Bar Tours

The eighth February Freeze will be Saturday February 7 at 7:00 pm in Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA.  Tough (and stupid) people wear shorts and t-shirts.  Collectible t-shirts will be available for about $20.

6:00 Charlie's Kitchen, dinner (10 Eliot St)
7:30 OM (92 Winthrop St)
8:00 John Harvard's (33 Dunster St)
9:00 Shay's (58 JFK St)
10:00 Tommy Doyle's (96 Winthrop St)
11:00 Whitney's (37 JFK St)
midnight Hong Kong (1238 Mass Ave)

Saturday August 16 at 1:00 pm, we will begin at the Barking Crab. This is the first time my bar tours have extended into Irish-Boston. We will tour Southie (aka South Boston), hitting a popular Good Will Hunting bar: L Street Tavern. I expect over 40 people.

Map of the Route

Pictures

The 7th February Freeze was a surprising success! As the date drew closer, the Evite kept adding people all over the place, over 50 responses! They all showed-up, too! Eric brought a crew of 9 people, my worlds of volleyball and work combined to bring many new faces. I think all had a great time, no crazy stories that I know of, but it was a fun time. Pictures are posted!

We had an amazing time on Boylston Street. We had 10 people at Rattlesnake which quickly doubled to over 20 when Corey's friends from Harvard came. We made a quick pit stop at Solar's for a Guinness and shot of Jager. On to Whiskey's where the crows continued to grow. I believe we peaked at around 50 people and everyone was having a blast. The laid-back schedule allowed for a lot of conversation, rather than drinking fast and moving from bar-to-bar. Some of us did go to Foggy Goggle but it was hard to fight the momentum that everyone had fun at Whiskey's, so the tour kind of split up. Corey went to meet Katie but then made the decision to head home. Rob and Eric wanted to go back to Whiskey's because more people were there. They would not let me back in so I hung outside with some friends. Rob then left and we had a drink at Lir, then met Sarah and Brian at Pour House for PBR and nachos.

Corey and I are impressed; this tour was the best since the Freeze of 2006 where we had 110 people. I am glad half of the people were my friends and half were Corey's. It seemed like everyone had a great time, there were a lot of new people, too! Volleyball friends, co-workers, new Penn Staters to the Boston area, and more of Corey's friends all added to new people I had to meet! With all the new people, we did not have to recruit strangers to join us. Thanks to everyone who came out. See you again in February!

Jared's Pictures | Rob's Pictures

This year's Retro Freeze was a great time, thanks to everyone for coming out! Corey and I pre-gamed at his house with Heineken and Nintendo Wii. We were in shorts and a T-Shirt; Manus was the only one who joined us! Our volleyball team, Boo-ya, made a great showing and we had a good time taking group pictures and drinking Mind Erasers Grendel's Den was too full to allow 15 people, so we went to Tommy Doyle's for extra time. I would estimate 40 people but I never made an official count. It appeared that everyone had a good time. I am glad to see new people come out from volleyball. When I got to Corey's house he was asleep and did not hear me call. Luckily Abbie was awake and picked me up to sleep at her place, phew it was cold out!

Jared's Pictures

Jared's Pictures | Itinerary | eVite | Greater Boston Food Bank

What to say about this tour...different! I am sure everyone enjoyed themselves, as I did. We had a great time with karaoke; a lot of people had enough drinks to loosen them up to sing on stage and with people on the street walking past. We had the fewest number of people, ever. I am guessing we had 35-40 of my friends and co-workers, thanks guys! For some reason none of Corey's friends and lab colleagues could make it. There was a mini Oley Valley High School class reunion with myself, Corey, Shane from Fleetwood, Jonas from Philly, and Steph from Beverly.

At Rattlesnake the traditional Jager shot went all over my face and some on my shirt (great way to start the day). Corey's friend Melissa did make it for the first few bars. Adam showed up as the bar tour regular. We met Jess who just moved to Boston and her two friends from New Jersey: Lisa and Ian. They were nice and joined us for half the night!

Fire and Ice was enjoyable because of the jukebox. Jess bought everyone a lemon drop. Corey got us some large draft PBRs, which were smooth. Shane and Lisa put on some good music, people played Golden Tee, and I watched a little of the Sox game as they beat Baltimore. I was getting worried because the number of people was severely lacking. We had 10 people at this point and we did not push the Speed Pour competition. Abhishek joined us here.

Club Cafe was supposed to raise a lot of eyebrows. I wanted to go to a gay bar to observe everyone's reaction. There were not many people in the bar (even when we were there, haha) but Abbie and Angela were waiting for us. There were a couple guys at the bar who I started talking to about the bar tour and that they should join us for the heck of it. Collin was a married businessman from Florida (who knows why he was there), Matt was supposed to pick up his mother at the airport but we were good at convincing him to stay longer, and Steve was a flaming queen with a sailor's hat and duffelbag. They were nice guys and it was fun to add a new dynamic to the tour! I wrote down a list of all our drinks because the manager said he will match 15-20% of what we drink as a donation to the Food Bank.

Flash's was next which is a decent bar with big open windows to the street. People started getting hungry and they had yummy sandwiches. I had the breakfast burrito which was very good. Chris and Susie arrived but Jess, Lisa, and Ian left us at this point. They also had a jukebox which was cool. Nothing exciting happened here except eating. Sean, Brian, Matt, and Todd joined us, too.

MJ O'Connor's is a cool Irish pub with neat signs on the walls. I never knew they had outdoor seating at the back entrance, that is cool. Corey and I were getting a little bored and others might have as well. I think Aileen joined us here; Kendrick bailed on us, poor sport!  Apparently Steve, the flaming sailor, told people Brian and I were cute:  "too bad he is straight."

Limelight ended up being a hit. I do not think we had 40 people so I think I will get charged for some cover charges. They had a lot of good songs and decent drinks. We filled the entire main stage where people could see and hear us from the street. Our volleyball partner Dmitriy showed up, he looked like he was having fun. Most people went up to sing, some with backup singers. Corey sang Fernando and Matt (the gay one) was dancing scandalously around Corey, making some provocative gestures, it was entertaining but I could see how uncomfortable Corey was! Someone signed me up for "I'll be there for you" by Bon Jovi. Chris sang "Plush" by Stone Temple Pilots. For the last song I sang "Mr. Jones" by Couniting Crows.

Sweetwater Cafe is in the Alley and we had the Award Ceremony there. Since we did not do any competitions, we based the winners on their karaoke performance. Susie won and got a tiara and fake flower bouquet. I came in second and wore the tiara all night Elena got third and Aileen got Honorable Mention (small trophy). The DJ was not playing here so we went elsewhere to get jiggy...

The Big Easy was cool and made the cover charge $4 for our first 20 people. We had a lot of fun dancing and closing out the night. Shane, Kristy, Jonas, and I made it back to Corey's and slept in.

We did it! We had over 100 people (close to 110)! Thank you to everyone who partcipated, donated to the charity, and joined in the t-shirt and shorts spirit. Click the Freeze logo above to see detailed summaries.

Money donated by individuals: $550. Money donated by bars: TBD.

Jared's Pictures

Wow, what a great bar tour! We had close to 60 people by the end of the night. A lot of people were wasted and having a great time. The competition was intense, many strategies were utilized to attempt winning a skin. No one was arrested, no one got hurt, and no one permanently lost anything. That means it was a successful tour! The Allston and Brighton area of Boston never knew it was coming!

Click Team Skins Challenge to see pictures, Corey's summary and the official itinerary, map, and rules. There is a lot more to read in my summary below...