Maybe the Real Favorite Bar Was the Friends We Made Along the Way
THE PLAN
I began this story with pretty close to an outsider’s perspective on Williamsburg’s bar scene. I enjoy going out occasionally, but large crowds of loud people often make me uncomfortable rather than helping me let loose, and I tend to stick to the fruity-mixed-drinks-and-wine section of most drinks menus.
In other words, I am not used to bar crawls.
However, I’m a senior here at the College of William and Mary, and my friends and I are now all over the age of 21, which means I was struck by the urge to see which bar we might like best. Where would I most enjoy coming back 20 years from now to relive college memories? If we were to become a sitcom, what would be the best location to somehow magically have a booth perpetually reserved?
In order to figure this out, I dragged several friends along with me to visit eight bars around campus over the course of three different weekend nights.
My friends and I visited Dog Street Pub, Amber Ox, Paul’s Deli, Precarious Beer Hall, the Hound’s Tail, College Delly, Brickhouse Tavern and Green Leafe Cafe. While there, I checked the price range of common drinks on the menu, looked at what kind of food was available, whether it was vegetarian and vegan friendly, and what drink the waitstaff recommended. I also kept an eye on the vibe at each bar — was it mostly college students or townies, and what kind of night one could expect at each location?
NIGHT 1
Dog Street Pub
The first night started at Dog Street Pub, with six of my close friends from all the way back in freshman year - Quinn, Evan, Monica, Clara, Kelsey and Michael.
Seven people is a large party to walk into any restaurant without any prior reservation, and contrary to its name, Dog Street Pub is much more of a restaurant than it is a bar. I’ve been to Dog Street before with my family when it was crowded, and just four people was enough to cause a half-hour wait. However, on this particular night, it wasn’t crammed full, and we got a table for all seven of us within 10 minutes.
Dog Street Pub is the kind of fancy restaurant that college students only attend on very, very nice dates, or with a slightly fussy aunt who asks where you want to get dinner when she visits.
It’s the kind of restaurant with an entryway featuring a large metal chandelier. There are black and white subway tiles, candles on the tables and immaculately painted walls in an inoffensive color scheme. To get to the back of the seating area, you have to walk through an entryway with large metal gates. All of this makes sense if you know that, before the restaurant opened in 2012, the building had been a bank for 80 years.
The bar was almost entirely full of locals — we were the only college students we could see in the restaurant. People were having fun, but it was not exactly a place to kick back and let loose after studying. It was more of a place for families after a day of walking around Colonial Williamsburg on vacation.
Despite that, the food isn’t crazy expensive. Gluten free, vegetarian and vegan options are clearly labelled as such. Imperial pints are $8, a glass of wine is $5, and the mixed drink I got, a Tortuga Cooler, was $9. Beers ranged from $5.50 to $12, but there were also meads, ales and lagers.
“This is where you get your family to buy you food if they can’t afford Blue Talon,” Quinn said.
There was faint music, so faint that we at first thought there was none. We enjoyed ourselves, and our drinks, but felt awkward enough about being there that we never totally relaxed. As soon as we finished our drinks and the wings we ordered to share, we moved on.
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Amber Ox
As soon as we walked in, the vibe was noticeably different. The decorations were trendier, with a generally urban-rustic feeling — exposed brick, white paint, metal fixtures, wood tables. Mumford and Sons’ “I Will Wait” was playing as we opened the doors, and it made sense somehow. I have never been to Texas, but Amber Ox is what I imagine upscale bars in a large city in Texas would be like. Maybe that was just the longhorn logo.
“I have never been to Texas, but Amber Ox is what I imagine upscale bars in a large city in Texas would be like. Maybe that was just the longhorn logo.”
When asked what he thought the vibe of Amber Ox was, Evan said it was “like a high school reunion where everyone has grown up, but it isn’t awkward. It’s reuniting with friends from high school in an adult manner.”
