Spring Break
The Daily OrangeBest of Drinking
Best Bar: Chuck's
By Dan Briggs
Posted: 4/17/07, 9:49 PM EST Section: Best of SU
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Happy hour - Chuck's
Faegan's has a better beer selection, the Sheraton offers free food, and Maggie's has the freshmen girls. But none of these places matches up to the total package at Chuck's. It's hard to beat sitting down at a table with your friends and a $3 pitcher of Honey Brown.
Party beer - Keystone Light
Nothing says college like cheap beer. Let's face it, you want to get drunk, and you want it to be quick and painless. Keystone Light is the man for the job. After a few of these bad boys, it will seem like you are getting blasted from drinking water.
Boxed wine - Franzia
It's cheap, and there's lots of it. What more could you ask from a boxed wine? Let's face it, none of these wines are going to win any awards in France or Italy. But Syracuse isn't in Europe, so Franzia takes the prize here.
Drinking game - Beer pong
Some call it Beirut, some call it beer pong. Everyone calls it fun. There are few feelings in the world better than hitting a rebuttal to send a game into overtime when all the odds were against you. Heroes are made one cup at a time.
Pre-game - Faegan's
Whether it's pre-gaming for the big Syracuse basketball game, or just making a stop on your way out to the more lively bars, Faegan's is your place. You can still taste the beer at the beginning of the night, so you might as well enjoy the best selection around.
-Brian Tahmosh, feature editor
If you took all the bars in the universe, lined them up and proceeded to select the most neutral of them all, you'd find yourself walking into Chuck's. Faegan's has a better beer selection, the Sheraton offers free food, and Maggie's has the freshmen girls. But none of these places matches up to the total package at Chuck's. It's hard to beat sitting down at a table with your friends and a $3 pitcher of Honey Brown.
Party beer - Keystone Light
Nothing says college like cheap beer. Let's face it, you want to get drunk, and you want it to be quick and painless. Keystone Light is the man for the job. After a few of these bad boys, it will seem like you are getting blasted from drinking water.
Boxed wine - Franzia
It's cheap, and there's lots of it. What more could you ask from a boxed wine? Let's face it, none of these wines are going to win any awards in France or Italy. But Syracuse isn't in Europe, so Franzia takes the prize here.
Drinking game - Beer pong
Some call it Beirut, some call it beer pong. Everyone calls it fun. There are few feelings in the world better than hitting a rebuttal to send a game into overtime when all the odds were against you. Heroes are made one cup at a time.
Pre-game - Faegan's
Whether it's pre-gaming for the big Syracuse basketball game, or just making a stop on your way out to the more lively bars, Faegan's is your place. You can still taste the beer at the beginning of the night, so you might as well enjoy the best selection around.
-Brian Tahmosh, feature editor
Dark but not dank, Chuck's, located at 727 S. Crouse Ave., is where Syracuse University students interested in the art of social drinking try to pass through at least once. Cheap beer, a pool table and plenty of space guarantee high volumes of traffic Thursday through Saturday.
Chuck's is the reincarnation of a former Hungry Charlie's franchise once located directly underneath where the bar is now. In 2002, six years after Hungry Charlie's closed, Mark Janov, who ran the franchise for two decades, opened Chuck's.
Adam Fournier, senior drama major, said he visits Chuck's about once a week, drawn by the cheap beer and the relaxed atmosphere. And beyond that, there's the food. Chuck's cuisine is not the finest, but it matches the beer perfectly, Fournier said.
"It's not something I would go out to eat, but when I have the munchies and I'm drinking a couple beers, Chuck's food is perfect," Fournier said.
The only qualm Fournier has is the music. It is a sentiment he shares with fellow Chuck's fan Bryan Dumas, senior broadcast journalism major.
With so much space available and a wide swath of attractive college girls, Dumas said he wishes there were more opportunities to dance. However, his desire for movement is stifled by the '80s rock that often saturates the airwaves, he said.
Despite the lack of dancing, Chuck's still occupies the top spot on his favorite bar list.
"I started going when I was a freshman," Dumas said. "I had a hard time getting in, but once I did get in I had a great time."
During what Dumas considers a good week, he will go out on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. An evening is rarely complete without stopping in at Chuck's, he said.
At two Chuck's visits a week, Stephanie Cohen, senior broadcast journalism major, comes close to matching Dumas' attendance rate. Not a beer drinker, Cohen prefers to spend her Fridays with cranberry vodka instead of a three-dollar pitcher.
Cohen does not usually start a night at Chuck's until about 11 p.m. When she is not watching sports on one of the five televisions surrounding the bar, she mingles from one table to another, before returning to the space she and her friends claimed earlier. By midnight on the weekends the bar is as busy as can be, as people move out from other bars and into Chuck's.
Every once in a while, Cohen gets to see a "good fight," which may include chairs being thrown or people being tackled to the floor, he said. It's never anything too serious, Cohen said, just enough to raise a few eyebrows.
For Justin Gillette, senior supply chain management major, it's Chuck's ambiance that keeps him coming back every week. Gillette fondly recalls crowding into the bar and standing around on the tables after Syracuse's victory over Georgetown during basketball season.
The prices are right, the people are fun and the bartenders are personable, Gillette said.
"Chuck's is just like that chill experience where you can go down and drink a couple beers," Gillette said.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 3
Michael Calcutti
posted 4/18/07 @ 9:37 AM EST
As a former Hungry Charlie's patron (back in the mid-eighties) I'm happy to see that someone is trying to keep in with tradition. I haven't been back to Syracuse for quite some time but it is nice to find out that the good things weather the storms. (Continued…)
iBernard
posted 6/02/07 @ 3:17 PM EST
Strange, but this alumus finds it extremely hard to believe that the first time he actually read though an issue of The Daily Orange, he notes a headline ad is for SU's "beer pong" team, and a number of articles, features, and comments are about the "art" of drinking. (Continued…)
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