Beer and Undergrads Flow at Pub

After much fanfare and two years of planning, Harvard’s first permanent pub for undergraduates opened its doors Friday evening, welcoming approximately 1,300 undergraduate revelers to cheap beer and live music.

According to Zachary A. Corker ’04, Loker Commons project manager and one of the brains behind the Cambridge Queen’s Head Pub, the night was a resounding success, and the pub’s patrons included a “good mix” of undergraduates and recent graduates.

The day after the pub’s grand opening festivities, Corker was speechless—he had lost his voice after staying the entire length of the pub’s maiden shift from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m.

“One of my favorite moments was overhearing the following comment: ‘I have never seen half the people here—this is exactly what Harvard needs!’” Corker wrote in an e-mailed statement. “I interpreted this as meaning that the Queen’s Head was able to attract a diverse cross-section of students.”

Pub Manager Scott C. Smider ’01 said many attendees echoed this sentiment throughout the night.

“It was pretty sweet to hear and I have to agree with it. The mood overall was just awesome,” Smider said. “This is something my classmates were saying we needed years ago and we wished it could’ve been there for us.”

Corker—whose voice recovered this weekend—said yesterday during a phone interview that the pub will be open on Fridays and Saturdays for the rest of this semester. The pub was also open from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. last Saturday night for prefrosh.

“Next year we’re looking to expand our hours to Wednesday and Thursday nights and Sundays from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m,” Corker said.

Corker said that while the pub ran out of 1636, Harvard’s own brand of beer, and had to temporarily stop tap service to replace a nitrogen tank, he thought the night provided a good “stress test” of the pub systems.

Robert D. Winikates ’08, one of the students at the pub on Friday, agreed with this assessment.

“They did a really good job keeping the capacity at an optimal level. And while I was there it was great because I saw all my friends and everyone was having a really good time,” Winikates said.

—Staff writer Aditi Banga can be reached at abanga@fas.harvard.edu.