"Right, so let me get this straight. We get free drinks from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.?"
"That's right."
"Uhh...so do we need to be on some kind of guest list?"
"Well, there is a guest list, but anyone is welcome to come."
"Wait, so do I need to be on a guest list to get free drinks?"
"No, you can get free drinks too"
"From 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.?"
"Yup."
"Is there some kind of cover charge?"
"Nope, just come on down"
"So totally open bar from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m... for me?
"Yup."
"I'll be there in five minutes."
This was a conversation I had with the employee handling the phones at Orleans, the new restaurant and bar in Davis Square. You may have noticed that I was somewhat persistent on finding out what exactly the deal was with the rumors that were going around campus about a bar in Davis Square giving out free drinks as a promotion for its grand opening. I would sooner have believed a rumor that Santa Claus was going to come down from the North Pole and personally pour me a Guinness in a frosty mug.
However, when I called the establishment to check what I had heard, I was assured that I was not dreaming and that the rumors were in fact true. Immediately following the phone conversation, I got on the horn to my network of drinkers and partygoers to let them know of the good tidings. I then put aside the three assignments I had due the next day and put on my game face: an opportunity like this only comes when the planets align and God smiles down on me.
This was the beginning of what would be a very disappointing night.
My buddy Glen and I walked into the bar with smiles on our face and no money in our hands. The atmosphere was a little high brow for me, but nonetheless it was a very nice place with a comfortable ambience. Although there had been a direct confirmation of my ability to drink this place back to the recession with no charge, I was still skeptical and walked about with a sort of "freshman on campus for the first time" kind of look.
I didn't wander around too long, for I thought it was go-time. I wandered up to the bar and asked the bartender, with a slight twinkle of self-doubt, "So it's an open bar from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m., right?"
"Uh, where did you hear that?" he said.
I can describe my emotional reaction best by bringing you all back to that time when your girlfriend or boyfriend dumped you for the first time, and then punched you in the face and stole your wallet. That never happened to you? Well, just imagine then.
"I was told that there would be an open bar from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.," I said with a tear in my eye.
"Oh yeah... We heard that rumor was going around, so I guess we can get you your first round for free, but then you gotta pay your own way."
Oh, no, he didn't. Oh, dear lord, no, they didn't. But they did. The powers that be at the Orleans Restaurant thought it would be a very clever idea to get foot traffic in their bar by throwing out some rumor that they were having an open bar for two hours. Then, when people found out that they weren't going to drink as much as they had thought, they would take their free beer (singular, the opposite of plural) and notice how nice the place was and how it would be a nice place to visit again.
Unfortunately for them, as soon as I sat down to enjoy my free Guinness, in flocked about 50 other Tufts students with dreams and hopes in their eyes - ones as deep and true as mine once were. I saw each and every one of my classmates slapped down with disappointment (with the exception, of course, of some girls that could flirt their way to the tap, God bless 'em).
The point is that each of my brethren had been told the exact thing that I had. We had all called and asked the employees if there were free drinks from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. We were all lied to.
Now, I'm sure that this little plan will work for some of the feebleminded that don't care about being played like an Enron employee, but this drinker isn't about to have any of that. So all I can say is that the Orleans Restaurant has definitely seen the last of me. I cannot say anything for the rest of you, but in a community where Tufts students provide for an enormous amount of the revenue at bars and restaurants, you have to wonder what in hell they were thinking.
Ricardo Martinez is a senior majoring in mechanical engineering.
