Lynners not only enjoy Hub’s ‘drunkest city’ crown, they embrace it

LYNN – The recent announcement that Boston is the drunkest city in the nation didn’t surprise about a dozen Lynn-area residents who themselves enjoy a cocktail or two.From Irish roots to college-town binging, theories about Lynn’s southern neighbor’s new claim to fame flowed as freely as beer at Lynn-area bars on a recent weekday evening.”It’s right on target,” said Lynn resident Jim Lally as he washed down his house hamburger with a Sam Adams ale at Lazy Dog Sports Bar on Broadway in Lynn.Lally pinpointed the large number of higher-education institutions in and around Boston as the source.”Kids today just drink to excess,” he said.Lally stops himself at two Sam Adams a night.Newsweek Magazine’s sister website, The Daily Beast, announced the top 25 drunkest cities recently after analyzing the drinking habits of 21- and-over residents in 25 American cities.Bostonians consume an average 15.5 alcoholic drinks per month and more than 20 percent of Bostonians are binge drinkers, according to the study. By contrast, the study found drinkers in the 25th city, Houston, chug 14.3 drinks per month.Some thought those numbers should be reversed.”I’ve seen down south – they go at it too,” said Lazy Dog Sports Bar’s manager, Kevin Cheney, who used to live in Georgia.Bartender Steve Colojay agreed. “I just drank heavily in New Orleans,” he said.But Colojay didn’t think the title was dubious.”Good for us,” he said as he rung up a customer on the bar’s blue cash register. “We want to be No. 1.” He also agreed the title must come from the city’s youngsters.”Maybe it’s what we’re teachin’ ’em in the education system,” he said.Forget the young college kids, said Nahant resident Bill Burchell, who was enjoying a Budweiser with pecan pie at Porthole Restaurant & Bar on Lynn’s waterfront. It’s the old guys, the true Irishmen, that give Boston its title, he said.”Drinking? I love it,” said Burchell, who with his trimmed gray beard and brown felt hat looked every part the Irishman he said he was.Bartender Robyn Thomas agreed.”The Irish, they drink straight stuff – none of this la-de-da stuff,” she said as she fixed a customer a margarita with salt on the rocks. “They want Jameson (Irish Whiskey) and that’s it.”Which brings up another point, said his wife, Tricia Burchell: The study implies Bostonians can’t hold their liquor, she said.”I don’t think they should say we’re the drunkest city,” she said. “Just because there’s more alcohol consumed doesn’t mean we’re the drunkest.”There’s an obvious answer to all of this, said Swampscott resident Rich Scimone from down the bar, pointing to his Patriots hat.”We’re a huge sports town, and sports and drinking go hand in hand,” he said while nursing a Blue Moon draft.His wife, Jean Scimone, took a sip of her Captain Morgan and Diet Coke cocktail and shook her head.Maybe it’s simpler than that, she said.”We’re here drinking because we’re old and have nothing else to do,” she said.