When I was living in B/CS and doing a fair amount of business with most of the bars, there were a grand total of three who you could guarantee would not give you a bad check to pay for their advertising. The rest were risky, to say the very least.

I know there's a lot of "corporate" bars going in now, but how in the hell are any of these places making any money? Enrollment has been somewhat steady through the years, and it would seem to me that building more bars in B/CS...which had very few successful nightclubs by definition in the first place...would only increase the number of places not making money there.

I don't get it. Especially in Northgate, where you'll pay through the nose for rent.

Gig 'Em

its pretty self explainatory:

once upon a time, when you could drink outside, we could've gotten away with one bar. now that we're all forced inside, we need more space, hence, more bars

add to that the fact that the demographic has changed at A&M. its no longer a good ol boy school, and with the death of bonfire, and the de-unification of campus, its becoming more heterogenous and there's a greater need for more 'trendy' hangouts

and don't forget the fact that cspd has cracked down hard on "noise violations" so many people go to bars more often than house parties

My guess is that it has more to do with Blinn than it does with A&M. Stupid juco students don't have to study and have more time to drink than Aggies.

unless of course you're an AGDEV major

I think the demographic statement is accurate. As far as the drinking outside, I don't think that has made any impact on how busy the bars are. Current students think that drinking outside was some great tradition that had been going on for many years when in fact, outside drinking only became popular in the past 3-4 years. The bars on Northgate are all surviving because when you have more bars, more people will come. More bars draws people from other hangouts across town (Carney's, P-tar, etc.)

Back in the days of Old Army, the students had to focus on important things like being redass and going to sporting events and saying Howdy... The current students are just a bunch of worthless drunks..hence the birth of all the new bars... [/Bluehair]

I don't know what the real reason is... But seeing as I work at a place on NG, I don't care. As long as the money is going into the tip jar, I don't care about the reason...

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My guess is that it has more to do with Blinn than it does with A&M. Stupid juco students don't have to study and have more time to drink than Aggies.

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I hope you're being sarcastic. If not, that might be the dumbest statement I have heard in some time. I had a 3.8 in engineering at A&M and was at the bars 4-5 nights a week. I knew tons more who were the same regardless if they were doing well in school or not. A&M is a much bigger party school than it once was.

You do realize that most Blinn Students (I'd say 85%) are under 21. The rest are students who are taking a class at Blinn for a credit or night students who are in their late 20s/30s/40s.

One of the above posters was dead on. The reason for so many bars and their success is due to the demographics changing. Its been changing a lot over the past 10 years. That, coupled with cops becoming bigger nazis about parties, and you have a good recipe for more "bar hangouts".

[This message has been edited by Arms & LEGS (edited 4/23/2006 10:43a).]

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know there's a lot of "corporate" bars going in now, but how in the hell are any of these places making any money?

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just like everything else in CS...its called growth

Northgate is more popular now than ever...everyone was very upset when the ban on outside drinking took effect...it still does suck to this day..but I would say it has not hurt business in any way
I dont know how long you have been in CS but as recent as only about 7-8 years ago...Northgate was pretty much nothing..there were a few bars(Shadow,Dry Bean, Chicken, Dudlys, Cow Hop, ) but not a whole lot other than that. The area was not very popular, parking was 100 times worse than it is now and it was not very nice at all...alot has changed and of course there are now many many bars/clubs..my guess is that Northgate will continue to grow and in the coming years you will see more and more establishments

We stopped throwin parties at our house cause its easier just to go to northgate to get drunk and not have to worry about gettin your crap stolen or having to clean up afterwords.

Texagggie2007, our football team resembles that remark.

[This message has been edited by aggieangst (edited 4/23/2006 5:01p).]

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Northgate is more popular now than ever...everyone was very upset when the ban on outside drinking took effect...it still does suck to this day..but I would say it has not hurt business in any way

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Define "hurt business"... You are right in the sense that as much money is being spent on Northgate now as any time in the past. But certain places on NG have definitely taken a hit due to the drinking ban, mainly the "classics"- DC, Dudley's, Fitzs, etc. They are losing a lot of their $$ to the smaller places.

I don't think there's that many more bars now then there was, say, when I moved here in '90. Bars come and go in this area. A lot of them have changed names.

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and don't forget the fact that cspd has cracked down hard on "noise violations" so many people go to bars more often than house parties

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This is a big reason. It's not even worth the risk if you're 21.

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death of bonfire

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www.studentbonfire.com
Still going strong, still redass, becoming more and more connected to Ol'Army everyday. Check it out, its not a rebel fire, its Aggie students building Bonfire (looks like over 1000 students for this falls Bonfire).

Oh, about NG, the main reason students drank on the back porch, was because, they could buy a case of beer, cheap, and drink it out there. Most of the old bars on NG were against the ban; the ban was mainly backed by the new bars around College Main. Their theory was that all those people would magically just start drinking indoors, at the bars. Well, most just don't go to NG anymore.

