Best Bar in Greensboro, "Take 2" - Old Town Draught House

Best Bar in Greensboro?

I've been quite fond of MCoul's for sometime. Their Euroesque public house, themed of Ireland, and selling Guinnesses from the tap, in full British pint glasses, made me an instant fan. Indeed it still is the only place I know I can get real fish and chips in Greensboro. That said, I've become quite fond of the Old Town Draught House on Spring Garden Street.

MCoul's has a friendly atmosphere, and an awesome wait-staff unlike any I've ever met,  but the downtown location and uppity garden area for snooty city-elite diners often attracts members of the upper class. You know the type. They wear big sunglasses, carry handbags the size of a Smart-Cars, and take their friends to McCouls, because they want to show how diverse and influenced Greensboro is. Sure there's those of us upstairs cowering in the corner, half passed out with beer all over our Wal-Mart uniforms too, but it's generally because we're too darn embarrassed to walk out past our bosses on the front patio.

Then there's the Old Town Draught House, literally on the campus of UNCG. It's small, it's quaint, it's like the bar in Cheers but shrunken down to the typical size of a corner-side English pub. It's also the only bar in town that has "that feel", of authenticity. You will bump into people, you will start up a chat, and you will feel like you're in an actual pub with actual real, normal people just trying their best to have fun.

I of course must disclose that I am a student, and may frequent Old Town Draught House more than I should after an inordinately difficult French quiz, but, I really, really, like this bar. This was despite, Friday's visit, that found me face to face with a single bartender who seemed to short-change us on our full pints of Guinness. She was nice, and it could have been a "mistake", but none-the-less, the pub could use another bar-tender.

The food is awesome. Order the cheese fries, (no really, order them) and you get a foot-by-foot arc of seasoned fries covered in cheese and bacon and a side of ranch. If you know me, you know I love fries and ranch. I heart you OTDH! Their salsa is fresh and spicy, and their three onion and mushroom burger rivals any I've had at most finer restaurants.

The truth is I love MCouls and Old Town Draught in different ways. Both are amazing and fun, but if I don't want the hassle of worrying about what I'm going to wear to the bar, or just want to be in the presence of a non-judgemental college crowd, and drunkard faculty, then there's only one place where everyone knows your name.

UNCG Theatre's Stage Door Production is Great Weekend Entertainment

The Cast of Stage Door.

First let me fully-disclose I'm an active student at UNCG, and am taking a theatre class with the University.


That said, I loved it. Where in the world can you see a Broadway-like production with a huge ensemble class for under $40 a couple? What makes it even better is you're whisked away to the glamour days of the 1930's in Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman's Stage Door. Centred around the risqué lives of women living in a communal boarding house in New York, the play's main theme is based around one truly heart breaking question, "To thine own self be true?"

Of course, this above all, is Shakespeare and the larger story arc revolves around the bitter hatred of Hollywood in New York, capitalism and artistic expression. While minor aspects of the more complicated elements are lost on the mostly college age cast, the overall competence at which this chaotic, and heavily worded play is delivered, is respectable from even the professional theatre patron's opinion. It's a difficult and long play, and the mastery these young women and men portray Stage Door, is worthy of respect as well as your ticket price. It's worth every dollar.

Criticisms are few, and mostly to do with the length. The style of speech, and genre of dialogue was likely meant for a shorter production time than it's performed. The play comes in at over three hours, and the pace of the performance seems to diverge from what I would expect of the time period. There is a lot of words, but they're meant to be delivered in that neck breaking speed of the black and white classics. While the play never releases the audience from the action, at times, the overbearing heating system in the theatre made our focus as an audience less than exact. Theatres are meant to be cold. You have hot lights on the actors, and your audience is generally wearing more clothes than a traditional movie theatre, yet at times the house reached temperatures, not that of New York, but of South Africa.

Alas, my largest critique of the piece itself, comes from it's lack of diversity. The cast, of mostly women, all white, typical in size, and lacking dimension (literally), could have used a more representational cast of the types of people typical within a melting pot city like New York.

That said, don't even think about missing Stage Door. It's worth every dollar, and while I still miss the smell of cigarettes on the stage, and old perfume from the actresses, this production delivers an element of theatre that Hollywood will never, quite likely, compare to.

The show runs through Feb. 19 at 7:30 PM, at Taylor Theatre on the campus of UNCG. Tickets are $18. (...and worth every penny.)