Comparing the local pubs at first seemed like a rather nice assignment from the News-Letter. That is, of course, until I remembered that I'm under 21, and drinking under the age of 21 is illegal and immoral. Hear that, kids?
Anyhow, I went to three of the local bars: Charles Village Pub, PJ's and Rootie Kazootie's. Since I actually was required to recall and write about my experiences, I decided to go for the approach of an eater rather than that of the drinker.
My first stop was the Charles Village Pub. I found this establishment to be dimly lit, but well-balanced between a bar and booths for a diner-style meal. If you've never had a meal at a diner, talk to somebody from New Jersey, because everyone in that fine state lives within a 10 minute drive from at least seven diners (it's part of the state law). When I asked the waiter what to order, he quickly replied, "Don't have the quesadillas." He then continued to tell me that everything else they cook is great. So for fear of him spitting in my food, I decided not to order the quesadillas and go with their southwestern pork sandwich. While I didn't necessarily feel like I was in the southwest, it was an excellent sandwich.
Next up was lunch at PJ's. From my past experience, this bar tends to draw a more rowdy crowd than CVP. It is smaller, and more focused on the bar aspect than the restaurant component. This can be illustrated by the fact that our waiter was the cook. For this one, I decided to go out on a limb and try the pizza burger. It sounds like a fine innovation, and if one can't go wrong with pizza or a burger, why not combine the two? Well, it wasn't the best choice that I've made in a while, but the burger was a worthy effort. What I do suggest, though, is to take out their pizza. It's closer, faster and quite possibly better than any other pizza place in the area.
Then it was Sunday at Rootie's. Mostly geared for a standing crowd that's ready to drink, there's also a secondary bar and room to dance, should one be in the mood. Also, there are enough televisions in this place to monitor most professional games of football, baseball, hockey, rugby and cricket at the same time.
They've got a pretty sweet deal going on here. You get an all-you-can-eat buffet for pretty much the whole day for $7. My tip for this one: get the quesadillas, seriously. They were phenomenal. Everything else in the buffet was about par.
Rootie's, while being the largest of the three, is also the farthest away and would require at least somewhat of a determined walk or a brief ride to get there, whereas the other two are within a couple blocks from Wolman Hall. So what have we learned from this? Alcohol is bad, unless you're 21 or older. CVP's lighting is too low, unless you have an ugly date. PJ's pizza is good, unless it's on a burger. Finally, Rootie's is worth the hike, unless you walk the whole way there alone down a dark alley with a "mug me" sign on your back.
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