My brothers and sisters; I was helping myself to some $.35 wings last week when I had an inspiring conversation which sparked my noggin.
Like most of you I am a loyal alumni to the Hokie faithful, and I reside in NYC. I have always felt there could be more of a demonstrative representation of my proud alumnus here in Manhattan. With regards to hokie bars, we have Village Pourhouse which is fine but I have some reservations and I think we can do better.
Village Pourhouse is cool but it doesn't represent Blacksburg as well as another location might IMO. When I first arrived at Tech, the small town vibe was quite the culture shock for me at the time. It took me about a year and a semester to adjust but I didn't realize it until I graduated that I easily made the best relationships I could have ever imagined in this type of environment. I believe this is what makes Blacksburg a special place.
Fast forward to life after Tech and its back to big city life for me, but I could never forget the community which changed my life forever. This is the community I wish to recreate here in NYC. I have watched games at pourhouse several times and it just doesn't give me that vibe. I've even taken some of my goons there with me and I can honestly say I am yet to have that random conversation with a hokie stranger where you share a brief moment in undergraduate familiarity that takes you all the way back. Everyone kinda seems to just do their own thing there. I don't know whether its the environment or what but that ain't hokie.
First of all, I think we share pourhouse with another school as well as an NFL team, which to a proud hokie is a fucking NO/NO. I live in the Upper East Side of Manhattan and for those familiar with the city, its pretty much the closest thing to the suburbs in NYC. Its a nice neighborhood where people are friendly and the vibe is not 'touristy'. Pourhouse is in the lower east side where hipsters rule and you can score the best coke/molly - whatever you need. Nothing against pourhouse or the neighborhood (shit I party there ALL the time); but its not quite hokie. So if for nothing else I think those of us uptown deserve another option.
Enter 'Rathbones', my fav pub in the UES. I had a fantastic conversation with a managing partner of the bar and pitched him some of my ideas; he jumped all over it. He is ready to deck the whole place out with hokie stuff and practically convert the damn place into a 24/7 hokie bar. The bar maxes out at about 150 people so its a bit more of that intimate setting, which facilitates those great conversations we all love to have. Of course game days will be legendary but also being able to walk in on a random Wednesday for their $.35 wing special and run into fellow hokies in the neighborhood, or visiting, or whatever; I think that would be cool.
So let me know what y'all think? I thought I'd run it by my faithful constituents...can we pull this thing off or what?
Comments
I also live in NYC, and have pretty much stopped going to the Pourhouse for games. It was great when I first moved here 6 years ago, but either it, or me (or both), has changed, and I just don't enjoy it that much. And yeah, it's also the UGA bar. And Kansas bar. And can get packed with multiple fanbases on a lot of Saturdays. And let's not talk about the Orange Bowl fiasco against Kansas a few years ago. Having that fanbase right next to you as you shit the bed against them was no fun...
I live in Harlem near Columbia, so UES isn't ideal for me personally (getting crosstown up here is not easy). However, the place seems really cool! I am definitely in favor of establishing an alternative up here. Keep us updated on your progress with the bar manager. And good luck!
Do you ever use the crosstown buses? They're pretty solid actually.
I went to the Pourhouse for the Ryan Williams dragging fools NC State game a few years back and I enjoyed myself. However, most of my visits to NYC end up with me at Madison Square Garden for Rangers games, so Stout is my spot.
you should get with the NYC Hokie Club (I'm assuming such a thing exists) and see if they will promote the bar to let management know that you can bring in a large group of people on gamedays.
First, this is my first "at length" post. Mostly, I have just kinda been creeping on TKP reading...everything. I go to grad school in Philadelphia and I get what you're saying. The alumni group meets at a bar in center city called Tavern on Broad. I don't know what/if the agreement is with that bar, but we share it with like 20 (sorta an exaggeration but not really) other schools. Also not a ton of Hokies show up to the watch parties there, myself included (usually studying or actually going back down to Blacksburg) and I assume because no one wants to actually come into smelly Philly (honestly, I didn't know some of these smells even existed prior to living here). I was there for the FSU game last year, so each school has a "private room" and they put our "room" right next to the FSU "room". Needless to say there were some classless FSU fans that come over to our "room" after they won and proceeded to scream and dance on our tables (grrrr). But getting back to your point yeah big city bars definitely lack the Blacksburg feel...
I just moved from DC up to Washington Heights in March, so I'm still a little new with all of this. But honestly I like Pourhouse a lot. The bartenders are great, the rails are legit (and they let me order a rail pitcher last week), and there's the $30 (maybe it was $40) all you can drink deal.
That being said, I agree with the atmosphere, everyone seems to kind of keep to themselves even though we're all invested in the same game. It's a little weird. I'd definitely be down to check this new place out. Especially if we can be the exclusive team and deck in tech.
Edit: Maybe rename this to something about NYC so everyone will notice it? I almost didn't read it!
Good Call! and thanks for the feed back guys. I'll keep you all posted on my progress.
I'm a new NYC transplant moving like a nomad around Uptown and Queens. I would totally enjoy this because I actually like to hear myself think in bars and I rarely have cable (see: nomad). I'm unfortunately too poor to drink that often, but gamedays at a hokie bar sounds fantastic.