After months of anticipation, the Mad Moose Saloon finally opened its doors to the public on Friday, Dec. 1. The bar, conspicuous for months as an upcoming (oft-delayed) alternative to the State Street bars, and for its unusually luxurious decor, attracted throngs of people to the Henry Street entrance.
Inside, however, patrons were faced with an establishment that matched the preceding months of hype. The bar’s entrance down a wide descending staircase gives way to an impressively large and spacious room. As co-owner and BU alum Brian Wachsman promised, huge plasma screen televisions adorn every wall, and plush couches, stools and tables are situated throughout the room. The clean bathrooms are not the only testament to the bar’s classy atmosphere: moose heads decorate the walls, candles burn on tables and the entire bar is decorated in holiday theme.
Apparently, the good word spread quickly: Wachsman said that Friday was “a very busy night, but on Saturday we had to temporarily shut down the doors.” While the number of people was “a little overwhelming,” Wachsman was pleased to see that “everybody seemed to be enjoying themselves. When you work so hard toward something, you hope people will take notice of the efforts you made.”
(Full disclosure: Wachsman was formerly the business manager of Pipe Dream before he went on to pursue his MBA.)
Take notice they did, and some were bewildered by the high-class atmosphere. Senior Dave Corcoran, famous for his stint in Sasha Baron Cohen’s film, “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan,” noted that “it just doesn’t feel like a Binghamton bar. There are pillows on the couches. Why are there pillows on the couches?”
Wachsman did acknowledge the financial risk he and his partner take by adding such touches to the bar, but he added that “we operate under the assumption that the nicer things are, the more people will respect them.”
And for the bar’s recent patrons, the Mad Moose definitely merits that respect. The bar’s Facebook group, Mad Moose Mania, already boasts 242 members. Senior Bridget Thompson, who enjoyed the “Cinderella stairs” and her “nice appletini in a classy glass,” said that she thinks Mad Moose “will be the new Uncle Tony’s if people just stop doing the same routine thing and go for the goods.”
However, for Larry Shea, owner of State Street’s Tom & Marty’s, Mad Moose isn’t so much a threat of competition as a “welcome addition to the crowd.”
Shea, who attended BU in the early ’90s and ran Sports Bar prior to owning Tom & Marty’s, explained that when he was in school, “The Rat was the only bar that catered to students. Sports Bar wasn’t opened yet; Tony’s and Tom & Marty’s were pure locals. Look where we’re at now compared to then … we’ve tripled in size, and there’s a demand for a new bar. Look at how packed we get, and Tony’s gets, the lines outside of Sports Bar … we’ve filled up the State Street block, so it was only a matter of time before somebody got off Main Street.”
Shea added that, for BU students, “the good thing is that you can go Downtown and go to four different bars. Even our most loyal customers only spend part of the night at our bar. All of Downtown, our job together, is to get people to go Downtown, and once they’re here, we each try to create a unique niche.”
But at a bar as large as the Mad Moose, the idea of “getting to know the regulars” may prove difficult. Wachsman, however, is taking his own approach. Once students return in the spring, he said, Tuesday through Thursday will be tournament nights, and Fridays and Saturdays will be “theme parties.” In addition, he said, “once a month we’ll have a big, huge, over-the-top event such as Mardi Gras. And we’re going to have a St. Patty’s day party unlike anything this area has ever seen before. We have a lot in store.”