This isn’t your (frat) brother’s bar.
No, the Ale House is not your stereotypical, co-ed-filled hangout. Taps of all shapes, sizes and colors ‘ a white-tipped animal tail for Sly Fox, a regal-looking medallion dispensing Stella Artois, a handful of baseball bats ‘ give the bartenders a wide arsenal of drafts to distribute. Thirty-six international drafts, plus 24 additional beers to boot, totaling 60: a milestone number conquered by a multitude of newly minted aficionados, commemorated by small engraved tags glued to the walls under a plaque that reads:
‘The Ale House World Tour Beer Club. Est. July 17, 1988. World Travelers.’
The idea of the ‘tour’ ‘ the moniker given to the journey through all 60 beers, rewarded with a pint glass, a hooded sweatshirt and, most important, one’s name engraved on a plaque on the wall ‘ came to Tim Sansone, the Ale House’s owner, one night in 1988.
As Sansone stood recently folding T-shirts for his son’s boy scout troop, he thought back to 1985, when he and his wife Diane bought The Ale House, a cozy watering hole on the Vestal Parkway, just a few hundred yards from the west end of SUNY-Binghamton. The drinking age was transitioning to 21, ‘Back to the Future’ was the nation’s No. 1 film and Tim was 27 at the time ‘ just a few years older than the college-age group that frequented The Ale House. Now, the Gannon University (Erie, Pa.) alumnus jokes, ‘I’m older than
the parents.’
But here he is, surrounded now by walls decorated with hundreds of names and dates of completion of the World Beer Tour, a feat attempted by many local residents and BU students alike, and cherished by all who finish it.
‘It adds a bit of history to the place,’ he said, admiring the rows of names along one of the back walls.
The names on the wall begin with Bill Hastings, dated July 25, 1988. The third name on the wall, dated July 29, 1988, is John Fracchia ’87 MBA ’90, who said he finished the tour in a matter of six days.
Scores of other Binghamton University graduates have filled up beer-stained tour cards and got their names put on the wall. Some relatively recent ones: Pete Eraca ’05, Aug. 25, 2005; Bill Stubbs ’04, Oct. 7, 2003; Taylor Watts ’09, Feb. 2, 2007, among countless others.
Eraca fondly remembered his times at the Ale House
with classmates.
‘Since I was the eldest in my circle of friends, bringing my friends to the Ale House and starting their tours became a rite of passage of turning 21 for them and a privilege for me,’ Eraca, who is now a grad student at Roger Williams University in New England, said.
‘I never experienced such an eclectic mix of beers than during my time with the tour,’ he said. ‘I think I got to experience the good and the tough by taking a long time to complete the tour.’
A tour completed in the fall may not be the same as one done in the summer: just like to everything there is a season, for every season, there is a beer ‘ because as seasonal beers come and go, the taps change accordingly.
Sixty brews may not sound terribly intimidating in a college culture where ’30 ‘Stones for 15 bones’ is a common refrain among thirsty, ‘Jersey Shore’-loving dorm dwellers, but these taps pour no Keystone Light. Pints such as Harpoon IPA, Rooster Fish Hop Warrior, Chimay Triple and Wachusett Blueberry Ale ‘ just to name a few ‘ are not to be consumed from disposable plastic red cups.
But for true fans of the Ale House, bars that serve beer that way can’t even compare.
‘The feel of a small English Pub, cool people, great music, the best beer selection of any bar I’ve ever been in, incredible pizza, sports on every TV and darts ‘ if I died tomorrow, it’s exactly what I would hope heaven to be,’ Fracchia said.
The tradition continues with the next generation of Binghamton students. Emily Rawdon, a 21-year-old senior from Manhattan who lives in Hillside, isn’t on the wall, but she hopes to have her name engraved ‘by the end of the semester. ‘ They gave me a year. I don’t need a year,’
she joked.
‘I feel like it’s all older guys on the wall,’ Rawdon, who said she was 13 drafts into her first tour as of late September, said. ‘I’m doing this with two of my girlfriends, two guy friends, plus my boyfriend. None of them have (their name on the wall). We’d never even been there before this year, now we’re all pumped about it and we’re
all determined.’
Rawdon knew what she liked about the place. ‘The customers talk to each other. It’s not so loud and obnoxious. And there’s food.’
Perhaps it’s that aura that brings many Binghamton grads coming back long after their commencement.
‘They always want to stop in, see if the same people are here, see their names on the wall,’ Sansone said. ‘There’s a ton that keep in touch.’
And then there are the die-hards, like Fracchia. ‘The Ale House is like Cheers,’ he said. ‘I left Binghamton in 1992 ‘ I’ll go to The Ale House every time that I’m in Binghamton until the day I die, or until I take it over from Tim.’