Charlie's: A Dive too Deep

In realistic terms, Charlie's Pub is located near the intersection of Merrimack and Cabot. Figuratively, it sits somewhere near the intersection of semi-belligerent drunkenness and dwindling self-esteem.

I visited Charlie's last Friday with a group of four friends and was immediately forced to amend my mental picture of a "dive bar" to include this quest into the true underbelly of Lowell.

The Charlie's crowd seemed to have meshed with the atmosphere of the bar itself to form a sort of teetering organism grasping at the straws of respectability. Perplexed, I swiveled on my stool to observe my surroundings:  short-skirted women gyrated on an empty dance floor as older men down the bar spewed incomprehensive banter back and forth. I wasn't sure what I had gotten myself into, but, like someone slowing to observe a car crash, I decided to stay.

This haven for down-and-outers featured a live band that could really only be described as "live" in the sense that they were living human beings. Otherwise, they were just a collection of garage banders painfully churning out some tunes. This got me thinking about the precarious position live music can put a bar in. Music can make or break the vibe of a night, unfortunately this band did the latter.

I think I'm too young to be a cynic, so here are a few positives I could dig up at Charlie's

• The interior itself had some interesting features. There was a spacious floor with multiple pool tables in addition to a dart board and jukebox. We didn't partake in any of these activities, but they certainly could have served as good distraction from the rest of the place.
• Cheapness (in a good way). I was able to grab a couple 24 oz. PBR cans for only $2. For a financially strapped college student, this can put a simple on your face at any bar.

After about an hour in Charlie's my friends and I exited and came to the simultaneous agreement never to return. Was this just a rough night at Charlie's or is this one of Lowell's worst bars? I think my ratings will reflect my answer to that question.

Cheapness: 4
Beer Selection: 2
Crowd:1.5
Atmosphere: 1.5
Romantic Potential: 1.5

It Starts at the Start

For a blog about bars (and in essence, drinking) it seems obligatory to preface by saying that I am of legal drinking age and I am not using this as an excuse to drink. Most college students don't need an excuse to do so anyway. Also, I don't want to run myself broke with this blog, so I probably won't be talking about many $10 martinis...my apologies in advance.

I want to embark on this journey through the bars of Lowell because it's an opportunity to explore the pulse of a city steeped in diverse history. Bars stir this cultural melting pot and each individual niche serves as a piece to the puzzle of a city I've often found difficult to understand beyond the confines of a college campus.

Now that the introduction is out of the way, it's time to get started with my visit to the Worthen

Lowell's original pub is a fitting place to start a blog about bars.

House.

Rumored to be frequented by Jack Kerouac, Lowell's patron saint of bar hopping, and the poet Edgar Allen Poe, the city's oldest pub holds true to its historic roots. Portraits and paintings of vintage Lowell adorn the interior and a rickety wooden door leads to the outdoor patio (smoking area). I normally find accessories like this pretentious, especially in "college bars", but I think surviving for over 175 years gives the Worthen the right to hang just about anything on the walls.

After tuning out the hip-hop music, it actually was easy to picture Poe pulling up a stool and jotting down a few lines of "The Raven" while sipping some ale in a dimly lit corner. The building's cottage-like appearance and nostalgic dinginess seem conducive to a brooding poet.

This is  apparently not a bar on the radar of many UMass Lowell students. My two friends and I were the youngest group there by an estimation of 10 years on this Friday night. I had no problems with this though. It doesn't make much sense for such an old-fashioned place to cater a bunch of transient 20 somethings. The Worthen is a place with a homey feel meant for the real Lowellians.

After listening to some music on the jukebox (another nice touch) we brought an  $8 pitcher outside and watched the Lowell night slowly meander by through the wafting cigarette smoke of adjacent drinkers. An outdoor area in any bar is a huge plus for me because it provides the opportunity to get fresh air (obviously) while reflecting on your surroundings.

This was my first visit to the Worthen and I somehow felt unable to appreciate it to it's fullest extend. Maybe with a few more years under my belt and some historical research I'll be able to return to the Worthen one day with a more refined perspective.

To add a degree of objectivity to an otherwise subjective bar review, I think it's necessary to have some criteria for evaluation. The determining factors may change over time, but I think these make sense for now. Rating are on a 1-5 scale  with 5 being the best.

Cheapness: 4
Beer Selection: 2.5
General Crowd: 3
Atmosphere: 4
Romantic potential: 1.5