The setup in Amber Ox made much more sense for large groups. There was the obligatory bar seating, but also tall tables long enough to fit at least seven people comfortably. The entire building was big and open, but without the echoing effect that so often makes big bars uncomfortably loud.
The crowd didn’t seem to be students from the College — at least, I didn’t see anyone I knew. But it was a young crowd of what looked like mostly grad students or locals under the age of 30. It was relaxed, the kind of place that we wanted to hang out in and didn’t feel weird taking up a table at after ordering just one drink each.
Zack Naher, the bar supervisor and man in charge of the cocktail program, had been working at Amber Ox for about a year. He said that he liked that it was laid back and not pretentious.
“We’re kind of aiming for both college students and locals ,” Naher said.
Amber Ox also tries to have elevated food that won’t completely empty your wallet.
“The whole idea behind a public house is that you want people to regularly visit you,” Naher said. “You really want to maximize the experience, so you have people that are regular customers.”
Because Amber Ox, which opened in 2017, is a brewery first and foremost, most of their menu is beer. Prices range from $3.50 to $14 for regular beers, while growlers (called “crowlers” at Amber Ox) range from $3.50 to $9. They switch out the beer options frequently enough that they stick to paper menus, and there are also a few mixed drinks and ciders for those who don’t enjoy beer at all.
Whatever drink you order, the names are fantastic. Beers available for purchase on September 20th included “We Duel at Dawn,” and “Matt’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day.”
There were a few bar- snack type food items available, but not many. Gluten-free items were labelled, and while there were no vegetarian or vegan labels, there was at least one vegan option on the menu. We ended up trying the wings, which were fantastic.
It also played excellent music. During the hour and a half that we were in Amber Ox, they played “Jessie’s Girl,” multiple Queen songs and “Take On Me.”
“I used to make fun of them for coming to Amber Ox all the time,” Quinn said of now-graduated seniors he was friends with last year. “But honestly? I get it.”
After enjoying our drinks — even my “The Dishes Are Done, Man” beer, which was the first time in my life I didn’t faintly regret ordering a beer over a mixed drink — we tipped Sherie, our absolutely fantastic waitress, and moved on.
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Paul’s Deli
Our final stop of the night was Paul’s Deli. Paul’s at 11 p.m. was significantly more crowded and louder than either of the bars we had been to previously, and much more chaotic. If Dog Street Pub is where you go with your family, and Amber Ox is where you meet up with the high school friends you want to keep after graduation, Paul’s is where you go to get the wild stories you wouldn’t tell at either of the other places.
“This is a place for sinners,” Clara said, as we found a table to the sounds of “No Scrubs” by TLC and many, many screaming adult men.”
“This is a place for sinners,” Clara said, as we found a table to the sounds of “No Scrubs” by TLC and many, many screaming adult men. (We found out later that some law students were undertaking a pub crawl that night.)
There was one TV with some kind of sport playing, but I wouldn’t qualify it as a sports bar. Flat Hat staff members have used it as a chill background for planning meetings in the afternoons, and just as a place to hang out for fun. Even with the football jerseys and photos of coaches on the walls, Paul’s attracts students regardless of their interest in the Tribe’s record.
Chelsea Gibrill doesn’t really have an official title, but the role she fills is basically that of administrative general manager for Paul’s Deli, College Delly and Green Leafe Cafe. For the most part, people just call her “the boss.”
“At Paul’s, we’re looking to attract probably undergrad and locals, where Green Leafe is more graduate students,” Gibrill said. “It’s like a family atmosphere; we want people to come in and feel like they’re home.”
Gibrill described Paul’s as “very much a Bud Light kind of place,” where people tend to order pitchers, but her personal favorite drink there is “Chelsea’s Cherry Coke” — moonshine, a maraschino cherry soaked in moonshine, and Coca-Cola. But for her, the best part of having worked at the bars in the area for five years is that everybody knows her name.
“My favorite part is really getting the locals and the students that come in continuously, because you really do get to know everybody by name,” Gibrill said. “And it really does create that small-town, family environment that is hard to have. And the late-night stories are all amazing.”
