Great burgers and the best onion rings in the world make Bartley's a perennial favorite with a cross section of Cambridge, from Harvard students to regular folks. The 40-plus-year-old family business isn't a cottage, but a high-ceilinged, crowded room plastered with signs and posters (there's also a small outdoor seating area). Burgers bear the names of local and national celebrities, notably political figures; the names change, but the ingredients stay the same.

Anything you can think of to put on ground beef is available, from American cheese to béarnaise sauce. Good dishes that don't involve meat include veggie burgers and creamy, garlicky hummus. And Bartley's is one of the only places in the area where you can still get a real raspberry lime rickey (raspberry syrup, lime juice, lime wedges, and club soda -- the taste of summer even in the winter).