New Pub Dubbed ‘Queen’s Head’

The future pastime for Harvard students will be chilling in Queen’s Head with a bottle of 1636 in hand.

The new pub that will be built in Loker Commons will be called “Queen’s Head” and will boast of a specialty house beer called “1636,” announced Zachary A Corker ’04, project manager for Loker Commons planning and program development, yesterday.

“Queen’s Head” is the name of a tavern once located in Southwark, England that John Harvard left to the University in addition to his library and his fortune. Although the original tavern burnt down in 1876, it will be enshrined in the new pub set to open next February in honor of the original gift, Corker said.

Next fall, there will be a string of pub-related events for students leading up to the grand opening of Queen’s Head. In October, students will be invited to an “unveiling” open house where they will see the pub’s plans, taste some items on the menu, and preview the logos for the pub and 1636. There will also be more food sampling events, in an encore of this year’s “Pub Grub Taste Test” series.

One event will be open to all undergraduates and will feature appetizers, while another will be targeted specifically to freshmen and will feature milk shakes and other nonalcoholic drinks. There will also be a wine-sampling event open only to seniors. Students will also be recruited to manage and operate the pub.

Corker and other organizers of the pub came across the name “Queen’s Head” while playing “The Harvard Game: 350 years of trivia,” a board game available at Lamont, Corker said. The name of the beer was proposed by five of the 40 seniors that were selected to go on a field trip to Harpoon Brewery to sample the beer, marking the contribution of the class of 2006, who will be long gone before the pub opens.

Harvard Student Agencies (HSA), which has been integral to the planning of Pub Nights and the permanent pub, may continue to be closely involved in the pub’s operations.

“We’re all confident that the pub is going to be a huge success,” said S. Patrick Abell ’07, HSA’s vice president.

“We’re figuring out the details right now of the management for the pub.”



‘A TRULY AMBROSIAL BREW’

“I speak from experience when I say it is a truly ambrosial brew,” Corker said of the house beer “1636,” to be made and supplied by Harpoon Brewery, a local brewery founded by three Harvard alumni.

The beer is “a Bavarian inspired recipe with a dark, balanced maltiness complimented with a moderate hop finish,” Corker said.

According to Corker, one of the seniors who sampled 1636 wrote that it “reminds me of a Harvard education—perhaps not the easiest thing to get through, but when you’re finished you are glad that you did.”

“We’re proud to be making the house beer for the pub,” said Daniel C. Kenary ’82, one of the brewery’s founders.

1636 will be introduced to the Harvard community at the pub’s opening. To encourage students, faculty and alumni to visit the pub, 1636 will not be available anywhere else but Queen’s Head.

Corker also said he and the members of the HSA Pub Task Force are negotiating with the Fogg Art Museum to possibly display some of Harvard’s historic artifacts at Queen’s Head. One of these pieces is an original gargoyle from a tower of Memorial Hall which burned down in 1957. The gargoyle landed safely in the snow and was preserved by the Fogg.

—Staff writer Doris A. Hernandez can be reached at dahernan@fas.harvard.edu.