The typical college bar atmosphere also included a distinct smoky smell throughout the bar, which was fine in and of itself, but bad for anyone with asthma.
“A lot of the time I don’t notice it,” Clara said of the smoke. “I do notice it here.”
“We feel asthma in this bar tonight,” Monica said.
There were menus for food, but there were no allergen labels, no vegetarian labels, and no labels for vegan food. We decided to stick with the classic giant plate of loaded cheese fries, which were $11.74, to go with our $12 pitcher of cider. There were drink options meant for individuals, but Paul’s is the kind of place that college students tend to go to with a pitcher in mind.
While waiting on our fries, we also noticed that Paul’s has absolutely no cell reception whatsoever.
“It’s because we’re in colonial times,” Evan said.
“Ah yes, when they had refrigeration and neon,” Michael said.
“And Coca-Cola,” Quinn said.
If there were any townies in the bar, they did an excellent job of staying out of sight. Paul’s was filled with familiar faces. At one point, a more distant member of the freshman dorm walked up to our table on his way out, slammed a half-full pitcher down on our table, looked up, nodded, said “Griffin B,” and left us to our gift. Halfway through the night, my current roommate Katie met us. At another point, we ran into an entire table of Kelsey’s friends from study abroad. We all had a fantastic night.
“Paul’s isn’t the hell we were expecting, but it’s the hell we deserve,” Monica said.
NIGHT 2
Precarious
When my friend Austin and I arrived at Precarious around 8:30 p.m. on night two, there was no cover charge. However, at 9 p.m., the live band started playing, which also unfortunately meant the $5 cover charge kicked in just as Kelsey, Monica and Quinn arrived.
If the general aesthetic of “Into the Spiderverse” merged with that of the cartoon logo from the video game Fallout, you would get something close to the decorations in Precarious. There’s a lot of neon, an entire wall with a sports game projected directly onto it, some cool graffiti murals, and dark metal features with green accents. There’s also an entire corner of the space dedicated to arcade games, including air hockey and four-person Pac-Man.
“I feel like a lot of things they do are an homage to the ‘90s,” Austin said.
Precarious is like if Amber Ox had a younger, edgier cousin who moved to the city and got tattoos. This makes sense when you know they’re owned and operated by the same group of people.
The general manager of Precarious, Max Sutton, left corporate America to join the beer hall when it opened in June. He said that there are usually a decent number of grad students, and also a loyal following among the locals.
“We are definitely looking to break the mold of what is traditional in Williamsburg,” Sutton said. “We’re definitely one of the more progressive options in the area, and I would say the target demographic is anywhere from 25 to 55 years old.”
Like Amber Ox, the beers and their names were excellent. I greatly enjoyed the staff-recommended “Babbysitter’s Dead” for $6.50. Beer prices range from about $5 to about $8. There are also tacos, quesadillas and churros available at the “Electric Circus Taco Bar,” for roughly $4 to $6. You can’t make modifications to the food — no substituting beef for chicken in a given taco — but you can notify the staff if you have allergies. There were a couple of vegetarian options, but the menu was questionably vegan at best.
There is, however, an abundance of deals, from $1 off every transaction, any time, with a valid William and Mary ID card, to $10 tacos and beer on Taco Tuesdays, to free popcorn on Wednesday movie nights.
I thoroughly enjoyed Precarious, though I would count it as a place to go if you’re feeling energetic. My friends had more mixed opinions.
“It has big old millennial energy. Like, this is a hip place if you’re like, 30,” Monica said.
“It reminds me of my high school cafeteria. It’s very college student who refuses to move on,” Quinn said.
I disagreed, but that might be because the flashy lights of the arcade games are very alluring.
Hound’s Tale
I had been to Hound’s Tale once before, so I was aware it wasn’t exactly a wild time, but it was surprisingly sparsely populated when we arrived from Precarious at 10 p.m. on a Friday night. By 10:15 p.m., it was almost empty.
