Place of Last Drink

The bars where drivers got drunk before OUI arrests

Massachusetts

In his 2003 song “I Love This Bar,” country star Toby Keith sings about the bikers, “blue-collar boys,” and other characters who hang out at a fictional watering hole. But the real-life Massachusetts bar named after the song, Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar & Grill in Foxborough, counts another type among its regulars: drunk drivers. Since 2012, the music-themed bar has been named 46 times by convicted drunk drivers as the last place they drank before getting arrested, more than any other establishment in Massachusetts, according to court data. The findings emerged from a Globe review of 8,364 so-called place of last drink reports collected by Massachusetts courts after convictions for operating under the influence, for the period from January 2012 to September 2016. The analysis found that a fraction of the bars and restaurants licensed to serve alcohol in Massachusetts – just 48 establishments – combined to rack up more than 1,000 last-drink reports, which represent 12 percent of convictions reviewed by the Globe.