It’s 9 p.m., on a Friday night when the girls living above me start blasting “Turn Down For What.” That’s when I know it’s time to put down the Taco Bell and get ready for the campus bar crawl.
If you’re 21, this routine is familiar and you know it too well. You just have woken up from a nap, stopped your Netflix binge or returned home from Hilyard Market with an oversized beer that you insist “tastes really great” in hand. Some nights it is all three of these things, in that order.
If you’re not 21, don’t worry — you won’t grow out of house parties and frat live outs for at least a few more months.
The crawl begins at Taylor’s Bar and Grill. Although sometimes it begins at Rennie’s, but “only if you’re meeting friends for a beer or something,” I frequently overhear someone say in the line at Taylor’s.
The bouncers wave some regulars through, which makes me question how much you have to go here to have your face that recognizable, or rather what are you doing to make yourself that recognizable and for some odd reason those who are waved through seem to always brag to their friends about it.
Taylor’s is the place you go to see all of the people who you try to avoid on a daily basis. Seriously, I always run in to that one annoying guy from PR class who likes the sound of his own voice.
I rarely hear of people not starting their night at Taylor’s since Taylor’s is the quintessential University of Oregon bar you’re just obligated to go to.
But from there it can go one of two ways. Max’s Tavern or Webfoot.
It seems like people who love Max’s hate Webfoot, and vice versa. Finding people who genuinely enjoy both just doesn’t happen. I see students run toward Webfoot yelling, “Let’s go to Fratty’s!!!” While stumbling over themselves and their friends every step of the way.
Sometimes it seems like owning a Ralph Lauren polo is a criteria among others to get into Webfoot.
Webfoot is a sports bar with limited seating, but a very specific frat-star crowd. Max’s is a bar where people stand on the benches, and once it passes midnight you can’t physically move through the crowd.
Max’s is where everyone ends up at the end of the night. It is crowded and is almost always out of Blue Moon, but you’re missing out if you don’t close Max’s.
It is even more fun when they have a DJ. They always play throw backs that get everyone on their feet singing and playing the air guitar.
Even the thought of the popcorn at Max’s is enough to get me and my roommates off of the couch and in to the bars.
The best part of any Friday night is closing at Max’s. They always play the same closing song, everyone crams inside and the booths are packed with students standing on tables. I will never be able to hear “Sweet Caroline” without thinking of standing on the chairs at Max’s singing at the top of my lungs.
Regardless of the time of the year, you can be sure people are participating in the campus bar crawl. You’ll start at Taylor’s, end at Max’s and complete the night with a quesadilla from Caspian.