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Belly Up

April 19, 2012

No apologies — just parties— at Pints Pub and Patio

Pints Pub and Patio employee Kynsie Rogers and owner Ryan Smithson show off the new bar’s party T-shirts and the sturdiness of the island bar built for the friskier patrons who feel like dancing on tabletops.

By Amber Williams

People do stupid things at parties — especially when they are wasted out of their minds (hence the phrase: “Out of their minds”). Any booze hound will admit, that’s part of the party’s appeal. Enough elixir can inspire even the most prudish old bird to burn her bra and dance on the bar. True partiers make no excuses for their foolish follies, but rather they chalk it up to a good time that they’re probably better off not remembering.

In the uninhibited spirit of such surly silliness comes the new Pints Pub and Patio’s catch phrase, “Sorry, I party!” which is ironed on the back of the new Court Avenue bar’s T-shirts. For $20, patrons can own one of the facetious T’s. They can cut them up in their own personal party style and wear them to the Pints second annual “Sorry, I Party! Party” for free beer from 8 p.m. to midnight on Saturday, April 21.

The “Sorry, I Party! Party” will include several LMFAO-themed contests, such as biggest hair or afro, best party outfit, an “I’m sexy and I know it” dance off, a pie-eating contest and a goldfish-eating contest. Wait. Goldfish-eating contest? Cue the PETA protesters.

“I hope they do protest,” laughed Pints owner Ryan Smithson. “Goldfish are used as bait for everything else — in fish tanks and everything. Fish were made to be eaten. I really don’t care about the controversy around it.”

If animal rights activists do decide to make an opposing appearance at the shindig, it’s likely their questions will be answered with an overwhelming, “Sorry… I party,” after contestants gulp the little goldfish down.

“ ‘Sorry, I party!’ just means it’s a big ‘Duh’ moment, like if you just did something really air-headed or goofy, and someone calls you out on it. That’s your comeback,” Smithson said. One could assume it’s a phrase that was coined in the Smithson home long ago, where bar ownership is not only a Smithson tradition but a livelihood.

Smithson gladly adopted the hot spot on the corner of Fourth Street and Court Avenue after his father decided to close the Surf Shack, a Court Avenue staple for 13 years. Smithson considers this new venture one of his “showpieces.”

“The Surf Shack had its purpose. It had its crowd, and it did its thing, and it closed on a positive note,” Smithson said.

The once-flamboyant Surf Shack is now tamed with a new hue of green, a casual patio running along the Court Avenue sidewalk and large windows that open the bar up as an “all-seasons patio” in the summer. It opened just in time to host a carnival of St. Paddy’s Day partiers who appeared 10 minutes after they unlocked the doors “as if someone had just dropped them off by the bus loads,” Smithson said, without complaint.

The sleek, new pine wood floors and granite bar tops were both filled with dancing drunkards, and Smithson wouldn’t have it any other way. The 30-seat, wrap-around bar is designed as the hub of the house, so that “no matter where you sit, you feel like you’re part of the party.”

“All the energy is at the bar, whether you’re by yourself or with someone. Everybody wants to be at the bar,” he said. “The bar is the star, so we put it front and center. It’s the focal point centerpiece where everyone can belly up and mingle.” CV