The long-awaited campus pub overcame one of its final hurdles Wednesday when it passed a state health inspection, and a date for its opening will be set next week, according to Conor McGee '08, the pub's manager.
The successful health inspection, along with a liquor license secured earlier in the week, will allow the pub to begin stocking food and beverages. The physical space is nearly complete, and McGee, three assistant managers and eleven bartenders, all students, were hired before winter break.
"This is a particularly exciting time for the managers because we're finally past the meta-administrative limbo," said McGee in an e-mail. "From here on out, everything we do has a direct impact on how the place will feel opening day--something which is both energizing and enervating."
The pub space is located in the basement of the JRC directly below the mailroom, in room number "007." The atmosphere, however, is less James Bond-chic than underground-grunge. The space is illuminated with industrial lights which accent its black, red and brown walls.
A 46-foot-long 24-stool bar lines one wall as red and black booths sit opposite and a stage, purchased by SGA Concerts, stands at one end. Facilities Management transformed the former storage room at a cost of over $60,000, installing new electrical, water and drainage hook-ups, and the service facilities.
After originally being named "The Wedge" in a spring 2007 survey, the pub was renamed "Lyle's" by a student initiative last semester, after the popular dining hall supervisor Lyle Bauman. A Budweiser sign imprinted with Bauman's face will hang on the wall.
Lyle's will serve food and drinks mostly unavailable elsewhere on campus including mozzarella sticks, Ben and Jerry's ice cream, French fries and onion rings. Beverages served will include soda, beer and Bacardi products, all sold in bottles.
Students, faculty and staff have largely reacted positively to the creation of the pub, and its student organizers say they are eager to see all members of the Grinnell community utilizing the space.
Some students had expressed concern that a campus pub would take away business from local bars and discourage students from socializing off-campus.
But Jeff Sinick '09, who has served on the Pub Committee since Tom Crady oversaw its inception in fall 2006, said that local vendors were not at all hostile to the idea.
"None of the owners of bars in town said they'd have a problem with [the pub]" when the Pub Committee approached them with the idea, he said. The same was true for Bob's Underground managers, according to Sinick.
Grinnell's last campus pub closed in 1984, just after the national minimum drinking age was raised to 21. The previous one, located in Bob's current location, was known as a place where students, faculty and staff all gathered together.
A standing pub board, composed of three students, one other faculty member, a representative of the Trustees, and pub advisor and Associate Dean Sheree Andrews will replace the old Pub Committee. The pub board, Andrews said, will be "hands-off" when it comes to day-to-day management, personnel and ordering decisions and assume responsibility for more long-term decisions.
The project has seen tremendous student involvement throughout, said Andrews. "The thing that's so exciting is that it's student-run," said Andrews. Students taking the lead in choosing color schemes, layout, décor and staff. Pub Committee members taste-tested beer and snack choices.
The Pub Committee originally said the pub would begin operation after fall break of last semester, but training, licensing and construction delays pushed back the opening. "All the way along it was a huge learning experience," Andrews said.
The final word on the new pub's existence and funding lies with the Trustees, and Sinick hopes that its first few months will prove its value to the college community.
"This is an important semester," he said, "so that next year we can say to the Trustees ... that [the pub] is a positive thing for Grinnell, that it's something people enjoy."