Since the ban, business in every bar on NG went down. The average for each bar was about 20%. Business may improve as the older students move out, and more new ones come that were never around when you could drink on the back porch.

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I don't think there's that many more bars now then there was, say, when I moved here in '90. Bars come and go in this area. A lot of them have changed names.

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you are aware that there is like 20 bars on north gate alone right now, right? plus all the other places that have just changed names around town....

umm yeah...there are alot more bars in CS now than in 1990..especially in Northgate

Northgate Bars:
Schotskis
Skye Bar
Zapatos
Barbershots
Midnight Rodeo
Obannons
Paddock Lane
Fitz's
Dry Bean
Chicken
Duds
315
Madhatters
Library
Corner Bar
Gatsbys
V Bar
Groove
Kyoto Sake Bar
Logans
New Bar going into Holicks old location

Bars around town:
Carneys
Ptar
Salty Dog
Times Square
Uglys
Fox and Hound
Hookah Station
Bourbon Street Bar
Tap
Hornbacks
Harrys
Hall of Fame
Revolution


Thats all I can count right now.

In 1990 there might have been 10 total bars in CS.

Ugly's shut down a little while ago

A way to dramatically increase revenue at Northgate would be to run buses to and from Northgate like Austin does with their bar district. I mean the buses in Austin are absolutely packed with as many people as possible to and from 6th Street. The buses only run from Thursday through Saturday.

With the huge increase in the amount of people going to Northgate over the past 2-3 years and with the number of bars increasing continually, College Station would be wise to follow the Austin model and use buses to take students (and other people) to and from the bars.

Where would these buses run from? We dont have a parking problem on NG and there is carpool/baptist friend (kidding) to take people home.

There is talk of a trolly to do just that. Not entirely sure why we need a rail system, I guess if it's on rails and automated they don't have to pay as many drivers.

The students are much, much more affluent, on the average, than they were back in the late 80's when I was a student. I think that is a strong factor here too.

Bars I remember from 1990

Dixie Chicken
Dudley's Draw
Crooked Path
Dry Bean Saloon
Texas Hall of Fame
Gramm's Central Station
The Cowboy
Zephyr Club
Parthenon/The Tap
Ptarmigan Club
Carney's
Harry's
Whatever that bar was a Culpepper Plaza
The bar at the Hilton (Yes, a lot of students went there)
Third Floor Cantina (live music)
Dixie Theater (live music)
An Nam Tea House (Where O'Bannon's is now)

I am sure there were others. That was 16 years ago, and my memory sucks.

The key factor, as mentioned earlier, is most likely the affluence of todays students. Gone are the days, for the most part, of the poor college kid who has to collect change to get enough money to buy a 12 pack of Natty Light.

Some non-scientific proof of this may be seen in the parking lots of A&M. The percentage of high end, expensive vehicles is truly astounding. Its rare to see a kid driving around in a beat up piece of crap held together with duct tape and wire.

Burdizzo...from 92 I add Bullwinkles for the Culpepper one and Sundance as the name of the Hilton one. They all used to serve minors too...except for D&D (which I think is Grahams) I always got busted at D&D.

I think they have cut down on minor consumption ... but who knows.

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Where would these buses run from? We dont have a parking problem on NG and there is carpool/baptist friend (kidding) to take people home.

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Use the A&M buses. Also my post had nothing to do with the parking problem, it had more to do with drinking and driving. It's damn near impossible to go out in College Station without having to drive. There is a reason why College Station has one of the highest DUI rates in the US.

In Austin you could go out 3 days a week and never have to drive due to the buses. College Station really needs to implement something like that.

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There is a reason why College Station has one of the highest DUI rates in the US.

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Can you provide a source for this claim? I see all sorts of statements about how Harvey Road has more DUI's, etc, etc, but now one ever provides proof.

Also, use of A&M buses to cart people around town so they can go to the bars is outright silly. Can you see Bob Gates lobbying the Texas Legislature for more public money when A&M is using mandatory student fees to run a drunkbus system?

Burd...remember "Sneakers"?

Yes, I remember Sneakers! Bladder Buster was the greatest promotion ever!

dang, forgot about Third Floor Cantina... good times there my freshman and sophomore years.

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We dont have a parking problem on NG

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what....

yeah, on busy nights (once or twice a year, anymore) you literally have to park in bryan

[This message has been edited by thisguy05 (edited 4/24/2006 11:56a).]

I just park in the parking garage. Never have trouble finding a spot unless it's a game weekend, and then I don't usually even bother trying to go to Northgate.

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Can you provide a source for this claim? I see all sorts of statements about how Harvey Road has more DUI's, etc, etc, but now one ever provides proof.

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It's not so true anymore, but before 1999 Harvey Rd. and 60 were the DUI capital of the world for one night of the year. When I was a kid it was almost like the cops would just stop random people and give out DUI's but the worst part about it, none of them were bogus tickets.