The Keg of Evanston. Ninth best college bar in the country. Home to hundreds of college students every Monday night, Friday night, Saturday night…heck, just about any night of the week you want. The friendly door staff, the not-so-friendly bar staff; the disgusting and almost always flooded bathrooms; the random townie creepers that sit at the bar by the dance floor; the smell; the grime; the shadiness; the many many many hookups; the sloppy girls dancing on the poles. Mmm. True love.
But actually. While I might not love these particular things about The Keg (certainly not the flooded bathrooms, and that super long line there always is), there are a lot of things to genuinely love about The Keg. The biggest one for me is the memories I have of dancing crazily with my best friends, either on the dance floor or yes, occasionally up on the poles. See, the best thing about The Keg is that nobody is going to judge you, whatever you’re doing. So if you’re really in the mood to dance (which I generally am), then you can show up and just dance – let everything go, not care what anybody else thinks, because they’re probably all too wasted or too busy with someone’s tongue down their throat to care or even notice.
My next big point in advocacy of The Keg is just the sheer number of people you can find there on any given night – particularly Monday. If I haven’t seen someone in several months, I can almost guarantee that should I show up at The Keg on a Monday night, he or she will be there too. And we may not have the most genuine catch-up session in history, but think about it – if I haven’t seen this person in a few months we’re probably not great friends, but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy seeing them. The Keg is the perfect place to spend time with those people you would never call up for coffee or lunch, but you still kind of want to see occasionally. Keg Mondays #ftw.
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On that note, Keg Saturdays for the win. Saturday nights are when all of the athletes head out, because Sunday is the only day of the week they get off from practice. Seeing as they only get one night off a week, you know they’re going to be going hard. It’s definitely a different vibe from Monday, but you might just meet some new people and have a really good time. Maybe even steal a dance with Dan Persa? These things are actually possible, people, thanks to The Keg.
Then there are the things I sort of love to hate about The Keg. The hookups, for example. Yes, it’s kind of sleazy and you probably won’t start a long-term committed relationship with someone you meet and make out with at The Keg, but that’s not the point, is it? It’s like the dancing – you can do whatever you want and no one will judge you. Everyone blows it off as “Oh, it was at The Keg. That doesn’t really count.” Be careful with this one, though, because it suddenly counts a little more if you walk out of this oh-so-fine establishment with your hookup in tow.
I haven’t had any truly bad experiences at The Keg – I’ve been in the bathroom with girls puking, been hit on/propositioned by slimy guys, stepped in unknown fluids on the ground, almost lost my coat, and spent more money than I would like to on the overpriced drinks. But none of those seem all that bad to me. You have to kind of accept that this place is a joke, as a trashy hole-in-the-wall, and simply as a college bar. That’s what it is, and nobody should expect it to be anything else. Love/Hate relationship? Not really. This is more of a full-on love affair, and I’m proud to admit it.