Despite my previous experience, I somehow missed the giant dog paintings covering an entire wall the first time around. There were some fun wooden signs with sayings about dogs, a chalkboard list of specials by the door, and a large leather couch complete with pillows and a blanket. The lighting was gentle and warm. It gave off the vibe of your eccentric aunt’s home —- cozy, and fun, but slightly quirky.
“It’s like if your grandma’s living room had a bar,” Monica said.
“Maybe if you want a place to meet with a professor?” Kelsey said of when she would recommend the bar.
Diane Wade has worked as a bar manager at Hound’s Tale for over two years and loves that the bar has a unique and eclectic feel.
“It’s just a great place to work for,” Wade said. “Great owners, great people to work with. We get a nice variety of clientele here, so we’re not necessarily trying to go after a certain age group. We feel like the Hound’s Tale is welcome for everyone. ... We are trying to entice more William and Mary students and faculty to come in.”
The bar was filled with almost entirely locals when we got there, mostly older in age, and the atmosphere matched the crowd. There wasn’t any music playing when we walked in, and if it started to play while we were hanging out, it was pretty unobtrusive.
The menu had a decent number of cocktail options ranging from $9 to -$11, and an extensive wine list for $7 to -$14 a glass. I enjoyed the Raspberry White Cosmo, which consisted of vodka, lime, raspberry liqueur, and white cranberry juice, but I’m not sure if I would go out of my way to get it again for $11.20 with tax on a college budget.
There were appetizers and meals available, mostly of the fancy persuasion — flatbread with a honey and goat cheese spread, bacon, arugula and pears, minestrone soup. Ingredients were listed, which made up for the lack of allergen, vegetarian or vegan labels, but from what we could tell, there weren’t any vegan options. The kitchen also closed at 10 p.m., and while there was a late-night menu, the items on it, like fries, would likely have been cheaper elsewhere.
We moved on fairly quickly.
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College Delly
Kelsey, Monica and I made our way to College Delly alone. When we arrived, it was emptier than I ever remembered seeing it on a Friday night.
Luckily for us, this meant we got to sit on the patio, which anyone who’s walked down Richmond Road on a weekend has definitely seen crammed full of people. It also made it easier to order our drinks and food than it would have been an hour later, by which time it was packed.
College Delly is, as Quinn remarked, “the exact opposite of Hound’s Tale.” Earlier in the day, it’s 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-to-wall 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.
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NIGHT 3
Brickhouse Tavern
The next night was the last night in the series of outings, and it began at Brickhouse Tavern with my friends Keely, Cyrus and Zie.
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 and closer to the kind of mural you would see on a cabin at a summer camp in 2009 — people cheering in a crowd, with the occasional Griffin to support the Tribe. 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. Like Dog Street Pub, there are odd corners filled with tables, a bar, and a second level specifically for events and parties. 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, lots of 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 pop culture references from 2009 — the “Chuck Norris,” for example. Vegetarian and vegan food options were not labelled well, but those who need gluten free foods can ask their server for more information.
The crowd didn’t get much bigger while we enjoyed our drinks, though I did get my childhood ruined by Keely and Cyrus recounting the worst Harry Potter fanfiction they came across in their years exploring the internet, in addition to catching up on everyone’s lives. Around 10, just when more people began to arrive, we decided to move on to the final bar.
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Green Leafe
When we entered Green Leafe, we realized that we had perfectly staggered the peak hours of each bar to avoid crowds, entering the new bar to see only a few people. However, the dim lighting, dark wood paneling, exposed brick and top-40 music meant it already started with more energy than Brickhouse had. There are also significantly more booths than tables, which makes it easy to pile in with several friends.
“It’s like… have you ever been to a Kelly’s?” Zie said. “It’s like if an Irish pub listened to its grandkid’s taste in music.”
“It’s a mix between a trendy bar in New York City and like, an old person place?” Cyrus said.
Keely went home early, but we were joined by Quinn, whose favorite Williamsburg bar is Green Leafe.
