w w V V V Aoki - AOL w v v 0 0 28 Wednsda, fOctber26,201 Wedne sda, cobr 6 S21 / TeStt 7et 53 the statement Magazine Editor: Carolyn Klarecki Editorin Chief: Stephanie Steinberg Managing Editor: Nick Spar Deputy Editors: Stephen Ostrowski Devon Thorsby Elyana Twiggs Designers: Maya Friedman Hermes Risien Photos: Jed Moch Copy Editors: Hannah Poindexter The Statement is The Michigan Daily's news magazine, distributed every Wednesday during the academic year. To contact The Statement e-mail klarecki@michigandaily. Cover by Austin Hufford FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @MICHIGANDAILY @MICHDAILYNEWS @MICHDAILYFBALL @MICHDAILYBBALL @MICHDAILYARTS @MICHDAILYOPED @MICHDAILYPHOTO @CRIMENOTES GET YOUR NEWS NOW! THEJUNKDRAWER random student interview by kaitlin williams Welcome to the random student interview, where we'd rather be drinking. So, you're a freshman. I take it you're not 21. No. Not at all. Too bad, I was going to say we should go do the interview in a bar. It's cold and windy and it's Monday and a beer sounds really good right now. (Laughs) How's your Monday going? My Monday is going actually pretty well. I like the weather. OK. Soyoulike blustery, Winne- the-Pooh kind of days? I don't know. As long as the sun in shining, I'm pretty happy. Doesn't take much then. Well, not that you've ever tried a beer because you're not 21, but what's your favorite beer? I've literally never tried it. So I really don't know. Come on. I won't tell anyone. Yeah. Your dad never gave you a sip of What song gets stuck in your beer at the dinner table? Like, head more than any other song? "Oh hey, Sarah come try my I'm trying to think ... right now beer." "Paradise" by Coldplay is stuck in Well, I might've tried it like once, my head. but I really don't even know what Oh, how does that go? it was. It's like, he sings, "para para Wow. paradise." It's one of their new I didn't like it so ... songs. It's kind of an acquired taste. Yeah, they repeat parts of You need to shotgun one about words a lot. "Every teardrop is 18 different times before a wa wa wa wa waterfall." That you start to appreciate its one gets me. subtleties. Oh yeah. (Laughs) I think the worst kind of song Don't go chugging 21 on your to get stuck in your head would 21st though. So, are you a wine be dubstep. Are you a fan of person then? dubstep? No, I just don't really drink. No. That takes some dedication. Good. My boyfriend is really Above the influence and all that into it, but I can't imagine jazz! You don't need substances, walking around all day with youjust need a sunny day! a dubstep remix of a Coldplay (Laughs) Yeah. song stuck in my head. Like, I'd So, do you like music at least? be listening to Chris Martin's soothing voice, and then suddenly it's like space invaders are fighting in robot suits. (Laughs) Anyway, do you ever get mistaken for someone famous? No, I don't. Really? Do you have a secret suspicion that you look like someone though? Um,I don't think so. I'm kind of getting a Kirsten Dunst vibe from you. It's the dimples. Has anybody ever told you that you could rock red hair? No. Do you think I look like anyone famous? I'm thinking someone with blonde hair. Maybe Kate Hudson? Kate Hudson! Interesting. She's kind of old, but the name is close enough. - Sarah is an LSA freshman Years ago, Ann Arbor native Bob Seger wrote a song about Ann Arbor's Main Street, aptly titled "Mainstreet." Listening to that song, you'll quickly realize that Main Street used tobe quite seedy in the late 70s. You can still find traces of that era in places like the bleach-scented basement at The Heidelberg, which my friend compared to the hallway leading to a motel pool and the dingy Embassy Hotel on Fourth Street. In the 70s, a plate of spaetzle at The Heidelberg was the late-night snack for hungry undergrads. These days, the cheap burritos and beer available on every block of South University Avenue have taken its place, and Main Street serves a different crowd. If you walk down Main Street on a Friday or Saturday night, you'll find expensive restaurants, bars, unusual shops and interesting people, most of whom won't be stu- dents. At the corner of East Liberty Street and Main, you may find Ann Arbor local Tom Bartlett on his gleaming red, seven-person bicycle. Ride it. On the new Main Street, the food is sophisticated and the beer, artisanal, and the decor seems picked from every variety of upscale. By midnight, when most of the restaurants have closed, the crowd at Conor O'Neill's Traditional Irish Pub & Restaurant is still feasting, and people are dancing at Rush Street, sipping on martinis at the Black Pearl and relaxing at the Ravens Club. Outside, it's quiet. Whereas on South University Avenue, groups of students in liquor blankets and not much else strut quick- ly to the next party. Everyone's got somewhere else to be. But on Main, they're content to stay where they are. Most people I talked to said Main was quieter and a nice place to talk while having a drink. LSA junior Carmine Riviera, who was dining at the Black Pearl last week, said she finds the drinking environment to be classier, "and you don't have to hang out with the unwashed masses." That last line was not a slur on the South University crowd so much as an acknowledgment that Main Street attracts a different clientele. Riviera's friend Gautam Muthusamy, an LSA junior, said he loves the Black Pearl because "a lot of pseudo-intellectuals hang out here, like us, and the martinis are good." Maybe the martinis are good because they're expen- sive. The going rate on Main Street for a cocktail --judg- ing by the prices at Rush Street, the Black Pearl and the Ravens Club - is about $9. A pitcher of beer at the Jolly Pumpkin costs at least $18, even on nights when Good Time Charley's sells them