our drinks and food than it would have been an hour later, by which time it was packed. Earlier in the day, College Delly is a cute local restaurant, with walls full of history in the form of old photographs, trophies from local sports leagues and decorations celebrating the Tribe. At night, it’s like Paul’s Deli, but louder and more blatant about its purpose in life. For all our jokes about Paul’s Deli being the site of many sins, College Delly is truly the home of chaos on campus for those who frequent bars — at least, after about 10:30 p.m. This is best explained by the fact that every weekend, residents of Dawson Hall across the street can hear “Sweet Caroline,” the closing song, being screamed by all paying customers even across Richmond Road and through a closed window. While Paul’s is a small corner, good for a gathering of friends, College Delly is good for a night of bonding with random people who you may never meet again. The gulf between College Delly during the day and College Delly at night is wide and slightly bewildering. When asked how she would describe College Delly, Kelsey responded “Full of mistakes,” referring to the decisions patrons make late at night. The crowd made sense after looking at the prices on the menu. I never truly understood why the bar was so consistently packed until that moment, when my greatest desire was some cheese fries and I saw that the price was only $4.99. Regular fries are $3.99. A glass of wine is only $5, cider is only $3 and cans of beer are just $2. A pitcher of Bold Rock was $12, and enough to take care of more people than were present. College
Delly had by far the friendliest prices to a typical college student budget. College Delly Bar Manager Josh Brown started working for the Paul’s Deli location in Newtown six years ago before moving on to College Delly. “We get a lot of actual famous people, as far like sports players and stuff,” Brown said. “Here it’s more undergrad… at night it’s more undergrad. During the day we get a lot more blue-collar workers; a lot of the William and Mary faculty will come over.” According to Brown, the day and night shifts are different kinds of crazy, but the thing that makes College Delly special is that it’s particularly laid back compared to other bars in the area. “It is 11:30, I would classify this as ‘hoppin,’” Monica said of the wall-towall crowd screaming around us. College Delly is a great catch-all for everyone who can legally drink at the end of a night. You can tell exactly when various date parties end, and people will yell over your table near the window to a friend passing by outside. I don’t know that I personally would choose to go there every weekend, but there are definitely worse places to end up. NIGHT 3 Brickhouse Tavern The next night was the last night in the series of outings, and it began at Brickhouse Tavern. Brickhouse is interesting as Williamsburg bars go, because the crowd and the vibe inside varies wildly depending on the night. I was used to the large crowd of students that fills all the tables every Wednesday for trivia, so I was surprised by the relative emptiness
when I joined my friends around 9:30 p.m. There was a decent amount of noise, mostly produced by locals in their 30s to 50s, but also a lot of empty tables. The walls in Brickhouse are covered in murals, less stylized than those in Precarious. There are significantly more TVs than in any of the other bars, all dedicated to sports, along with a giant projection screen that can be retracted or extended as needed. However, it’s a relaxed enough atmosphere that, like Paul’s and College Delly, it doesn’t feel strange to hang out for an extended amount of time. Brickhouse Restaurant Manager Khabat Ibrahim has worked there since 2017. His cousin is the owner, and when he moved from Iraq without speaking any English, he learned on the job. “Everybody comes in,” Ibrahim said. “I have days — for example, Thursday nights, lots of college kids come in, Wednesday nights people come in for trivia. Friday and Saturday is a DJ, lotta people come in for dancing. Sunday, we have karaoke at night.” Ibrahim said that between the staff and the regulars who come in, it felt like one big team. “It’s somewhere townies would feel just as comfortable as college students,” Keely said. The prices on the menu are as good a happy medium between other bars as the atmosphere was. Beers range from $3.25 to $7.25; jack and cokes are $6.50, wine is $7 a glass and on Sundays, pitchers are $7 as well. There were a variety of fun mixed drinks, like the Poison Apple that I got for $10.35. Many of them had snazzy names, and like the decor, many were based around
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