D-Bar beats the Street for grads

While the Street lay largely dormant last Friday night — generally the quietest of the weekend — "Forever Young" was blaring to a packed crowd at that other ubiquitous Princeton drinking hole, the D-Bar.

The D-Bar, or the Debasement Bar, so called because of its location in the basement of the Graduate College, is a nonprofit, student-run operation that provides a much-needed relaxation zone for graduate students every night from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m.

Emphasis is placed on the fact that the D-Bar is a club — everyone living in the Graduate College is automatically a member, and others can buy membership. Members may bring guests over the age of 21.

The D-Bar offers an extensive menu, with the cheapest beers at $1.75, cocktails from $3.25, shots, wine, whiskies, cognac and soft drinks, as well as food including peanuts, mini-pizzas and wasabi peas.

But the chief attraction of the bar, according to those who frequent it, is the company.

"People just sit down with a nice glass of wine and chat with friends and listen to jazz," said D-Bar events chair Ori Heffetz, a fourth-year student in the economics department.

"It's something you don't have in big cities, that ability to know exactly where your friends are going to be at 1 a.m.," he said.

He described the environment at Princeton as "notorious for a study hard, party hard mentality."

But the D-Bar, he said, provides a higher-level experience than a typical undergraduate's night at the Street.

On weekday nights, bartenders can work their magic any way they please, by having Turkish Night or a night featuring the history of jazz.

Lewis Hyatt is a second-year in physics and the Sunday bartender. "I do enjoy subjecting random people to my musical taste. I like to think they appreciate the surreal feel it lends to the Sunday D-Bar experience," he said in an email.

Asked about the location of the bar, Christian Julliard, a fourth-year in economics, said, "It's great that it's located in the GC. Somewhere else would make it harder to socialize."

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"If you look at the D-Bar with the lights on it's a terrible place," he said, but he added that they use the lighting to "try to make you forget you're in the basement."

Other recreational facilities in the Graduate College basement include a TV room.

"It's not a country club, of course. But that's a good thing in my view of the world," Julliard said.

'Not one of the eating clubs'

"Our vision is to make the D-Bar not one of the eating clubs, but a real alternative for grad students," Heffetz said. "I say it is my community service: this is my contribution to making Princeton more digestible for grad students."

The academic rigors of graduate student life can make finding social options difficult.

"Being a first-year is like boot camp," Julliard said, adding that there was no time to go to New York City.

"There are very few options for grad students who want to go out," Heffetz said, "It makes it easy for us. There's no competition."

Grad student enthusiasm for the D-Bar, however, is not unanimous. "I don't like it too much," said Dmitry Malyshev, a first-year in physics. "It's crowded, dark, loud and sometimes quite boring if no one dances. I just prefer quiet places."

But it is an option that some students have come to love — literally. Julliard met his wife, Albina, at the D-Bar.

So what makes the place a favorite haunt of grad students? D-Bar-goers agreed that one factor is its tendency towards intellectualism.

In contrast to what some see as anti-intellectualism on campus, at the D-Bar students discuss everything from literature to the politics of Israel and Afghanista.

"On a cool night, the intellectual level is really high," Julliard said, "There's no stigma to being intellectual."

He said that the D-Bar benefits from its multiculturalism. "Any kind of person could feel comfortable. It's completely heterogeneous: linguistically, politically. It's the only place in Princeton where there is no category to be a part of."

Heffetz said that even though a significant number of graduate students are from other countries, American culture is known around the world, in music and movies. "It's the same 80s all of us grew up on," he said.

During the four years that Heffetz has held his elected position, he has had DJs, wine tasting and stand-up comedy and jazz and blues bands.

In addition, there are several big theme parties per semester. "We're big in[to] retro," he said, listing themes such as the 70s, hip-hop and beach parties. "People dress up for it, with props."

As the advertisement for Friday's party ran, "you know the deal . . . put on that Madonna-style outfit or your torn jeans and that impossible jacket and come dance!"