A Pint Sized Blog

The official Black Swamp Pub logo

If you’ve ever spent any time at Bowling Green’s Bowen-Thompson Student Union, you know the union has a lot to offer. There’s the bookstore, a bank, fast food, Starbucks, computer labs, and a huge ball room. But did you know that tucked away in the southwest corner of the BTSU is a pub? That’s right, the Black Swamp Pub, named after the famed Black Swamp where the current city of Bowling Green resides, is a fully operating bar and restaurant that caters to college student unlike any other bar in town. Obviously you still need to be 21 to order alcohol, but the overall environment is inviting to all students.

I hate to admit it, but the Black Swamp Pub was the first bar I went to when I turned 21. Mainly because I thought I could buy beer with meal plan money, I was quickly told that you have to buy beer with real money, but still I had a good time. I remember I ordered a Killians with some friends. They have a pretty normal selection. They have Bud Light, Guiness, and Blue Moon on draft, and about 14 different bottles to choose from. They also have a limited number of wines and mixed drinks that they make.

The Black Swamp Pub also has a decent selection of bar foods that you can use your meal money to buy. Burgers, nachos, pulled pork sandwiches, and wings are just of the few items they can make.

The Black Swamp Pub isn’t a bad place to relax too, there a couple of TVs scattered around the place, along with 2 pool tables, and a boat load of events are hosted at the pub. The pub is only open till 11pm on each night, except for Sunday, which it is closed all day.

Bell's Brewery

At least once a month, Dr Michael Coomes hosts a beer tasting event that’s open to all students, faculty, and city residents over the age of 21. You can usually buy a ticket from the BTSU information desk and you get to sample some beer from whatever group comes in, or whatever the theme may be. Sadly the beer tasting events over for this semester, but I was able to attend the last on April 14th where I got to sample some Bell’s Brewery. Based out of Kalamazoo Michigan, Bell’s let a group of 40 or so patrons try 6 of their best beers. Im not going to tell you what I thought of them here, but you can see my reaction to Bell’s Brewery in my last post here.

For all the bars I visit, I like to rate them on 5 areas; selection of beer/drink, price of drinks, atmosphere (music, crowd size, etc), cover charge, and things to do (Pool, Darts, Karaoke, etc). All of these areas will be ranked on a scale of 1 to 10, one being bad, ten being good. So here is the breakdown:

Black swamp Pub
Selection: 6
Price: 6
Atmosphere: 8
Cover: 10 (free)
Things to do: 7 (Pool tables, music, TVs)
Overall: 7.4 (out of 10)

Thanks for reading and don’t forget to comment!