When people think back on college, they remember late nights with lifelong friends, unforgettable memories and – somewhere in the mix – maybe a little schoolwork. Within a college experience, the college bars play an integral part in cultivating these lifelong memories, as they give us an excuse to let loose and have fun.
Look no further than Washington State University’s bar scene to see an exciting nightlife done right. Along the streets of Pullman, the beer flows like water, and there are bars as far as the eye can see. Whitman, in contrast, has the nightlife of an old folks home with bars closing at 10 p.m. every night that isn’t a weekend. Where are our weekday drinkers expected to go? T-Post Thursday offers a remedy to this conundrum, but that establishment comes with its own bag of issues.
T-post Tavern’s biggest selling point is also perhaps its biggest drawback. The line dancing that made it a destination for students seeking a weekday reprieve has become a drawback. Along with a newly enforced five-dollar entry fee, the establishment has seen an influx of high school attendees. At a college bar, you’d like to see a ratio of at least half the patrons being of college-age, and this is far from the case at T-Post. Not to sound like a geezer, but perhaps these kids should spend their Thursday nights doing their pre-Calc homework instead of bumbling around the dance floor. When you aren’t getting crowded out by the younger masses, you can look forward to being ogled at by the people watching from the sidelines. These observers range from relatively harmless to downright creepy, with some of them recording you from mere feet away. The combination of high school children and voyeuristic old men is uncomfortable and produces an Epstein-like atmosphere. T-Post offers the saving grace of one-dollar beers, but whether this is enough to outweigh its drawbacks is hard to tell. What’s clear is that T-Post, as it is now, doesn’t offer the classic college bar experience, and maybe it’s unfair to expect that of it. The Green Lantern, on the other hand, doesn’t have this same excuse.
The Green prides itself as a Walla Walla cultural touchstone for a decidedly older crowd. And older it is, with more gray hairs in the bar than not. To its credit, The Green fulfills the aesthetic of a college bar quite faithfully, complete with all the sports-team accoutrements you’d expect. Yet, The Green, like T-Post, runs into a similar pitfall in that it lacks a student-friendly atmosphere. In my experience, when you’re at The Green, you don’t feel like it’s your space, you feel like a visitor.
The more you look at the bars in Walla Walla, the more a recurring theme emerges – a persistent sense of feeling out of place. Wherever you go, you’d be lucky to find more than seven to 10 Whitties at any given establishment, and perhaps this says something about the bar culture on campus itself. Putting the onus on bars to be approachable to students can only get you so far. It’s ultimately up to the student body to show up and be open to having a good time.
Some would say that this article comes at a bad time as we dive headlong into finals week, but I couldn’t disagree more. Going to a bar with your closest friends and unwinding with a pint or two is something I’d prescribe to everyone at Whitman. And honestly, the dopamine hit from turning in an assignment you finished last-minute after a night out is unbeatable. It’s all too easy to stay in on a Friday night and rot on your phone, but are you going to look back at those moments with fondness? Probably not, so it couldn’t hurt to go and hit the town. So grab your questionable fake ID, your friends and make the trek to one of the many overpriced bars we have in this charming little town. Make some memories you’d like to remember, or go to Ming Court and make some you’d rather forget.
