College Campus Hangouts & Memories

[Maister]

Okay, let's admit it up front - this is going to be one of those 'me-too' threads, but the subject matter is of such gravity and significance that it's essential we must assemble responses for documentation purposes. Our posterity demands no less...

Memories of high school days tend to be pretty hit or miss. Some folks enjoyed those times immensely and it was their Glory Days, but for others they are a time happily in the past. College memories (particularly undergrad), however, tend fairly consistently to be fond ones. Almost everyone has great memories of their favorite dispensary of potables or pizza joint or other entertainment venue.

I'll start: Michigan State University -



Best general bar: The Peanut barrel - Not at all a pretentious hangout. Didn't find the frat boys hanging out here. The menu was pretty limited but it was a good environment for knocking back brewskis and discussing Spinoza, or just play some pool.

Best pizza joint: terribly subjective, I know, but I'm giving the nod to Bells Pizza. Their greek pizza was a food group back in the day.

Best meat market: the Landshark: Lots of alternative rock (back when it was a description rather than a genre) and lots and lots of coeds shaking their things.

Best post-bar place to recover: the bars closed at 2:00 but there was this restaurant on Grand River that was still open and catered to the inebriated crowd. I can't seem to recall the name but it was a small joint in the downstairs of a multi-level building and they had a mural of Hendrix on the wall. They served killer coney dogs....and I guess I don't remember much else. It might have been called "Subterranean somethingorother" maybe?

Best bookstore: let's be clear, I'm not talking about those places that sheered so many unfortunate sheep by selling students all their used textbooks at 50% markup. No, I'm talking about places that had ambience. Places where you could sit down and read half a book (without paying). Places where the scent of coffee or incense wafted through the air. That place could only be Jocundry's Books.

Where did (or do) you go to school? Where were (or are) the cool hangouts? Feel free to add your own categories too.

[DetroitPlanner]

Wayne State University -
Best general bar: Circa's

Best pizza joint: I can't recall the name but it was right on Warren and Woodward. It has since moved to an old victorian home off of Woodward.

Best meat market: Club Taboo, City Club, and St. Andrew's Hall.

Best place for free beer and food: Yes free beer and food! Near campus at the Stroh's welcome center!

Best post-bar place to recover: Lafayette Coney Island

Best bookstore: John King

Best place to waste a few hours between campus (alone): Detroit Institute of Arts, Center for Creative Studies, Detroit Public Library

Best Place to waste a few hours between classes with buddies: Belle Isle, Detroit Historical Museum.

Best place to impress chicks: Detroit Film Theatre, Traffic Jam and Snug.

Best place to look at the Hookers: Cass Avenue, 3rd Street in close second.

[Suburb Repairman]

Texas State University:

Best Bar: The Tap Room. Not pretentious, yet had a beer selection (64 on tap) that would make any beer snob happy. Best burger in town. "Burger & a Beer" special on Tuesdays. SR is the proud owner of the three "Around the World" T-shirts for knocking down all 64 taps.

Best Pizza: Valentino's by far. Great beer-based yeast crust--not too thin, not to thick and obviously homemade dough daily. Reasonable price. Cool grungy ambiance. Good beer pitcher specials.

Best Meat Market: I was always at Lucy's for it's alternative rock, but also hung out at Rocky LaRue's a fair amount. All of the bars are oriented around the town square, so bar-hopping is the norm. The Girls Gone Wild bus made frequent stops at Nephews though, as the only under 21 bar (lame). If I got in a singer-songwriter mood, I headed for Cheatham Street Warehouse.

Best "Bird-Watching": Sewell Park along the San Marcos River. Perfectly pitched hill decending to the river, covered in people sunbathing all year, except December-February.

Best Recovery: Actually, Valentino's makes a second appearance. When the bars close, they open a special walk-up window where you can buy pizza by the slice up to one hour after the bars close. The cure for the morning hangover was Cafe on the Square.

[Bear Up North]

Bowling Green State University

Best Bar - The original Howard's.....an odd-maze of rooms, smoke-stained walls, and beer that was slammed all too quickly by a young Bear. In the 1970s the original Howard's was torn down to make room for the library. The new digs, across the street.....Howard's Club H, so named (probably) because we all called the original "Club H". The later version did a lot more live music but, alas, I had moved on to a seemingly endless succession of wives.

Best Pizza - Not sure of the spelling.....Paglialli's. It was across the street from the original Howard's, so it was "available" as the echo of "last call" trailed down the sidewalk on a warm, spring night.

Best Meat Market - Upstairs at the Downstairs, at "the corner" (Main and Wooster). (2 tongues)

Years After College Meat Market Adventure - Bachelor's III, a loud music dance club, specializing in rock. I was a regular in the early 1970s, after my first marriage eroded.....and I was no longer a student. This Bear is not a good dancer.....and I didn't dance good with many women at B3. (3 tongues)

Best Place To Recover - Sam-B's sub sandwiches. To this day, the best subs I have ever tasted. Probably because slaughtered slug would taste good to a staggering student at 2:30 AM.

