Bar's in Charleston, Illinois.

The title should not have an apostrophe--used in this way, 'bars' is plural, not possessive!!!

Introduction-

Bars in Charleston, Illinois, are very popular as an activity for students enjoying their time at Eastern Illinois University. Bars are a pastime of almost any college graduate, and non-graduate, and usually the first thing people do when they turn 21 at midnight. Bars are fun, if you know where to go and what you want to do. This information is supposed to help you figure out what you want to do: live bands, Greek members bars, non-Greek members bars, club style bars, and so on. It is important to know where you are going in Charleston because some of the bars are more than walking distance away from campus while others are very close and even just across the street from campus in many cases.

This list is set up to show a perfect routine for any bar crawl (going from bar to bar with a group of friends, usually for a birthday or special occasion), starting at Friends & Co. in the uptown square and finishing at Top of the Roc before heading back to campus. The bar crawl can then be picked back up at Ike’s and work through the campus bars ending with Marty’s. The list is set up so that earlier way you want to go, whether it will be uptown first or campus first you can start at either end of the list and work your way back from top to bottom, but bar crawls usually start early in the day uptown and then snake their way back towards campus to finish off with the more popular weekend night life spots close to campus. These lists show the most sensible way to hop bar to bar while saving the most time and ending up as close as you can back to campus when the bar’s close on Monday-Saturday at 1 a.m. and midnight on Sunday’s although many bars are not open at all on Sunday.

Uptown Bars at Charleston, Illinois-

Friends & Company-

The bar known to most as “Friends” is located on the North side of the uptown square, between 6th and 7th street on Monroe Avenue, across from the court house. Friends is known for its local, year round ground of customers, mainly people who live in Charleston. Friends is also known for having live bands.

Mac’s Uptown Cellar Incorporated-

The bar that most people know as the “Uptowner” is located, on Monroe Avenue, to the East of “Friends”, on the square. The Uptowner is much like “Friends” because they have the same crowd most of the year and most of that crowd is from the area. They do hire live bands to play on busy nights and have a very large dance floor.

Mother’s-

More commonly known to students at Eastern Illinois University is the bar called “Mom’s”. Mom’s is the only real dance “club” in the uptown area of Charleston, Illinois. Mom’s is located just west of the square on Monroe Avenue, before 5th street. Mom’s was renovated in the summer of 2010. This particular bar is very popular on Thursdays, and is also used to rent out for functions and other private parties. Mom’s has two bars, 3 different tiers for socializing, 2 stripper poles, and a DJ booth located at the back of the dance floor.

Top of the Roc-

Known to most as “Roc’s”, this bar is located almost directly across from the front of Mother’s but is on 6th street just north of the square. Roc’s has a lounge and restaurant downstairs but the night life is upstairs. Following along with Mom’s, Roc’s often has its best night attracting college kids on Thursdays. Roc’s is also known for being used as a place to have functions and other private parties. Roc’s has two tiers separated by 6 steps and has a bar on each tier with the main bar on the lower of the two. The bar also often has live music along with plenty of booth seating on the top tier and a pool table.

Mike and Stan’s 504 club-

This bar is located directly next to Mother’s on Monroe Avenue. This is a nice quiet bar that holds the same crowd year round. Mike and Stan’s is an after work and weekend hangout for much of the working class and older students at Eastern Illinois University.

Bars close to campus at Eastern Illinois University-

Ike’s-

Ike’s is located directly across from Old Main, North, on Lincoln between 4th and 7th. Known primarily as a “college” bar and more directly a “Greek” bar, Ike’s is a very narrow bar with one row of booths along the opposite side from the bar and booths in the back on both sides of the back dance floor leading to the juke box. This bar only accepts cash but does have an ATM. Ike’s is known around campus for the “tequila” Tuesday drinks specials that bring lots of customers on a school night. Ike’s also has two dart boards at the front.

Penalty Box-

Located on the alley directly behind Ike’s, Penalty Box is a new bar to the fall of 2010. Penalty Box takes the location of the bar Hatter’s that once occupied that same area. This bar burst onto the scene in the fall of 2010 with very cheap drink specials that helped make this bar popular quickly. The bar has an outside patio known as a “beer garden” for people to sit outside and enjoy the day or night. The bar also has a pool table, dart boards, and a very large dance floor. Penalty Box even has DJ’s or live music on some nights.

Stu’s-

This bar is located almost directly behind Penalty Box on 4th street. Stu’s is the most “club” like bar in all of Charleston. This bar is connected to a more high class type bar called A.J.’s. Stu’s has a very large dance floor with a curved wall full of mirrors, above that is a balcony for people to hang out and watch the dance floor below them. Just past the balcony you can see the DJ booth which also has a DJ when the bar is open to the public. Across from the balcony is a room full of pool tables with a small bar and T.V.’s for people to hang out and watch a game.

Panther Paw Bar and Grill-

Often known as the “Paw”, this bar is located almost directly across from Stu’s on 4th street right behind Jimmy John’s. Originally known as Stix, the Panther Paw has a large square bar in the middle of the inside, surrounded by a pool table, dart boards, and a lot of tables and chairs for eating, this bar has a nice calm atmosphere inside. The bar also has a stage in the far corner inside. The “Paw” also has the largest beer garden in Charleston, with a bar outside, and it is right on the street. Panther Paw has most NFL games on Sunday and Monday and has good specials on wings and beer on Sunday. This is the only bar by campus open throughout the summer.

Jerry’s-

Jerry’s is located down the street from Marty’s on the corner of 4th and Lincoln. Jerry’s is both a bar and a pizza parlor, restaurant on top and bar on bottom. Jerry’s is a very small bar which mainly gets a crowd of non-Greek Eastern students as opposed to most bars that get either more Greek or equal Greek to non-Greek.

Marty’s-

This bar is located on the corner of 4th and Grant Street, right across from McAfee. Marty’s was renovated in 2009 but the only real change to the bar was the addition of the beer garden on the front corner which is surrounded by plexiglass. This bar is known for food during the day and drinks specials at night. Marty’s is also known for Wednesday “Ladies Nights” in which they try to encourage girls to come by selling “fishbowls” (which is just an alcoholic good tasting drink) and assume that if girls come guys will follow. Marty’s is easy to find by the life size metal panther standing outside the bar on the corner sticking out of the concrete.

Conclusion-

Now that you know where to go in Charleston, Illinois, you can enjoy yourself any night of the week at one of the many local uptown and campus bars or you can get a group of friends a celebrate a birthday with a well designed bar crawl. Whichever route you decide to take, you will be able to figure out which bars you want to go to or want to skip, but you will be well prepared, on any night of the week that you do not have school the next day, to celebrate your college life.