Disclaimer: Defne Olgun is a staff writer and photographer. Olgun was not involved in the writing of this article.
After years of student advocacy, Tufts Dining will operate a “pop-up pub” on Thursday nights in Hotung Café, with the first pub night scheduled for Nov. 7 from 5–9:30pm. The pub, tentatively titled “Pop Up Pub: The Tufts Campus Pub & Social Spot,” will be open to Tufts community members of all ages, according to Patti Klos, senior director of dining services.
As per the Tufts Dining website, Thursday’s event is the first of four “Pop-Up Pubs” scheduled for the semester, which are part of a pilot program to “explore if having a pub on campus can enhance the student experience.”
“The university is committed to enhancing the student experience, and being able to drink responsibly in a social setting can be part of that experience,” Klos said. “[The pub] may be a spot before [students] go out on a Thursday night, or it may be a place where they just meet up with friends or maybe make some new friends [or] run into their TA or a professor or a leader on campus who happens to stop in for the very same reason.”
The pub will be open to all active members of the Tufts community. In order to get into the pub, community members must show their Tufts ID and purchase a $10 admission ticket on Tufts Tickets. The ticket will provide access to a selection of traditional pub foods prepared by Commons and Hotung Café staff, with Tufts Dining expecting to change the menu from week to week.
Those of legal drinking age must show a government-issued ID to receive a wristband, which will give them the ability to purchase a variety of alcoholic drinks. According to Klos, the drinks will likely be in the $7-9 price range. Students can use JumboCash to purchase non-alcoholic drinks such as mocktails, but they must use credit cards, debit cards or cash to buy alcoholic beverages.
“I work for the student engagement team for tufts dining, so I’ll be helping to market the pub once it opens. As a senator, I’m super excited for the pub to open. I think it’s great for campus culture and it’ll be nice to have a space that all students can go and hang out,” TCU Historian Caroline Spahr wrote in an electronic message to the Daily.
A campus pub is not a new fixture on Tufts’ campus — until 1994, the university operated a pub in what is now the Dewick-MacPhie Dining Center. It was Klos who originally phased out the pub from Dewick as the space underwent renovations to create space for student dining. According to Klos, Hotung Café was originally designed to be a pub, but these plans fell through when the drinking age was raised.
The decision to reopen an on-campus pub was largely a result of student advocacy, particularly from TCU senators, Klos shared.
“I think the pub will be a great place for students of all years to gather with their friends and enjoy the end of a long week. I’m excited to see how student feedback gets incorporated as the pub opens to the public,” TCU Senate Trustee Representative Defne Olgun wrote in an electronic message to the Daily. “Administration has been asking for constant feedback and shaping the pub around what students are saying. The future of the project is really whatever we make of it.”
Tufts Dining held a limited test launch of the pub in Hotung Café this past Thursday, where they asked attendees for feedback on everything from the food — which included wings, chips and salsa — to the pub’s “ambience.”
“I was really excited about the soft launch last week! There were some great mocktails I got to try (but I’m hoping they end up taking my suggestion for a shirley temple for the next opening.),” Olgun, one of the soft launch’s attendees, wrote.
Space will impose a limit on the menu for the pub at first, as some food will have to be walked over from Commons to the pub due to the limited kitchen equipment available at Hotung Café.
Since the pub is intended for people of all ages, Klos said that preventing underrage students from purchasing alcoholic beverages may also pose a challenge.
“[During the test launch] we had somebody very honestly say: ‘Yeah, I’ll ask a senior to get me a drink,’” Klos said. “That will be a problem. We will enforce the rules, and there could be consequences for individuals who choose to violate that.”
Klos also cited concerns that students will attempt to slip into the pub without showing a ticket or ID. She said that there would be Student Life representatives on hand “not to be enforcers, but to observe and try to understand what perceptions are so that we can make [the pub] the social spot we want it to be.”
Klos emphasized that student feedback on the pub is welcomed and encouraged students to approach Tufts Dining managers or fill out QR codes posted around campus that link to feedback forms.
