It’s Saturday Night and Poughkeepsie Students are on Break…Where are you?
Article by Anna Grazulis and Kelly Smith
It’s Saturday night — what’s going on in Poughkeepsie when the college kids aren’t in town?
From early September to mid-December, Poughkeepsie is flooded with enthusiastic and energetic college students from schools like Vassar, Marist, Culinary Institute and Dutchess Community College. Each institution offers a slightly different going-out experience, and Poughkeepsie offers exactly what a high volume of different types of college students want — choices. The area has no shortage of places to get food and drinks; but everyone has their favorites; and as time goes on, students find themselves in a bit of a routine. For Marist students, the routine is simple. Thursday night they head to River Station Restaurant, which doubles as a popular college bar at night. On Friday morning, they wake up and head to Campus Deli, a gas station/convenience store across from Marist’s campus. There, they may order something called a BOBO — a bacon, egg and cheese with a hash brown (salt, pepper, and ketchup are always an option on these sandwiches and yes, they will ask). If students have time later on, they may stop for a quick bite at Red Fox Eatery, which specializes in sandwiches and wraps. Friday night emerges, and Marist and Culinary Institute students dial their favorite cab drivers to request a ride to Darby O’Gills. “How many?” and “what time?” are answered in one of the the quickest telephone exchanges a person can experience. If students find themselves over the age of 21 on a Friday night, they’ll most likely opt to spend their time at Mahoney’s Irish Pub.
Across the city, Vassar students have similar procedures. Bars at night, hangover cures in the morning, quick bite for lunch. You have to admit — food offerings in the Hudson Valley, especially hangover cures, are above average.
As students ourselves here at The Groundhog, we found ourselves asking how these businesses survive without us around during summer and winter breaks. Does our business actually matter? Whenever we find ourselves in the aforementioned places, they’re generally filled with nothing but students. Lines are out the door most nights and mornings, for the bars and delis alike. It’s not to say that a Poughkeepsie local won’t join the dance floor once in awhile, Union Tavern and Mahoney’s both attract huge local crowds even on the popular college nights; it’s just that when all of the schools are in session, these places are noticably busier.
So, just how do these student hot spots continue business without their loyal customers? Surprisingly, some are nearly unaffected. In other cases, staff changes are made, opening/closing hours change, etc.
Red Fox Eatery, located right across the road from Marist College’s main gate, actually closes during long college breaks. Steve Lee, owner of the eatery, expressed that Red Fox is genuinely for the students.
“We’re right here. We close the whole month of July because there’s nothing much going on when you guys are gone. We close for five weeks in the winter, too,” Lee says. “When you’re off, we’re off. When you’re on, we’re on.”
On the other hand, a popular bar for Marist students on Thursdays, River Station, didn’t seem to rely on student business hardly at all. Manager Stephanie said that the restaurant and bar’s busiest time of year is from March to October, due to the outdoor dining and unparalleled view of the Hudson River.
“Honestly, we get some Marist students that eat here but it’s not the majority of our customers,” she says. “We depend on the restaurant more than the college nights. Thursday is really our only college night, so we can’t be dependent on solely that. “
In retrospect, it makes perfect sense. River Station is a Poughkeepsie hot spot. They’re not just known for their nightlife among students, they’re regarded as a scenic Hudson Valley restaurant.
Also, for students who are still worried about River Station closing up the bar for good and becoming a hotel, Jessica says fear not.
“There are plans but it wouldn’t happen for years down the road.”
When we actually went down the road to Mahoney’s Irish Pub, we received the same answer from server Amanda Cowen.
“We get the locals in still, but it’s not even close to the same without the students here. Over the summer it’s always terrible. I’d say the worst months are July, August and January. January because the holidays have just finished so people have already spent a bunch of money and the students are still away. So it’s just a horrible, horrible month overall.”
“We put less staff on when the students are gone. We usually use six bartenders on the weekends when students are here — two upstairs and four downstairs. We have to tone that down when the students are gone because, if not, no one would make any money.”
Union Tavern explained that, “At Union Tavern we have a big switch in clientele and also on how the nights are run with the college community and without. During the school session we do about triple the amount of people through the door. That being said the sales at the bar are half when school is in. Our inventory is mostly beers and fireball during the school year and more higher-end liquor when school is out. To make up for the volume of people we lose while school is out we hold almost four-times the amount of private parties. During the school year we have our set busy days opposed to having a steady crowd of locals every night. Having five colleges in the area are a huge help to all local businesses including ours. The colleges help get the word out and the buzz going.”
For Darby’s, business on Friday nights is definitely different without Marist and Culinary students; and even Mondays, because students love karaoke night.
And how will a full deli, beer mart, and convenience store be affected by college students’ academic breaks? Campus Deli, which is found just two buildings next to Red Fox Eatery, said the following:
“It’s affected in the evenings more than the mornings,” says owner Sandy. “In the summer, where we lose the students in the mornings we gain the contract workers who are actually fixing everything the students have…” As she trailed off we immediately knew her final word: “broken.”
“We do really have a steady clientele. We really just close earlier. We close at 10 instead of 4 a.m.”
Of course, this makes perfect sense. We’re not sure what grown adult is craving a slice of chicken, bacon, and ranch pizza at 3 a.m.
“The winter is the slowest time of the year for us, but we still have the working people from the gym, the hospitals, the doctors offices and so on and so forth that come in for miscellaneous things.”
We couldn’t help but ask, do the students just come to Campus Deli to buy the beer and the occasional breakfast sandwich?
Sandy immediately shook her head no. “The students buy everything here, sandwiches, breakfast sandwiches, now they buy the pizza at night. The pizza has taken off like crazy now. “
