I’ve had in a long time. The server hardly gave me a chance to look at the menu even though I asked for a few minutes. When I ordered, I paid for the drinks and was still getting cash out of my wallet for a tip when she demanded with an attitude, «plus tip».
I’m in the industry and always tip well so I found it terribly offensive. Then she brought us the wrong beers and when we pointed out the error, asked, «oh so you don’t want these?» I couldn’t get out of that place quick enough and talked my friends out of meeting me there.

What the Funk Wednesday! I’ve been meaning to come here for nearly five years… it was worth the wait. My friend and I arrived around 9:00 pm. This is a small venue, and becomes packed even with a minor crowd. Fortunately, we were still able to secure a few seats at the table closest to the stage after ordering a few drinks. The band Intravenous, consisting of a drummer, tenor saxophonist bassist and a vocalist who also played lead guitar, tore the friggin’ house down. I have not been absolutely in awe of a live performance since D’Angelo at Bonnaroo. I mean, when a jazz funk quartet starts with a 20 minute cover of Weird Fishes by Radiohead, you know are in for something special! Anyways, the time flew by and we ended up staying for four hours when I was only expecting to stay for two. While I recommend this joint for anyone who likes good things, I do have a few points of advice. As I said before, the place is small: don’t expect to get a table, and if you do I would recommend coming early. Secondly, you really shouldn’t come here with any more than four people. It just doesn’t make sense because of the size. Lastly, the service sucks and the drinks are expensive. If the music wasn’t so damn good, I would have taken a star off for that. Regardless, a definite high recommend from The Ed, Unilocal Savior.

I echo Liz T. of Chicago’s experience.
Too loud:
Under the circumstances of my visit to Boston, it wasn’t the place for our group. I was trying to get acquainted with my significant other’s longtime friends and you can’t hear *anything* over the live music. Small space, cramped, a little uncomfortable.
Drinks were a little unusually priced:
Abstainers beware. Soda is $ 10 and the place does have a one-​drink minimum. My friend got a whiskey sour for $ 12. He was unimpressed.
One small thing — a young man hit on me before going inside Wally’s. It happens. But he ended up being my server, so not only was he pressuring me to get a drink, he had also already initiated an unwanted interaction. That hastened our departure.
The jazz was cool but not at the cost of my eardrums or the contents of my wallet or the suffering social atmosphere.
We left after 20 minutes and found Conor Larkin’s.

Came here for the first time, and let me just say the band KILLED IT. That’s the main reason for the 4 stars. It’s a very small club, basically just one long isle leading from door to stage with tables one side and the bar on the other. There was a lot of jostling and elbow rubbing as people made their way to-​from the bathrooms etc… but everyone had a fairly good attitude about it.
The drinks are expensive for a place with such a divey vibe. It’s nice that there isn’t a cover, but I would prefer paying a cover and knowing that it was going straight to the bands rather than paying $ 5 for shit beer or $ 10 for a rum and coke and not knowing whether any of it is making it to the musicians who are the real reason for my being there.
Regardless, I will be back. The music makes it worth it.

I have been here a couple of times with family and friends. It is a few minutes walk away from the Mass Ave MBTA station, which really helps if one wants to avoid bringing a car into Boston.
It has live jazz music by students at Berklee so you know it’s going to be good. There is no cover but be prepared to order a drink soon after entering the establishment. It can get very crowded, especially on Saturday night so try to go on a weekday, unless you are willing to stand on mass ave. waiting for other people to leave so that they can allow you to enter.
I can’t speak for the cocktails as I have only had beers there; but this is a must go to place for whoever wants to hear live jazz music in a casual setting.

Loved the Funk band on Wednesday!
The venue was actually not as crowded as I expected. I’m not sure if it was the cold or the fact it was a weeknight that kept people at home. The place was busy, but no one seemed to have a problem getting seats, and I had a decent view throughout the performance (despite sitting towards the back).
Be warned that the music is VERY loud, especially within the small venue.
The drinks were pricey at $ 12 per cocktail, but they were well-​made. My friend and I sampled a couple drinks from the menu:
— Wally’s Paradise — delicious mix of piña colada and strawberry daiquiri! The alcohol was barely perceivable, so this is great for anyone looking to go easy on the drinking.
— Ray Mason Journalist — not for the faint of heart! This drink had wet and dry vermouth, along with triple sec. Very dry and bitter!
We also ordered a couple drinks that weren’t on the menu, and both of the bartenders that served us mixed great drinks.

I personally preffered this place over The Beehive for live music. We went on FUNK night. The place was packed! We were lucky enough to snag a table where we could relax and have some drinks. The drinks here are strong (not complaining) and even though there is only one bartender, he is really fast. One of the tables in this club is an old pac man video game machine which I thought was pretty cool. The place is small and looks like someones basement but the vibe in here is great! All the musicians are awesome, there is a sexy, raw energy in the air and oh yeah did I mention the bathrooms are clean?! I totally did not expect that in a place everyone described as a «dive bar» You wont be disspaointed visiting here!

Wally, I have nothing against you personally, but you really need to be more considerate of those of us who abstain from alcohol.
AA alum, recovering alcoholics, just plain abstainers – BEWARE. Wally’s likes to tout their rep for having «no cover,» but they make it pretty darn clear that if you don’t drink, you don’t stand. They do have soda for $ 10, but it’s pretty much saying, «All you non-​drinkers, scr** you!»
Now, I’m not against cover charge, drink minimums, or even tab minimums. But the fact that they choose to price soda at $ 10 is a slap in the face and singles out people trying not to drink. For anyone who is an abstainer, it’s hard enough to say no over, and over, and OVER AND OVER AND OVER again to alcohol. So sure, we flip a switch when there are no reasonable options for us. But it just gets old, real fast – being the nerdy kid in the corner who doesn’t drink.
I have solutions for you Wally!!!
1) Charge a $ 5 cover, so you can charge a $ 4 soda and get your $ 10!
2) Let people know at the door that there is a $ 10 bar minimum.
3) Charge $ 4 for soda and say there is a 3 soda minimum!
4) Have mocktails.
5) Have expensive fancy non-​alcohol beers or ginger ales.
Just create SOME kind of policy that doesn’t single out the non-​drinkers. We already deal with that on a daily basis, but the relentless way that it’s done at Wally’s just makes us feel worse than we already feel… all the time.
Thanks.

There’s no cover, there’s live music 365 days out of the year, and the good gin costs the same amount as the crappy gin.
ill drikn to htat… evry nihgt of th week.

The Latin band on Thursday nights is AMAZING. They’re so much fun and the crowd is too – I was told that the people who are great dancers go every week and dance with anyone who wants to, so maybe you can learn some moves!
The bar is impossible to get to when the band isn’t playing, so think about when you’re getting drinks. And based on how drunk everyone was I’m guessing they were strong drinks. I didn’t get a drink because the bar is quite small and a creepy man in the middle of the bar made me fee uncomfortable standing anywhere near it. I shall try again and update this with how the drinks are!

Uptight people stay out. I went here last night with a couple friends and was blown away by the music and atmosphere of this place. There was this funky band playing who comes every other Wednesday and you get I’ll be back to see them again.
All the tables were full when we got there hut people shuffle around between songs and we were able to sit down and enjoy the music. There was a couple dancing which made it harder for everyone else to move around but that didn’t ruin anything.
The bartender was nice and pours a nice mixed drink. Drinks are $ 10 and $ 5 for beer but don’t even complain because it’s Boston and also NO COVER. Are you kidding me? I don’t want to see one complaint on here about drink prices. Y’all are paying for the music!
I’ll definitely be taking more friends here. Love this local dive