Pub Amble: A College Scene

School is back in session, and I went on the hunt to see some potentially and already popular-with-the-college-kids local pubs and bars in the PVD area.

For once, Michaela and I had an actual squad joining us for the pub amble. Michaela was locked and loaded to get freaky. Also joining us was Rocco, our resident big man who loves his beer and dark liquors, and Rachel, who is somewhat new to the crawling of pubs, and whose taste skews toward sweet, sour and fruity.

Our first destination was a fairly new bar in PVD, the Rec Room. For a new bar, this place is really interesting and fun. There is funky lighting that changes colors, creating shadows and a fresh atmosphere. There are low tables for sitting and plenty of bar space. It’s a sports bar, but with a twist. All the drinks on the menu relate to different sports and the food menu was classic sports bar food, but there were some different and intriguing items as well.

For drinks, Michaela got the Pimm’s Cup, filled with Pimm’s No.1 and house lemonade, and finished with ginger beer and berries. Rocco got the Belmont Jewel, which has Bulleit Rye Whiskey, pomegranate juice and house lemonade. Rachel got the Pit Lane Lemonade made with limoncello, Grey Goose Vodka and the house lemonade on the rocks! I got the Azalea Cocktail created by mixing Mezcal, lavender simple syrup, pineapple juice and a splash of grenadine. The cocktails were made by the wonderful bartender Kevin, who took his time to get each of our drinks perfect, and personalized each to our liking.

We didn’t go upstairs, but Jasmine, the operational director and co-owner of the bar, told us about it. Upstairs is a self-serve beer tap, where you pay a certain amount and get a set number of refills. If that doesn’t lure you upstairs, the Bocce certainly will.

With plans to learn to play Bocce next time we hit the Rec Room, we went to the Abbey for some food. The place was packed, loud and rowdy, with people in jerseys of all sorts. The energy was electric. The waiter was nice, but very sassy. I don’t know if I loved or hated it, but at least he made an impression. For our drinks, most of us got beers, but Rachel got a Bloody Mary. It was the best Bloody Mary any of us have ever tasted. It had the right balance of alcohol, it was refreshing, not too spicy, and had huge pieces of avocado and bacon on top. 

The Abbey is known for their burgers and bar food, but being the trailblazer she is, Rachel got penne pasta with alfredo. I got a delicious Havana burger, which is basically a Cuban sandwich with a burger patty, and Rocco got the Honky Tonk burger, which was topped with pulled pork, bbq sauce and caramelized onions.

After the food and drinks, everyone felt stuffed and bloated beyond imagination. Rocco and I were okay, but Michaela and Rachel were not in a great way. They didn’t want to walk to the car, they were tired, they wanted to go home and go to sleep. But I begged them to hold on, we only had one more stop left: Grad Center Bar (GCB).

Now we didn’t actually make it to GCB, but hear me out before shaking your head. I put the address of the bar into my GPS and it brought us to the general area of the bar. I did a questionable parallel park, and when we got out of the car, we saw a mass of crazy college kids. It was like being surrounded by hungry sharks, but these sharks were slurring and staggering with red solo cups in hand, and I’m sure it wasn’t milk in those cups.

We are all in our mid-20s and have been through that stage in our lives (even though we do have our slip-ups from time to time), so we all felt a little uncomfortable. And we couldn’t find the bar anywhere. Michaela and Rachel were still bitching about being tired, and Rocco and I were cold, so we finally gave up.

Other than the missing GCB, the night went great. The Rec Room is definitely a place we will all return to again if for no other reason than to try the food. And I would go back to the Abbey anytime with my crazy bunch of fools!

Rec Room, 383 Admiral St, PVD

The Abbey, 686 Admiral St, PVD

Grad Center Bar (GCB), 42 Charlesfield St, PVD