It’s 8:30 p.m. at the 172-year-old Deer Park Tavern in the heart of the University of Delaware’s campus and the line to get in wraps around the building near the least historic spot on the property: the dumpsters behind the famed bar.
It’s not a Friday or Saturday night. It’s a Thursday.
Students mob the joint every week on Thursdays, drawn in by that night’s special: a fruity, colorful 32-ounce personal pitcher of vodka, rum or tequila sold for only $8.
Rayla Marsh, a 22-year-old UD senior from South Jersey, says the draw is simple: “It’s a really good deal.”
Compared with the $6 price of a single mixed drink at other bars on Main Street, it’s worth it for her to come to Deer Park early ― around 8 p.m. ― to get in the door before the long line begins to snake through the parking lot.
Even then, she had to wait 20 minutes to get inside and make her way upstairs to where DJ Amaze had the crowd dancing with pitcher handles hooked over their hands. Some were even double-fisting with 64 ounces of booze at their fingertips, looking more like a bartender bringing an order to a table than a patron looking to get punchy.
The Deer Park, which introduced the special in the fall of 2019, isn’t the only place in downtown Newark where you can find these gigantic gulpables.
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On the other end of Main Street, Klondike Kate’s began their own Thursday night special selling 32-ounce “mega pints” of vodka or beer last summer, setting up a bar war on what has become one of the biggest nights to go out on campus.
Officially, it’s a “fun rivalry,” according to Morgan DeMarco, director of social media and special events for Ashby Hospitality, which owns the Deer Park, Cantwell’s Tavern in Odessa and a trio of McGlynn’s Pub locations in Pike Creek, Glasgow and Dover.
“It’s all in good fun. We’re all great friends and it’s fine,” says DeMarco, who has even trolled Kate’s by taking promotional photos of Deer Park pitchers in front of the rival bar. “We love what Kate’s is doing. If Main Street is doing well as a whole, we’re all doing good.”
But mention the Kate’s special to others who work at the Deer Park and you might hear a grumble. “They stole it from us,” one manager says flatly as a recent pitcher night swirled around him.
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Drink specials are nothing new in Newark, where bars cater to the college students who flood their establishments when classes are in session.
Stone Balloon’s famed “Mug Night” was a longtime Thursday favorite before the concert hall and tavern with the sticky floor was demolished to make way for the Washington House luxury condominiums and tidier businesses, such as Stone Balloon Ale House.
And a block away at Grotto Pizza, their “big beers” have been a staple of late college nights for nearly 30 years, starting when the Main Street Galleria opened in 1996, replacing the old State Theater.
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The recent round of 32-ounce specials date back to when Wilmington’s Catherine Rooney’s opened a second location on Main Street in 2010 where Hamilton on Main now stands.
Their “Thirsty Thursday” special of $5 32-ounce mini pitchers of beer started to draw major crowds after it was introduced. And then the location was sold in 2018, lasting one year as Finn McCools. When McCools died, taking the special to the grave with it, the Deer Park wasted no time snagging the idea and offering their plentiful pitchers.
“We started selling them the next day,” DeMarco says.
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They found the same success with the drinks, and Klondike Kate’s decided to mimic the special for their own Thursday nights last year, setting up the dueling weeknight parties on each end of Main Street.
Klondike Kate’s rolled out their special last summer after testimony in Johnny Depp’s libel trial mentioned a “mega pint of wine”, spawning memes and plenty of social media chatter.
Kate’s had T-shirts and pitchers made with his likeness, dubbing their 32-ounce pitchers “mega pints” and selling them for $8, just like Deer Park.
The Kate’s version is made with either Western Son vodka or Hoop Tea spiked ice tea these days. They also have $5 Bud Light “mega pints” up for grabs.
Inside Deer Park’s pitcher night
At the Deer Park last Thursday, it was hard to tell it was a weeknight.
The DJ had the bodies shaking. The personal pitchers had students buzzed. And the entire vibe was one of a Saturday night rager, not a school night with many supposed to be in class the next morning.
UD students and northern New Jersey natives Jeff Roberts, 21, and JT Stroganoff, 22, got there with a dozen friends even earlier than most: 7 p.m. while the sun was still up with the goal of avoiding a line.
They opted for the 32-ounce Keystone Light pitchers, which cost $5. They sometimes get the rail pitchers “depending on how f—-d up we want to get,” Roberts admits.
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Stroganoff says that there’s another reason why students come to Thursday nights at Deer Park like moths to a flame: You just might find someone to get cozy with.
While the upstairs bar with the DJ is the most popular hangout in the former hotel that supposedly hosted poet Edgar Allan Poe in 1843, the pitchers can be purchased at any of the Deer Park’s three bars.
Downstairs at the rear bar where Delaware’s own George Thorogood & the Destroyers once used to boogie for students, Deer Park bartender Lexie Edelson was slinging pitchers to thirsty students.
She estimates 95% of her sales on Thursdays come in the form of the pitchers, making about 500-1,000 each Thursday just herself.
The pitcher deal has worked so well it has been expanded to the weekend in a limited way, selling super-sized $10 32-ounce mimosa pitchers on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. for the real early birds.
DeMarco says the price is the major pull for pitcher night, but students are also drawn to the size of the drinks, happy to take selfies with their drinks and post them to social media.
“It’s a big influencer culture,” she adds. “People just want things that are big. Bigger the better: big drinks, big burgers, big checks. Plus, they think they are getting more bang for their buck.”
At Kate’s, ‘mega pints’ have become a tipsy touchstone
It’s been less than a year since “mega pints” arrived at Kate’s, and the upstairs bar already features a large neon sign in UD colors of blue and gold that reads, “KATE’S Mega Pints,” which lights up on Thursdays.
The special has been so popular that they have run out of actual pitchers, using large cups and even plastic fishbowls at times ― anything that can hold 32 ounces. (The Deer Park doormen ask for the pitchers at the door if customers try to leave with them because of their own shortage.)
Gianmarco Martuscelli of Martuscelli Restaurant Group has owned Klondike Kate’s for 6½ years, along with the Chesapeake Inn in Chesapeake City, Maryland, and La Casa Pasta near Glasgow with his family.
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When he quizzed his college-aged daughter about what determines what bar they go to, it was always the specials.
“They think they’re getting a deal,” he says.
And if you think bigger drinks mean longer lines at the bar because of the time it takes to make them, you would be wrong, Martuscelli says.
In fact, they go a little quicker because nearly everyone is getting the same thing, not like a normal night where beers, mixed drinks and shots keep bartenders on their toes. In fact, some bartenders will pre-make large batches of the mixers to make pours even faster.
“They aren’t going up to the bar as much with the bigger drinks,” he adds.
In a college town where students can regularly be found drinking vodka out of gallon jugs at house parties, it’s no surprise the big drink trend at the bars has taken off, whether it’s morning, afternoon or night.
As Depp quipped at his trial when asked about his morning drinking, “Isn’t happy hour anytime?”
Have a story idea? Contact Ryan Cormier of DelawareOnline/The News Journal at rcormier@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2863. Follow him on Facebook (@ryancormier) and Twitter (@ryancormier).
