Kattey Ortiz
Equinox Staff
The Senior Pub Crawl gave Keene State College seniors a final chance to ring in their last week of finals on Cinco De Mayo. Eight teams, 65 participants per team put on their drinking shoes and meandered through the streets of downtown Keene, stopping at a different bar at the top of every hour from 2 p.m. until 10 p.m.
The Keene Police Department and the N.H. Liquor commissioner were also out in full force to ensure a safe time for all participants.
In a written statement, Senior Andrea Palmentiero said that she and her friends had a wonderful time. “Pub Crawl went awesome!” She wrote. “We had a blast and everyone was celebrating their one last ‘Hoorah!’ as seniors.”
However, she did mention that towards the end of the Pub Crawl, “A lot of the bars were closing up because they ran out of alcohol.” She also added that she thinks the bars should have been prepared, knowing that they were going to have business from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. “A lot of people were annoyed by this because if your team was designated to the bars who had to close early, they didn’t get the entire senior pub crawl experience,” she wrote.
It was confirmed that the Railroad Tavern stopped serving alcohol and closed its doors at roughly 8 o’clock, which left the 8 o’clock group and the 9 o’clock group stranded.
A spokesperson for Railroad Tavern stated in an email, “This was by far the best run Pub Crawl to date. Michelle [Picard] [KSC Pub Crawl Organizer] did a heck of a job—Not one issue or violation from liquor enforcement to report.”
First-timer bars such as 21 said that everything went smoothly, aside from a few isolated incidents. “We had to kick somebody out for punching somebody,” said 21 Manager Kristina Stallsmith. “I think we would be interested in doing it again next year, I know we just had a couple issues with college students not tipping us. But other than that, it went very smoothly.”
The Pour House, also new to the Pub Crawl, did not experience any incidents. Manager Marty Griffin said, “I can generally say that everything went exceptionally well- there were no problems as far as our establishment went.”
Pub Crawl Organizer and KSC Senior Michelle Picard said she heard positive feedback from bartenders. “I talked to some bartenders as well as Keith, who is the manager of Cobblestone, and they all said they had a really good, successful day,” she said.
Cobblestone, Lab ‘N’ Lager, or Penuche’s could not be reached for comment.
When Railroad Tavern closed its doors the night of the Pub Crawl, rumors began to swirl about other bars closing as well. Picard took to the Facebook page to say the Pink Team was at fault, however she later recanted her statement and has since deleted it.
“The reason why I did take it down was because I don’t know if there’s any truth behind that,” she professed.
Regardless of the minor confusion, everyone seemed to take advantage of the beautiful weather cast on Sunday.
One student thanked Picard for organizing the Pub Crawl on the Facebook page, saying that everyone had a blast. Seventy people ‘liked’ his comment.
Kattey Ortiz can be contacted at
kortiz@keene-equinox.com