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The Bar Thread
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Downtown, at 507 W. Main Street, you can find the bar Mack & Charlie’s and its neighbor Gusto. The two bars are under the same ownership, but appeal to two different crowds.
“Mack & Charlie’s is more of a laid-back hangout with pool tables and a lot of TVs and Gusto is more of a dance club and lounge,” owner Andy Redford said.
With two separate atmospheres Mack & Charlie’s and Gusto have no trouble pulling in a multitude of college students on the weekends. Entering Mack & Charlie’s, you will find a large bar room furnished with a massive amount of black bar stools, two pool tables, a ping pong table (which can double as a beer pong table) and a full bar on the east side of the room. The east side of the room essentially amounts to a wall of beer and liquor because the barkeeps need to keep every customer happy.
The décor largely resembles a sports bar with several strategically placed televisions around the room. There is also an abundance of neon signs and other such promotional alcohol hype that attempt to persuade the thirsty patron to be partial to various companies’ flavors.
Next door at Gusto you can find a more classic, yet modern bar. Gusto features a corner-shaped bar on the north side of the room and has seating appropriate for the lounge scene, that surrounds the concrete dance floor in the center of the room.
Mack & Charlie’s is open seven days a week, Monday through Wednesday from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m., and Thursday through Sunday from 2 p.m. to 2 a.m. Gusto is open Wednesday through Saturday, from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. These two bars begin to get busy around 10 p.m. when you can find them packed to the brim with music and voices so loud that they can suppress even the most exerted conversations. In a sense, Mack & Charlie’s and Gusto appeal to the “meat market” concept. There is an immense amount of college students coming to drink and trying to get lucky. The establishment has “cheap drinks and it’s a nice environment. Its where most of the college students come,” Russell Mapp, a patron, said.
Happy hour at Mack & Charlie’s is daily from 5 to 8 p.m. They have $1 domestic drafts, $2 micro drafts, $2.50 wells drinks and $6 domestic pitchers. During business hours the drink specials are the same for both bars. On Mondays the specials are $3 Bacardi drinks and $5 for a Budweiser or Bud Light with a cherry bomb (cherry vodka and Red Bull). Tuesday and Wednesday there is only an additional charge of $1 for Red Bull drinks and on Tuesday you can purchase $2 wells drinks and $2 domestic drafts. On Wednesday it’s happy hour all day, with the previously stated specials and $4 blasters (Red bull and Jagermeister), ghetto bombs (well whiskey and Red Bull) and cherry bombs. On Thursdays they offer $8 all-you-can-drink Keystone Light. On Fridays and Saturdays from 8-11 p.m. it’s $3 “you-call-its” where you can get any drink for only $3.
On Sunday from 6 p.m. until 2 a.m. it’s employee and service industry night where any downtown employee can get $2.50 wells drinks, $1 domestic drafts and people who work for the service industry can purchase $3.50 wells drinks and $2 domestic drafts.
If you feel the impulse to go downtown, have a few drinks and have a good time after your rigorous studies, Mack & Charlie’s and Gusto is definitely worth checking out. With the two separate atmospheres you are sure to find one that appeals to your social needs. “It’s cool to see a diversity that you don’t see at other bars downtown,” Nick Pell, a patron, said. If you do decide to venture into Boise’s downtown scene and go to Mack & Charlie’s and/or Gusto please remember to drink responsibly.
MAT LA RUE
Culture Writer