Best Path To Take To Classes - Thru the quads in the springtime......to grab a whiff of suntan lotion and (perhaps) do a pre-Google go ogle.

Bear

[dvdneal]

I was a non-traditional student, but here's some for Arizona State
Best beer - Corona from the bar across from the Architecture college - get loaded and go to class. I'd give you a name but it changes all the time

Best burger - Chuckwagon - again by the architecture college - odd?

Best meat - Rec center - year round swimming and tanning

Best place to crash - law library - not the most comfy, but no one bugs you

Best place to waste time - the lawn, watch the traffic and bad preachers

[Hink]

Ball State University

I am sure that many will add, since it seems many have had the pleasure to live in Muncie.

Best Bar - This is tough, since all bar's pretty much were awful. I would say The Locker Room, but only because it was more local. I really enjoyed The Chug, basically because it was a whole in the ground with some pretty fun ice ball.

Best Pizza - Well that is easy- Greeks.

Best Meat Market - Dill Street. You could look down at all the people grinding on each other. Sometimes quite fun, other times awful.

Best Place to Go on a Wednesday Night- Dill Street. No cover, $1.25 you call its and local music. Great time.

Best Place to get BBQ- QL's without a doubt. If you have ever tried to find this place you will understand why it is all about the BBQ and not about the service or building.

Best Place to get Thai- Thai Smile. Amazing Masaman Curry.

Best Place to get Ice Cream- MFC or Muncie Frozen Custard for those not from Muncie. Basically a Dairy Queen, but local...which is better.

Best Oddly Named Bar- MSG. Yes there was a Madison Square Garden Bar. Really creepy. And I mean really.

Best Late Night Food Option- Now this will stir some debate, but I think that Carter's Hot Dog beats out Greeks Pizza. Tough choice though.

[cellophane]

u. kentucky -

Best Bar - depends on what you are looking for - but i was a big fan of: McCarthy's and The World Famous Two Keys (i'm partial - i worked there)

Best Pizza - Pazzo's was best for the scenery and atmosphere, Slice of Chicago was better pizza but it was a walk-up place.

Best Meat Market - The Two Keys (subsequently, the best bartender(s) worked there also - namely me )

Best Late Night Food Option - Tolly-Ho. i had a running tab for a while there. it was goooood.

Best Place To Recover - Tolly-Ho or Pazzos. or sometimes the patio at the fraternity house. (ATO)

I'm not talking about those places that sheered so many unfortunate sheep by selling students all their used textbooks at 50% markup. No, I'm talking about places that had ambience. markup on (new) textbooks is only about 10% - and prices are set by the publishers

[TexanOkie]

University of Oklahoma -

Best general bar: O'Connell's - Everybody frequented the place, especially for Karaoke Wednesdays and gamedays for the Sports Animal's postgame show. A close second tie for The Library and Brother's.

Best pizza joint: The Hideaway Campus Corner, although the original Hideaway was started in Stillwater. If Oklahoma had an indigenous pizza recipe, this is as close to it as you can get.

Best restaurant: JR's BBQ just off I-35 near Main St. and the west side Wal-Mart.

Best meat market: Depends on what type of "meat" suited your fancy. I was always in with the band kids and the ballroom dancers, so my spots probably won't coincide with a lot y'all's. That being said, The Vista downtown, Kongo's (which has changed names twice now), and Malones (no longer there).

Best post-bar place to recover: Crossroads Restaurant in the Oklahoma Memorial Union. Just don't get sick or you'd get busted by OUPD.

Best bookstore: I don't know if there was a bookstore where you could do this, but the basement at Bizzell Library was a pretty happenin' place with a ton of comfortable couches, and probably the busiest coffee shop on or near campus.

Best place to get a free meal: the 2:8 House, a campus ministry for the Nazarene church on Chautauqua Ave, would host a free lunch every Tuesday during the school year from 11-2 and then every day of the week during the first week of class and finals. There were no strings attached whatsoever, and Dave (the leader of the place) was a grade A chef.

Best weeknight hangout: Wherever Mike Hosty was playing, usually The Deli.

[imaplanner]

UC Santa Barbara

The beach. nuff said

[Raf]

UC Santa Barbara

The beach. nuff said

Oh come on, you at least could have had a shout out for woodstocks pizza.

[Maister]

Oh come on, you at least could have had a shout out for woodstocks pizza.

Hmmm....another UC Santa Barbara alum? I think CPSURaf just volunteered to provide a proper appraisal of the student hangouts there!

[imaplanner]

Oh come on, you at least could have had a shout out for woodstocks pizza.

Never much cared for Woodstocks. Was a Giovanni's person myself (wednesday night special - yum). Shout out for Freebirds though.

[Raf]

Hmmm....another UC Santa Barbara alum? I think CPSURaf just volunteered to provide a proper appraisal of the student hangouts there!

UC Suck Me.. never! I just hung out there for the parties.. i went to school 90 miles north

[Michele Zone]

I took a lot of classes online. Therefore Cyburbia was one of my college hangouts.

