NYC/Manhattan Hokies - Let's Go........ To the UES!!

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?