“I love it. They’ve got the best vibes,” Quinn said.
With some photographs plastering the walls, some stained-glass windows, and funky Edison light bulbs dangling over each table, Green Leafe is indeed like if Paul’s or College Delly were in New York, or an old pub somewhere in Europe. It has the same energy, but for a slightly less frenetic crowd.
Green Leafe manager Addie Williams grew up in Williamsburg and started working at Green Leafe when she was just 17, and after dabbling in the real world, came back again. She’s been working at Green Leafe as manager for almost a year, and likes it because of the mixture of students, service workers and townies.
“We get a good number of students,” Williams said. “Majority would be the law, business and grad students. I think that’s because of our menu items, our environment and our clientele, as well as the competition on the corners. Obviously, College gets a lot of the undergrads, Brickhouse gets a lot of the townies or locals.”
Of all the bars, Green Leafe definitely has the widest selection of whiskeys and bourbons, if that’s your drink of choice. Pitchers range from $8.00 to $18.00, depending on what you’re getting, tasters are $3, and pints are $5.50. The cocktail I was recommended by the waitress, the Lemon and Lavender, was $11, and very refreshing.
Williams also said that they change the cocktail list based on the season, keeping the most popular drinks but adding different seasonal options to freshen up the menu.
Most importantly, there are also a number of loaded cheese fry options on the menu. We went with the steak cheese fries, for $13, which were delicious to start with and were exactly the kind of food that becomes absurdly fantastic after you’ve had a few drinks.
Green Leafe does not have a dance floor, but it does play many bops, all of which are highly singable — at one point, most of the bar was singing along to Lil Jon’s “Get Low.” Other notable songs included “Truth Hurts” by Lizzo and “Teeth” by 5SOS, which my friend Zie apparently knows all the words to.
“Cyrus, are you prepared to shake what your mama gave you?” Quinn asked.
“I was born prepared,” Cyrus said, while jamming out in his seat.
Going to Green Leafe with friends, eating excellent cheese fries, and having a few drinks was exactly what I needed to relax and destress from all my work of the previous week.
SO, WHICH BAR SHOULD I GO TO?
I wish I could say that my foray into the bar scene of Williamsburg provided a clear answer to this question, especially when several townies asked me who the winner was when they overheard me talking about this article. But just as I told them, the answer really depends on the kind of night you want.
If you’re filled with energy, or need to hype yourself up, College Delly or Precarious probably make the most sense. They’re both loud and crowded, have great tunes playing and can provide you with an actually pretty good meal to boot. College Delly has more students from the College on any given weekend, while Precarious is more likely to have the slight sense of anonymity that a crowd of strangers provides.
If you want a calmer night or are looking for somewhere to bring a professor or your parents, Hound’s Tale and Dog Street Pub are both good options. Hound’s Tale honestly really only makes sense for college students with that activity in mind — it’s not really the place to live it up with several of your closest friends. Even further outside the typical bar experience, Dog Street is definitely more of a restaurant, but you can get a wide selection of drinks with your meal.
Personally, Green Leafe and Paul’s Deli were my favorites, and of the two, I had the best time at Paul’s. Both were favored by college students without being as absolutely packed to the walls as College Delly was, and both had that classic college town feeling that I didn’t realize I was looking for. However, I think I would naturally gravitate towards Green Leafe. Lizzo always makes things 110 percent better no matter how great they start, and I’m a sucker for the Edison Bulb aesthetic. Even so, Paul’s had something extra, with all its decades of photographs and full-to-the-brim laminate booths. No other bar, in the course of three nights out, had the kind of easy camaraderie that Paul’s allowed. I can’t picture another place where an old friend slamming a half-full pitcher onto the table on his way out of the bar made as much sense. You run into the people you know at Paul’s, without the insanity of college assignments — or College Delly — getting in the way, and it’s set up so that those old friends you run into can easily join you.
At the risk of sounding like one big, senior year cliche, it’s not about the place you go. It’s the people you go there with.