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	Where to find them • The Black Rose, 160 State Street, Boston, (617) 742-2286. • Cheers, 1 Faneuil Hall Marketplace, Boston, (617) 227-1630; 84 Beacon Street, Boston, (617) 227-9605. • Durgin-Park, 340 Faneuil Hall Marketplace, Boston, (888) 766-6528. • Fenway Park, 4 Yawkey Way, Boston, (617) 226-6666. • Filene’s Basement, 426 Washington Street, Boston, (617) 348-7848. • The Grand Canal, 57 Canal Street, Boston, (617) 523-1112. • Legal Sea Foods, Long Wharf, 255 State Street, Boston, (617) 227-3115. • The Last Hurrah, 60 School Street, Boston, (617) 227-8600. • The Littlest Bar, 47 Province Street, Boston, (617) 523-9766. • Massachusetts Bay Lines, 60 Rowes Wharf, Boston, (617) 542-8000. • McGann’s, 197 Portland Street, Boston, (617) 227 4059. • New England Aquarium, Central Wharf, Boston, (617) 973-5200. • Samuel Adams Brewery, 30 Germania Street, Jamaica Plain, (617) 368-5080. • Woodman’s of Essex, 121 Main Street, Essex, (800) 649-1773. • Ye Olde Union Oyster House, 41 Union Street, Boston, (617) 227-2750. — MM

On the other hand, while Samuel Adams is now available nationwide, we’ll have to guess (as anecdotal evidence would suggest) that we Bostonians drink a good deal more of it than our compatriots in, say, the Midwest. You’ll find at least one of its myriad styles (try the flagship Boston Lager, or the piquant Summer Ale) on tap in almost any bar you’ll enter. The beer that was first brewed in founder Jim Koch’s kitchen in 1984 — at a time when slow-crafted and flavorful American-brewed beers were all but nonexistent — quickly gained a foothold and started a craft-brewing revolution. Over the past two decades it’s become the largest "microbrew" around. (Still, as Koch is fond of saying, Anheuser-Busch literally spills more each year than the Boston Beer Company makes.) Learn all about Sam Adams and take a gander at some nifty antique breweriana from Boston’s beer-making past — a tradition Koch helped resurrect — as you tour Boston Beer Company’s Jamaica Plain headquarters. If you’re lucky, you may get a rare taste of one of its unreleased prototype beers.

When it comes to bars, Boston is eternally linked with one semi-fictional local that you may have heard of. It’s called Cheers. Hate to break it to you, but Sam "Mayday" Malone never pitched for the Red Sox. In fact, he doesn’t exist. (One reason you never saw the face of Norm Peterson’s lovely wife, Vera, was that she didn’t, either.) But the establishment once known as the Bull & Finch pub and now simply called Cheers, a subterranean hangout at the bottom of Beacon Hill, does exist. And it still looks exactly like those exterior set-up shots. Inside, of course, it’s a different story. Don’t come here looking for the bar scenes you recognize from TV (nor to hear your name shouted in glad recognition by the regulars). Come here expecting hordes of tourists and lots of merchandise for them to buy. In 2001, a second Cheers, one that aims to replicate the show’s set, opened in Faneuil Hall. With many pieces of paraphernalia on display, it’s a fair simulation and worth a visit.

When it comes to drinkeries, the Hub is just as famous (and justly so) for its innumerable Irish pubs. In James Joyce’s Ulysses, Leopold Bloom wonders whether it’s possible to traverse Dublin without passing a pub. (It’s not.) The same might be asked about this most Irish of American cities. One of the classics is the Black Rose, right by Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market. With its lofty ceilings (hung with the 32 Irish-county flags) and raucous rock ’n’ trad seven nights a week (guests have included crooners from the auld sod like Liam Clancy and Tommy Makem), it’s been packing ’em in for almost 30 years. The Littlest Bar packs ’em in too. The name of this convivial hole-in-the wall, always full of garrulous expats, is not taken lightly — maximum occupancy is 38 imbibers. But trust us, it’s always worth trying to wedge into the scrum. (Poetry fans, please take note of the sign outside the loo: SEAMUS HEANEY PEED HERE.) There are also a goodly number of Irish pubs close by the festivities at the FleetCenter. Two of the best are the Grand Canal, modeled to look just like 19th-century Dublin, and McGann’s, an authentic-looking and -feeling pub, right down to the fact that patrons can no longer smoke there — just like in Dublin! Finally, there’s the Last Hurrah. It’s not an Irish pub per se, but it’s named after Edwin O’Connor’s famous novel, a thinly veiled chronicle of that quintessential Boston-Irish politician, the puffed-up populist mayor James Michael Curley.

Once you’ve depleted your wallet ordering round after round of the black stuff for your new blue-state friends, you’ll want to find some bargains. Filene’s Basement in Downtown Crossing is just the place for it. Since 1908, the flagship branch of America’s oldest and best-known off-price store has been purveying eye-popping bargains galore to those dogged enough to dig for buried treasure. There’s a reason business has been booming for nearly a century, giving rise to branches in four states: with many designer labels and haute couture, the merchandise at the Basement may be cheap, but it’s no junk.

Once you’ve fought your way through the madding, deal-happy crowds and wrested that dirt-cheap Prada handbag from the visiting teamster boss from Ohio, calm your nerves with a stroll through Boston Common and the Public Garden just across Tremont Street. The Common has been a gathering spot since 1634, when it was used for cattle grazing, militia training, and, well, witch hanging. Today, most people use it for frisbee tossing. The Garden, with its gorgeous trees and flowers, regal statuary, and serene central lagoon, has been around since 1837. Both are rolling, verdant expanses, oases in the middle of the city’s bustle, ideal for relaxation and contemplation. The Public Garden’s most salient feature is the stately swan boats. These 30-foot-long cygnet-shaped watercraft, powered by pedals and pulleys, have been circling the lagoon’s placid, pellucid deeps since 1877. They carry about 18 passengers, and a 15-minute ride costs just $2.50 (kids only a buck).

Finally, on to the most revered shrine in all of Boston ... nay, all of New England. Fenway Park has long since ceased being a mere baseball stadium. The oldest (1912) and smallest (about 34,000 capacity) park in the majors is now a revered museum, a sanctum sanctorum devoted to the glories of the game and the long, storied history of the Boston Red Sox. Nomarly ... excuse us ... normally, when the team is out of town (which they will be during the convention), that "lyric little bandbox" where "everything is painted green and seems in curiously sharp focus" is open for tours. Unfortunately, however, tours have been suspended for the week of the DNC. That means you’ll have to settle for watching the Sox beat up on the Orioles on TV while you munch a Fenway Frank. It’s the classic New England hot dog. You can get ’em at the supermarket. Just be sure to eat it on a New England–style roll (flat-sided, soft, and bready), and slathered with condiments aplenty.

Mike Miliard can be reached at mmiliard[a]phx.com