The "College Bar" Stigma
July 12, 2005
I generally don't like "meetup" events, but I was lured to a little gathering thrown by
blogging.la's
Sean Bonner by the promise of free sushi. Further interest was sparked by the venue, a bar near my place called the Golden Gopher. There's a lot of buzz about this place, as it has a liquor store in the front for your takeout needs.
In the end I had a good time, though the sushi was gone before I arrived It was good to meet people from my neighborhood and mine useful downtown-living information. Countless others have written about the good times, and there are even some photos on Flickr, so I won't bother. I'm more interested in a train of thought inspired by the bar itself.
A friend of mine dismissed the bar as "too college-y" when I mentioned it a few weeks ago. I noted this to a few of the blogging.la folks, and we all paused together, scanned the room, and chuckled. "Ha-
ha, college-y. Not at all." Someone made the point that during the school year, the place was in fact crowded with USC students. It was apparently understood that college-y was a bad thing for a bar to be.
Why is that?
No, seriously. I think meat markets with frat boys and
"college cuties" are disgusting places to be, but why is
that what a "college bar" has become? What is this meme, where does it come from? I really like a lot of college students, and for that matter, I'm pretty fresh out of school myself. Universities and colleges are supposed to be places of higher education, and many of the places I frequent are packed with thoughtful and motivated college kids. To me, a "college bar" should be a place where I can drink whisky and soda while having real, stimulating conversation. I don't know whether to blame the "college bar = frat party" meme on media representation or the sad state of our university system.
I have no answers, only questions.
a35mmlife commented, on December 5, 2007 at 6:23 a.m.:
perhaps your friend meant was talking about those 'drinking holes' where the recently graduated and the socially inept gather because they have no other social skills but those learned at parties... like the kibbitz room or dublins... *gag* not my shit.go blogging.la.