Despite its distinct character, the Atrium watering hole is not above competition. The restaurant/bar offers beer and pizza specials, door prizes and free tickets to musical performances given away by local radio stations.
Tallon also makes the restaurant area available free of charge for parties such as graduations and 21st birthdays.
The latest bar to enter the fray is 33 Dunster St., which plans to offer beer brewed on the site. The beer is based on John Harvard's recipe, says owner Gary F. Gut.
Gut hopes to call the bar John Harvard Brew Haus. And although he is serving up beers already, legal complications are delaying the permanent name choice.
There is currently at least the threat of a legal challenge to its use, and the words "Brew Haus" have been taped over on the sign.
Guts says his legal opposition has little ground to stand on and he says hopes to soon proceed as planned.
Despite the high concentration of bars in the Square--there are more than 20 in the small area around Harvard--bar owners and managers maintain that competition is healthy.
"Competition makes people hungrier," Lee says. "It makes them strive harder."