I’ve only been attending Lindenwood University for a full school year now and one of the best/worst things the school has going for them is their off-campus nightlife. When you’re bored on Saturday/Sunday (notice I didn’t add Friday because it seems like Friday nights here are as dead as disco) you go down to Saint Charles Main Street.

Main Street is about 1.3 miles long and adjacent to the Missouri River. The street is filled with extravagant new and old time-y shops. During the day it’s about as normal as it can get but when the weekend comes this place lights up like the Cincinnati WEBN fireworks on the fourth of July. So out of the nine bars that litter the main street, I’ve been to five of them and now I’m going to give you a college kids idea of what he sees at each bar.

Quintessential

So my "Q" experience wasn’t bad if only for the fact that I had to pay the $5 cover charge to get in and from then on I was not feeling it. I’ve been to Q for dinner and the wings are insanely good but the wells they sell are 5$ as well and I felt like I was drinking straight sprite. The dance floor and bar are on the top floor and it’s just a huge and wide open space but really wasn’t a cool bar. Nothing really popped out as being cool I was still just pissed I spent 10 bucks for total crap.

Bobby’s Place

This place was absolutely a no go for me on any night. The first experience I ever had at this place is when this girl that worked there was a waitress and was walking around their $3 dollar Jell-O shots and as she spots her other waitressing friend on the other side of the bar a beer bottle comes flying out of nowhere and hits this poor girl smack dab in the middle of her face causing her to bleed profusely and no one around her did a single thing. Another thing is that Bobby’s is what I would call the "Townie Bar" because I didn’t recognize a single person from LU there, and one of my friends who lives in the area said that all her friends used to go there when they were in high school. It seems like everyone knows everyone and if you don’t know the regulars who are always in there you get treated like an outcast.

Uncle Joe’s Bar and Grill

Most would say this is the total go-to place for a Saturday night on the town. This place is the mecca of the LU nightlife scene for reasons really unknown. All I can really tell you is that the things I’ve seen here I haven’t seen anywhere else in America. Just two weeks ago some girl got her ID taken and I witnessed two kids lift her up like a cheerleader over the balcony and two other guys pull her over to get her in, can you say teamwork? I think the worst part is when it gets really packed and you can barely stand on the patio, you open the back door and the heat of hell blasts you in the face. I feel like I’m going to die of heat exhaustion and I haven’t even made it to the dance floor yet sometimes. One of the best things I see though is the random MC behind whatever DJ they recruited off the street just throwing out the Uncle Joe's T-Shirts like he’s at a basketball game. Now half the school has this shirt. Great advertising move but I feel like all they are doing is losing money. Besides that, the drinks are high-key overpriced and when you think everything is all good and dandy don’t be surprised the cops raid it running your night if you’re not 21.

212

After living in Maryland and New York I’ve been to my fair share of clubs. When I lived in Maryland, I'd travel to our nation's Capitol and went to a crazy club that had 4 VIP Lounges, 7 couches and huge dance floor. Plus, a rapper who is up and coming. I was there till at least three in the morning and it was one of the best nights of my life. I will be the first to tell you that 212 is none of the things I just explained. The bouncers go to Lindenwood and love to act like they have no clue who you are even though you just had class with them at 9 a.m. I talked to some sources and they say that they don’t like 212 because the drinks are super overpriced and there is nothing in there but old men trying to cop a feel and some other sources say trying to dance with a girl in there is like trying to find a penny in the ocean. Also, I dare you to try to have fun on the dance floor. It seems like you walk out onto fresh ice that has just been cleaned by the Zamboni.

Big A’s

Here’s another true story: so I’m walking in behind this kid who turns to me and says “Hey I’m 19 but I have an Arizona ID and I’m pretty sure this bouncer has no clue how to count and I’ll get in." I bet him 5 bucks he wouldn’t get in but as soon as we get to the door he hands the guy his ID and the guy does a triple take and hands him back the ID and the kid just walks in. Clearly, he saw that this gentleman was born in 1997 and thought “humph, close enough.” That was my first ever time bestowing my grace upon Big A’s but it didn’t stop there. I walk through the narrow corridor they call a bar and when I get to the bathroom I can’t believe it but there is glass everywhere. Someone tried to rip the Budweiser Mirror off the wall and it just completely shattered all over the bathroom, and as usual people just casually walked over it. Besides that, I think it’s pretty cool that the basement has pool and empty kegs littered around — makes the place have its own home-like beer and pool table smell.

No matter where you from or what ethnicity you are, everyone who is a college student at Lindenwood can agree on is that no matter how much we "hate" Main Street we will all still go there with our friends because it’s a two-minute drive down the road. At the same time, though, I feel like as students of this school that cannot be our mentality. We have to be young adults and branch out. There is so much to do that is not in Saint Charles that it will make your head spin. For instance, the city of St. Louis is only 25 minutes away and the bars down there will blow your mind and your expectations. I know Saint Charles Main Street will look the way it does now for a very long time but after going down there so many times you really do have to ask yourself “Is there more to life, is there more to Main?”