for $3 and the Blue Tractor, just a block away on East Washington Street, has them for $7. Though students didn't mention prices often, it's clear that as a whole, they're very price-sensitive. Melanie, a waitress at the Black Pearl, told me that she sees far more students during happy hour, when the price of a martini drops by half. For the most part, the Main Street crowd seems tobe young professionals, not- so-young professionals and graduate students - the kind of people who can pay $9 for a martini. With so many places competing for those martini dol- lars, new restaurants on Main are trying to differentiate themselves with unique drinks and memorable interiors. One of the best complete examples of this trend is The Ravens Club, a new bar that calls itself a speakeasy. Outside, a hanging wooden sign painted with a raven takes the place of a nameplate. Inside, it's a dark place with an eclectic collection of lampshades and heavy cur- tains on the front window to hide the goings-on from snooping prohibition bureau agents. Comfy leather pad- ding gives bar patrons a soft place to rest their elbows. Pitch-perfect prohibition chic is about half of The Ravens Club's appeal. The other half is its drinks. I can't imag- ine that many other places use pumpkin puree and carrot juice as mixers. Jeff Paquin, a managing partner of The Ravens Club, has researched the history of 207 South Main, the club's address. His interest in the building's history is reflected in The Ravens Club's menu, which notes that the lot was once home to the workshop of a cabinet-maker-turned undertaker. Not all the bars on Main Street draw inspiration from history like The Ravens Club, but most use their unusu- al ambience as a key selling point. The new Main Street style begins with the desire to create a unique space. Sitting in The Black Pearl, I can see how the desire for uniqueness shapes this bar too. Once again, the place is dark. A black padded bench runs the length of the res- taurant, mirrors are held up by jet-black Corinthian col- umns and above the bar, an entrancing device, rows of leaf-shaped fan blades silently spins. Perched up high at a black granite table, you want to lean in as you talk. It's a good place to have a conversation. Next toThe Black Pearl is Rush Street, the closest thing Main Streethas to a night club. Rush Street takes its name from a street in Chicago, and while the space and style make it quite different from its neighbors, the bar is like a derivative of the sleek bars that pop up in any big city. There's a dress code at Rush Street, enforced by an impeccably dressedbouncer. When I asked the bartender, Chris Parow, who he sees in a typical night, he described a crowd a little younger than the one I saw at other Main Street locations: almost exclusively young professionals ranging in age from 21 to 30. The dress code is meant to keep out "the wrong crowd." On a normal night, he said Rush Street is "wall-to-wall dancing." When I visited, it was empty until a 26th birth- day party appeared, danced, drank and then left. With 11 years of experience as a bartender, Parow added that Ann Arbor has "a more educated drink- ing crowd" whose members constantly ask for drinks he hasn't "made in a while," which suggests that Rush Street's patrons aren't always drawn from the Long Island-swilling youth of South University. Other bars in the Main Street orbit have less-defined styles, relying more on drink specials and events to keep ahead. Cafe Habana on East Liberty has two happy hours most weeknights and hosts salsa dancing each week, which can be fun if you like sweaty bodies rubbing up against you in a hot basement. I met with some friends at Ashley's on State Street, and asked why they had decided to meet there, rather than someplace on South University or Main Street. One friend said she goes to Ashley's because "it's here, on Central Campus. There's more beer, and I like the guy at the door." Another told an interesting story, "When I didn't know better, I went to Charley's and the Blue Lep. Then I dis- covered Main Street, and it changed my life." She told me the next day that she suggests Main Street "if you want to avoid drunk, crying girls." You see fewer undergraduates at the bars on Main Street because the carefully thought-out ambiance and high-quality ingredients that give Main Street its reputa- tion also let restaurants charge high prices. For students lookingto have a good time on Friday night, a cheap pitch- er on South University gets the job done without leaving the wallet light. Of course, there's one other reason stu- dents go to South University more than to Main Street - South University is closer towhere they live. Letter from the editor For the Statement's third annual Beer Issue, we looked at the craft of brewing, the challenges of running a business and the pleasures of enjoying a drink on the town. Our annual home brew competition hosted 34 unique entries of student- and alumni-brewed beers, evaluated by five certified judges from the Ann Arbor Brewer's Guild over the course of five hours. The judges scored each recipe on aroma, appearance, flavor, mouthfeel and overall impression as well as categories including whitbier, pale ale, Belgian ale, porter and stout in mind. Prizes for the top three selections were donated by Adventures in Homebrewing in Taylor, Mich. The first-place winner recieved a brewing pot, second place, a lifetime mug club membership at Wolverine State Brewing Co. and third place, a growler of beer from Wolverine State Brewing Co. Thank you to everyone who entered, and we hope to taste more batches of homebrew next year. Watch a video about homebrewing and beercompti"ins"o The Main Street bar scene can offer a more relaxing evenig than'the esahtlishments o South University Avenue.