[kjel]

I've always been a non-traditional student and grad school is the only time I've lived in a true college town. We congregate at Harvest Moon, Old Bay, and Tumulty's mostly. I am kind of partial to Stuff Yer Face when it's not a Thursday night...best selection of beer and the strombolis are great.

[JNA]

You expect me to remember from 30 yrears ago.

[Richmond Jake]

SAW, you party animal.

You expect me to remember from 30 yrears ago.

Sonoma State University

The Brass Ass and The Inn of the Beginning. I'm sure both are long gone.

[Veloise]

Best music: Revelli Hall

Best Saturday night get-together: Bimbo's (RIP)

Best late-night food: the Pan Tree (RIP)

Was there only one year, and I was 17 for much of it. (At the time the legal age was 18)

[Mud Princess]

Memories... of the way we were...




I went to college in suburban Westchester County, NY. Back in those days, we had few neighborhood amenities; you had to drive or take the bus to White Plains to shop, and a lot of students would take the train down to NYC for the weekend. White Plains didn't have any cool college hangouts... just the Galleria.

The place to be and be seen was the on-campus pub (a/k/a 'the pube'). The drinking age was 18 then, so most college students would go to the pub to drink (green beer for St. Patrick's Day!). They had bar food too. On Wednesday and Saturday nights there was a DJ spinning the usual '80s tunes and we'd go to the pub to dance.

The pub closed and changed to something else after the drinking age increased to 21, but I think I had graduated by then.

[hilldweller]

University of Massachusetts

Best bar: The late, great Barselotti's (Barsie's)

Best pizza joint: Antonio's, not even close.

Best breakfast: Newman Center.

Best meat market: Delano's (a.k.a Delaho's), Monkey Bar.

Best restaurant: Tough choice but I'd have to go with Bueno y Sano.

Best new/used music store: Newbury Comics.

Best bookstore: tossup between Valley Books and Jeffrey Amherst

[Maister]

Memories... of the way we were...

Picture it in your mind's eye - that song in the background as a photo montage slide show depicts inebriated collegiate hijynx ....there's Skippy passed out and someone drew a moustache on his face....Lisa sitting down in the alley behind the bar in a pool of hurl....Bill getting busted by the R.A. as he tries to sneak in a keg....

[WSU MUP Student]

For undergrad I was a non-traditional student in the most non-traditional sense. I was moving around the country quite a bit while I was in the Marine Corps and spent time at UNC - Wilmington, Oakland University, and the University of Michigan. I commutted long and hard during each of those stints so the vast majority of my hanging out was in the car. I also never made a singe friend in any undergrad class so I didn't really care about hanging out.

Graduate school (which I finished last Thursday! WOOT!! WOOT!!) was much more fun and even though I didn't live on campus, I spent a lot of time before and after classes in and around Wayne State University.

Best Bar: Cass Cafe... hard to beat $1 Black Labels and $2 Ghettoblasters!

Best Pizza: Circa... the pizza was about the only thing this place was any good for (Motor City Brewery also had really good and inexpensive pizza but I didn't discover it until late in the game)

Best Breakfast: Once again, the Cass Cafe... best omelete around! (I always wanted to stop by Avalon Bakery for some breakfast (do they even serve actual food?) but never made it there

Favorite Hangout Between Classes: Cass Cafe... fellow students and even some of the more chummy professors always knew were to find me between or before or after classes... or on many weekends

Best Cultural Attractions: WSU is lucky to be so close to institutions like the DIA, the main branch of the Public Library, the Historical Museum, CCS, MOCAD... but by far the best place to get some real culture is another block or two further south at the Majestic Theatre Complex. Home of the nation's oldest operating bowling alley (you'll still find me there most Wednesday nights for the Architects Bowling League) and two great live music venues (upstairs, the Magic Stick is often listed as one of the very best live music venues in America). The bar and the pizza aren't bad either.

Best Place to Impress the Ladies: I have to agree with DetroitPlanner that the Detroit Film Theatre is great and so is the Traffic Jam and Snug. My wife loved it when I finally took her there for the first time a few months ago, and just like Mikey, she generally hates everything.

Best Burger: Bronx Bar... don't let the dirty exterior (and interior, and staff) fool you, this place is worth the walk.

[Joe Iliff]

Ball State University

I am sure that many will add, since it seems many have had the pleasure to live in Muncie.

Best Bar - This is tough, since all bar's pretty much were awful. I would say The Locker Room, but only because it was more local. I really enjoyed The Chug, basically because it was a whole in the ground with some pretty fun ice ball.

Best Pizza - Well that is easy- Greeks.

I went to Ball State 15 years ago. I'd say The Chug for best bar, back then. Greeks had great pizza, but back then, I loved Flying Tomato. Burned in a fire while I was attending Ball State.

[Maister]

Graduate school (which I finished last Thursday!

....and before you ask - no, you can't change your username.

[stroskey]

Iowa State University: Ames Iowa.

Best bar: Paddy's (or Estas before it moved)

Best pizza joint: Pizza Pit

Best breakfast: boring Perkins

Best meat market: Element or Sips

Best restaurant: Cocost Chinese

Best new/used music store: We didn't have anything except a Best Buy

Best bookstore: See above, expect it was Borders