Tuesday used to be a dreary day. Still recovering from the weekend, another day of school on the horizon-Tuesday represents relaxing at home for many students. But not for Will Mackay and his friends. Beginning last year, Mackay and company began a now hugely popular tradition of "beer pong" at Bar des Pins, a legendary dive on the corner of rue des Pins and avenue du Parc, known to most patrons simply as BDP.
Beer pong, for the uninitiated, involves two teams of two, sitting at opposite ends of a rectangular table, taking turns trying to throw a ping pong ball into one of several beer-filled cups positioned in a diamond-shape on their opponents' end. When a ball lands in a cup, the opponent must chug that beer. Once one team's cups have all been consumed, that team loses, and as punishment must drink what remains on the winning side's end as well. Drunken debauchery ensues.
Having engaged in lively games of beer pong since high school, Mackay, U3 Urban Systems, spearheaded the idea to get a game going at Bar des Pins.
"We were at BDP on a Tuesday," says Mackay, "and we were the only people in the bar. There were four of us there, and it was pretty fuckin' dead. Basically, I asked Mike [the manager of BDP] if we could play beer pong. We showed up the next Tuesday and he was shocked to shit!"
Thus, a great Tuesday tradition began. Of course, Tuesday nights also represent the famed Café Campus retro party. But for those who want to avoid hour-long line-ups in the dead of winter, beer pong at BDP is an excellent alternative. So far this year, people seem to be heeding this advice.
"There were at least 60 people in the bar last Tuesday," said Mackay.
While Mackay's weekly tradition partially explains the upsurge in attendance at Bar des Pins over the past couple of years, the opening of New Residence Hall on Parc has sparked a whole new demographic of BDP clientele. The bar is now inhabited on Tuesdays by a combination of Mackay and his friends, as well as dozens of eager Res kids.
