Bar provides movies, game tournaments

The dim lighting, movies playing and customers socializing make Professor’s Pub look more like a family room where everyone can congregate, rather than a bar. Professor’s Pub caters to those who are looking for drinks in a laid-back atmosphere right in downtown Kent. Oddly enough ,though, the two and a half-year-old bar wasn’t even owner Brad Powell’s original idea.

“I wanted to open a restaurant at first,” Powell said. While working at concert clubs and touring with bands for 10 years, Powell visited many bars and took ideas he liked from them to use at Professor’s Pub. Those ideas included board games, a foosball table, big screen TVs and a collection of movies that are available for customers to borrow.

“I have three big boxes of VHS tapes,” Powell said. “If anyone ever wants to borrow a movie or take one, they’re welcome to take them home. If they lose it, I just ask that they bring in something else in return.”

The library of movies isn’t the only one of the bar’s features that makes it such a unique place. There are also weekly board game nights.

Powell said Professor’s Pub will begin having game nights every Monday. “We’re going to have a Scrabble tournament coming up, a checkers tournament –whatever people want to do,” Powell said.

Powell said he strives to create a comfortable and welcoming environment at the bar.

“All of my friends were going there and when they took me, I felt right at home,” said Tamara Mitchell, 21, of Kent. “It’s a good place to go, and you know that everyone is just there to hang out, not get wasted.”

Professor’s Pub is also different in that it offers many beers that aren’t available at other Kent bars.

“I like it mainly because it’s a microbrewery,” said Schuyler Kasee, senior integrated language arts for secondary education major.

Powell said he listens to the customers when it comes to which types of beer the bar should sell.

“If someone has a request, I always try and get it in if I can,” Powell said.

Professor’s Pub may not be your typical kind of, bar and Powell wants to keep it that way.

“In the small space that we are, there’s no reason for me to do what the other bars are doing,” Powell said.

Professor’s Pub offers many different events throughout the week.

Open Mic Nights are every Wednesday from 7 to 10 p.m., followed by music trivia, which customers can participate in for prizes. The bar also shows Cavs games on its big screen TVs, with all pints half-off during the first half of the basketball game.

Contact off-campus

entertainment reporter Brittany Schmigel at [email protected].