Best of Partying

By Pitt News Staff
November 10, 2004

Best bar: Hemingway’s

Runner-up: Peter’s Pub

“Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name, and they’re always glad you came. You wanna be where you can see, our troubles are all the same. You wanna be where everybody knows your name.” No, there isn’t a Cheers in Pittsburgh, but we do have the next best thing: Hemingway’s. Where else can you walk in, and after a few visits have not only the bouncer know who you are, but also all of the bartenders, the owner and a few servers as well. Sometimes it can get a bit obnoxious when it’s crowded on Friday nights, but that’s just one thing that adds to a Hemingway’s experience. Still, there’s truly nothing like going to Hemingway’s on a Wednesday night and just enjoying an evening with friends, all of whom know your name.

-Brian Palmer, A’E Editor

Best beer selection: Fuel and Fuddle

Runner-up: Hemingway’s

Sometimes I say to myself, “I should go to Fuel,” because I haven’t had a beer in a few hours.

And the beer at Fuel is plentiful. They have this thing called the beer club (it’s actually technically J.C.’s Beer Cult), where you drink 100 different beers (no, not at once), then they give you a shirt and put your name on the wall. Do the beer club twice and the shirt gets better. Do it five times and you get your own mug — a pint and a half big — that they’ll fill for the cost of a normal draft.

So I’m at Fuel and staring at my name on the wall and thinking, what should I have next? Will it be one of their house brews? Will it be a fine Import, like the delightful Stella Artois that they carry on tap? Or will it something a little out of the ordinary, like the Pyramid Apricot Ale?

So many choices, so few hours until class.

-Greg Heller-LaBelle, Editor in Chief

Best Happy Hour: Mad Mex

Runner-up: Hemingway’s

Make sure they drop a lime or two in the Big Azz margaritas at Happy Hora. No matter the flavor of the margarita, whether it be strawberry or mango, Mad Mex serves up the best happy hour on campus.

All drafts are half off, which is a decent deal considering the unusual drafts that Mad Mex keeps on tap. The place gets jampacked quickly, however, so one must arrive right at 4:30 p.m. when the specials begin. Otherwise, you’ll be ordering drinks from the sidewalks along Atwood.

Drinks are not the only special during Happy Hora. Orders of chicken wings are half off, so grab a Guiness draft and order some chicken wings and enjoy two hours of fun.

-Jimmy Johnson, Assistant Sports Editor

Best drink special: Hemingway’s

Runner-up: Mad Mex

Maybe the reason Hemingway’s is your favorite bar has something to do with the glorious drink specials that they have every night of the week. Some people schedule their entire week around local drink specials. Here’s a quick suggestion, just go to Hemingway’s every night of the week; there’s your schedule.

Dollar pints every night — how can you beat that? You can’t. Every night there’s a different beer on special, from Killian’s and Coors Light on Monday to Yuengling on Friday. Let’s not forget the double dose of Canada on Tuesday and Wednesday with Molson and LaBatt Blue, respectively. And what better way to round out the week than with two — count ’em, two — nights of Miller Lite on Thursday and Saturday.

You know you love cheap beer. And you really can’t complain about cheap, good beer.

-Brian Palmer, A’E Editor

Best cheap beer: Natural Light

Runner-up: Keystone Light

It’s Friday night, you just got $20 in the mail from your parents, and you want to get drunk while still keeping some money for food. What can you do?

Weighing in at a mere $10.75 a case, Natty Light fulfills the need for quantity over quality and leaves you the cash to eat away your hangover the next morning. Maybe that’s why readers of The Pitt News cast their vote for Natty, which narrowly beat out challenger Keystone Light after securing Ohio early in the morning.

And unlike some of those “good” beers, Natural Light can be found at just about every distributor around campus. This ensures that the almost-clear nectar continues to flow for college students who are short on both cash and taste buds.

-Jonathan M. Kyle, Associate News Editor

Best good beer: Yuengling

Runner-up: Corona

Yuengling boasts America’s oldest brewery, founded by David G. Yuengling in 1829. To this day, the company has stayed in the family, as Richard L. “Dick” Yuengling Jr. purchased the company from his father in 1985 and remains the current owner and president. A favorite among college students, the Pottsville-brewed beer runs about $17 per case in Oakland and is available as a dollar pint at Hemingway’s on Fridays.

But the independently-brewed beer is available in only 10 states. The company sponsors an annual Oakland bar tour to give back to the faithful consumers at Pitt, and, sometimes, even Dick Yuengling himself makes appearances at local bars.

-Lucy Leitner, staff writer

Best street to party on: Atwood

Runner-up: Meyran

No signs needed. No last-minute phone calls. No aimless wandering around Oakland.

The party is on Atwood Street.

Well, at least, that’s what voters pronounced when Atwood won best street for parties. It’s no wonder. One house on Atwood was a continuous beer-pong party all summer long. And once past Bates, Atwood becomes more chaotic.

The street is a never-ending party, and it could be solely blamed on the presence of a beer distributor, about six bars and a constant flow of wandering freshmen looking for the answer to the biggest Friday-night question: “Where is the party?”

-Jimmy Johnson, Assistant Sports Editor

Best karaoke: Bootlegger’s

Runner-up: Oakland Cafe

Looking to be the next big thing in the music biz? Want to be the next “American Idol?” Looking to be picked up by a major record label in one fell swoop?

Well, singing along to “Friends in Low Places” at Bootlegger’s isn’t going to get you any of these things, but it is going to be a perfect recipe for a good time.

Bootlegger’s tends to get a bit busy for karaoke night, making it one bar in the area that gets more business on Wednesdays than it typically would, and it’s all because of our undying love to sing our drunken heads off.

Shy, are you?

Don’t worry, just pull a few of your friends to the bar, do a shot or two, then rock that mic like you were on stage in front of 20,000 screaming fans. It’s more like 100 or so really loud drunk people, but who’s keeping track anyway?

-Brian Palmer, A’E Editor

Best place to wake up: Your bed

You’ve tried waking up a lot of different places in your years. Some experiences, like waking up in your own vomit or in the bed of a former significant other, were decidedly unpleasant. Waking up on the corner of Forbes Avenue and Bigelow Boulevard will forever evoke fond memories, but you’d prefer to keep that as a once-in-a-lifetime experience. And as much as you’d enjoy waking up in the bed of a beautiful lover, you just don’t have a daily appetite for it.

When it comes to daily awakening, nothing compares to your bed. Your head fits perfectly in the pillow trough you’ve carved, and your smell wafts from the covers. Whether you’re a Cassanova, a hard partier or a homebody, your bed is the place to be.

-J. Elizabeth Strohm, News Editor