Tucked away in a corner of the second floor of the Commons, the upper portion of Flat Tuesdays serves up wine and beer to students of legal drinking age. Closed throughout winter break, the Mardi Gras-themed bar held their spring grand opening last Wednesday, after a snow-induced delay. The bar’s staff served up free smoothie samples and held their first trivia night of the semester.

Wednesday evening was anything but quiet, with 25 students taking up most of the bar, ready to nibble on free popcorn, enjoy Heavy Seas beer on tap and play trivia. The evening’s theme was African American history, in honor of the nationally-recognized history month. Trivia topics included African American achievements throughout history, as well as pop culture.

Briana Bradley, a senior music performance major, lead the trivia, asking seven rounds of questions and tallying the scores. Bradley brought her performance background to the game, joking with the players and having fun. She had not originally planned on running the weekly game.

“They just threw trivia at me. There was a member who used to work here who led trivia, but he couldn’t do it the last semester so they gave it to me,” Bradley said.

Bradley, along with other students, believe that Flat Tuesdays is a success because of the measures taken to ensure responsible drinking. To enter, students must provide their UMBC student ID, as well as a driver’s license or similar government issued ID. Further contributing to the bar’s specific atmosphere, Flat Tuesdays is not a full service bar.

“We serve beer and wine, we don’t serve any spirits,” said Bradley. “We’re not allowed to have anything over a certain proof because Hrabowski doesn’t believe in students getting turnt.”

Bradley feels that it is a little strange for UMBC to have a bar on-site when many other universities don’t. She also feels Flat Tuesdays is something special.

“I think only UMBC could do something like this,” she said.

Flat Tuesdays is open from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday and is a popular hangout for students and faculty alike. In addition to inexpensive beer and wine, Flat Tuesdays offers limited menu items from Salsaritas and the Mesquite Grill.

“If you order food they go and get it for you,” said Paula Ladd, a senior majoring in biochemistry who also works at Flat Tuesdays. “It comes a little faster than waiting in line.”

Because of the 21 and over age restriction, the bar is not usually as busy as other areas in the Commons. In addition to drinks and snacks, Ladd and other patrons often come to Flat Tuesdays looking for a little peace and quiet.

“I come up here to do homework all the time,” said Ladd, “A few professors come up here to grade because it’s quieter than their office.”

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