Bar Wars

Like advantages reaped from the airline's heated price wars, Harvard undergraduates are profiting this fall from a healthy competition among the Square's bars and cafes.

Bars such as the Crimson Sports Grille and the Bow and Arrow Club are offering students drink specials. Watering holes like the Spaghetti Club and the Black Rose tempt students with free food.

Most bar managers and owners deny any sort of competitive spirit. They say each establishment is a distinct environment and draws different segments of the Cambridge population.

"The senior class goes back and forth," says Harvey Goodman, manager of the Bow and Arrow. "Although there is a lot of competition, we all find our own little place."

"Every bar has its own niche," says Sports Grille General Manager Preston E. Owen. "There are 1600 [Harvard] seniors alone. Every bar in the Square couldn't hold them all."

"People will go where they feel the most comfortable," he adds.

But the bars' marketing tactics tell a different story. Many bars in the Square are actively wooing the fickle college crowd by appealing to their pocket books.

The Sports Grille, located next to Janus Theater, is popular among Harvard undergraduates not only because of its relaxed, collegiate atmosphere. The bar boasts an inexpensive menu and drink specials like a pitcher of Busch for $4.

The Grille also features a trivia game that pits patrons against those of other bars across the continent.

The Grille attracts mainly college students because they advertise solely in Harvard publications, Owen says.

"We're after Harvard students," he says.

Next month, the Grille plans to host the Bud Lite Girls, a high testosterone event not unlike last spring's Jagermeister Girls event.

Directly across the street and competing for the same segment of the population is the Boathouse. The rather dark and subterranean bar is popular among athletes and Kirkland House residents because the Boathouse sponsors Harvard sporting events, says owner John C. Brown.

The Boathouse also holds parties during the holidays and at The Head of the Charles and Oktoberfest. Although at least one source has indicated that the Boathouse has lost its lease and will close, Brown denies such rumors.

The Bow and Arrow Club, across the Square on Bow St., draws the same college crowd and offers comparable specials as the Grille and Boathouse.

The Bow, equipped with three dart boards and a mini-basketball game, is popular among Harvard students and Cambridge locals. Manager Goodman says while Harvard graduate and undergraduate students make up a substantial portion of their business, more than 50 percent of the business is based elsewhere.

"We get a lot of college graduates from the area. We also have a pretty big working class population," he says.

Goodman acknowledges that the Grille is drawing Bow patrons, but denies the competition is hurting the Bow.

Another competitor for the college crowd is the bar on the second floor of the Hong Kong.

Affectionately called the "Kong" by Harvard students, the seedy-looking cocktail lounge draws college students from all over the country because of its famous scorpion bowls, says lounge manager Lilly E. Lee.

Packed on any given night, the Kong attracts customers by holding contests such as the 69 beer club, in which names of patrons able to drink all 69 are placed on the wall.

The Kong also hosts a contest in which students design their own drinks. From all of the entries from any given college, the bar will select a winner to add to the menu as the official college drink.

But Harvard students get an added perk, 10 percent off drinks by presenting a College ID.

And the Kong plans to increase its drawing power with the addition of a third floor dance club which Lee says should open soon.

This may put the Kong in direct competition with the Spaghetti Club. Located behind Cafe Paradiso, the "Spag" offers the Square's only dance floor.

"What we offer is unique," says general manager Melissa L. Constantine. "Here you can go out and you don't have to a bunch of guys spitting on the floor."

On the weekends, the club enforces a dress code to maintain the club's character, Constantine says. But business from Harvard students appears slow lately.

Once the hot spot for Harvard undergraduates, the club is trying to woo back students by offering food specials. The Spag is also dropping its cover charge on Thursday night.

The Black Rose, the only bar in the Square to offer live music, will also faces competition from a blues bar expected to be opened soon.

Black Rose General Manager Mike L. Tallon says the new bar will bring it more business. "I welcome it," Tallon says. "It brings more people who enjoy live music to the Square."

Despite its distinct character, the Atrium watering hole is not above competition. The restaurant/bar offers beer and pizza specials, door prizes and free tickets to musical performances given away by local radio stations.

Tallon also makes the restaurant area available free of charge for parties such as graduations and 21st birthdays.

The latest bar to enter the fray is 33 Dunster St., which plans to offer beer brewed on the site. The beer is based on John Harvard's recipe, says owner Gary F. Gut.

Gut hopes to call the bar John Harvard Brew Haus. And although he is serving up beers already, legal complications are delaying the permanent name choice.

There is currently at least the threat of a legal challenge to its use, and the words "Brew Haus" have been taped over on the sign.

Guts says his legal opposition has little ground to stand on and he says hopes to soon proceed as planned.

Despite the high concentration of bars in the Square--there are more than 20 in the small area around Harvard--bar owners and managers maintain that competition is healthy.

"Competition makes people hungrier," Lee says. "It makes them strive harder."