After a night of drinking, flirting, bumping, grinding and socializing at the bars on Marshall Street, mostSyracuse University students only have one thing on their minds: where to grab a bite to eat after closing time.

As a bouncer at Konrad’s, sophomore general management major Thor Narowski has seen his fair share of hungry drunks.

‘I know that after every night, I always go over to Pita Pit and see huge lines of like 40 people standing outside,’ Narowski said.

Yet, according to Narowski, the recent onslaught of bar raids has not only significantly decreased the number of bar-goers, but the size of the lines at Pita Pit as well.

‘When the raids happen everybody just goes home,’ Narowski said. ‘Nobody is even down on Marshall Street. It’s pretty much dead at Pita Pit and all the pizza places like ZJ’s.’

The Marshall Street area provides its drinkers with a bevy of food options – Acropolis, El Saha and Baja Burrito also stay open beyond last call.

While much of the nightlife in the Crouse-Marshall business area is credited to its bars, the bar raids spurred by Operation Prevent might be hurting area restaurants as much as they are the bars themselves.

‘We are affected as much as all of the bars,’ said Steven Papazides, an employee at Acropolis Pizza House. ‘(After a raid), usually what (customers) do is they don’t come out for the next two weeks. I believe that the law should be abided by, but if there’s nobody out at night, we might as well close at 10.’

Since the raid of Darwins, Chuck’s and Konrad’s on Feb. 5, the nighttime crowds in the area have yet to fully return.

‘There’s not as many people out,’ Narowski said. ‘They just don’t even appear on Marshall Street.’

Yet Jerry Dellas, president of the Crouse-Marshall Business Association and partial owner of Faegan’s Caf & Pub and Varsity Pizza, isn’t as quick to point fingers at the raids.

‘Nobody has come to me and said anything about it, saying business is down because of the police raids,’ Dellas said. ‘It’s been so cold lately that everyone’s business has been down anyway. Every year during cold spells kids just don’t go out as much.’

At the same time, Dellas admits that the persistent presence of the police isn’t always beneficial to business in the area.

‘At Faegan’s, we’ve had police come in and check IDs all the time,’ he said. ‘I don’t particularly care for the constant barrage of police coming into the establishment up there. Once in a while is OK, as long as it’s happening elsewhere as well. You’ve got to do it all over the city and not just target the university area.’

Sophomore television, radio and film major Laura Scarpati agrees that the police are to blame, but doesn’t fault the recent cold weather.

‘People are scared to go to the bars now because they don’t want to get in trouble,’ Scarpati said. ‘The majority of these bars are under-aged. Everyone that doesn’t go to Darwins or Harry’s goes to Konrad’s, Maggies or Chuck’s. And they all are right around the same area.’

Scarpati and her friend Anna Jedrey, a sophomore speech communications major, admit they have frequented these bars. And they say they’ve often visited the late-night eateries close to their watering holes.

‘People go to certain ones, like Pita Pit and Acropolis, late night,’ Jedrey said. ‘That’s when they probably get most of their business, anyway.’

But when bar-goers get hungry, flavor preference goes out the window and proximity takes priority. That’s how Scarpati found Baja Burrito, a Mexican restaurant on South Crouse Avenue.

‘That’s the only time I ever ate there, when I went to Chuck’s,’ Scarpati said. ‘It’s just right next door. And we were hungry.’

Mark Fallico, Baja Burrito’s general manager, admits that much of his crowd, at least on Fridays, comes from Chuck’s Caf overflow.

‘Friday nights, Chuck’s helps our business because of happy hour,’ Fallico said. ‘I know when Chuck’s has a line out the door, our business does incredibly great. The line gets so long, and people will take a break in here and get a burrito.’

Though Baja Burrito has only been around since the summer and has never experienced business without the threat of Operation Prevent, Fallico says the raids don’t bother him. He says the restaurant has already created a niche for itself with the nearby hospital employees, which has helped ease the losses from the raids.

‘It really doesn’t affect us,’ Fallico said. ‘We have our good customers and our clientele. The only thing that’s going to affect us is our Friday night business.’

Fallico admits, though, that should Chuck’s lose its liquor license, as Syracuse Police threatened after the most recent raid, it might be a hit too big for Baja Burrito to handle.

This threat of losing customers is forcing many of these businesses to try to come up with other ways to attract crowds.

‘You move (students) off of Marshall Street, you move them downtown or to another neighborhood,’ Dellas said. ‘We’ve seen it in the years past where its moved to Westcott Street and other areas.’

Fallico says Baja Burrito is currently looking into acquiring a beer and liquor license so it can serve alcohol, like Acropolis currently does, tempting students to the restaurant for an extra pitcher before calling it a night.

Varsity used to do the same, before the drinking age was upped to 21 in the early 80s.

‘When the drinking age was 18 or 19 up there, the Varsity was mobbed three nights a week with people eating pizza and drinking pitchers,’ Dellas said. ‘As the drinking age changed people stopped coming in, and we slowly adapted and decided that it’s not worth staying open.’

Yet even Varsity is looking into extending its hours again in order to attract the underage crowd, Dellas says.

‘The Varsity, in the future, may choose to stay open,’ Dellas said. ‘We’ve thought of doing it. Lets face it, there are a lot of 18, 19, 20 year-olds who go to SU and don’t have a place to go.’

Yet Dellas says that his pizza shop won’t serve alcohol if it tries to grab a hold of the younger student market. While he says that adding a disc jockey is not out of the question, he’d rather attract his crowd with the pizza and the atmosphere – not with an attitude that embraces the bar crowds.

‘I’m smart enough where I wouldn’t set up the Varsity saying I had to depend on the underage students going to the bars and surviving,’ Dellas said. ‘I wouldn’t do that because it wouldn’t be a smart thing to do.’

Published on February 16, 2004 at 12:00 pm