Drink Bloomington

As a student of legal age in Bloomington, I am one of the many hardworking students that spends a well-earned weekend night perusing the downtown bar scene.

As the be-all end-all, unavoidable holy grail, undisputed leader of the bars in Bloomington, you almost can’t make weekend plans without some mention of alcohol juggernaut Kilroy’s.

I remember as a freshman overhearing other students making plans in my classes. I wondered, “How many people can this bar hold?”

After my first official of-age Thursday night out, I understood that the amount of people that could be squeezed into one room was pretty remarkable.

On a typical Tuesday night, at peak hours, there is barely room to move in the crowded bar. Drinks are cheap, sure, but not much cheaper than at any other bar on a weeknight, if you know where to go and what to order.

So why, out of all of the dozens of bars around town, do we flock to Kilroy’s?
With a slew of T-shirts, shot glasses and other logo-stamped paraphernalia that turn its consumers into walking advertisements, Kilroy’s has no shortage of publicity.

Because their merchandise is often given away for free or with the cost of cover, the Kilroy’s logo practically saturates our campus, its name printed on the back of every few students. 

The franchise also advertises at games, prompting IU fans to stop in for a drink by  listing various drink specials.

The three Bloomington Kilroy’s locations — Sports, Dunnkirk and Kirkwood — are all within walking distance of each other along the main drags of downtown Bloomington.

They are also among the few venues that signed up with an app called “Scene Tap.”

Scene Tap is a new social networking platform that collects data from various local venues and sends this information to your phone. The idea is that you can get a feel of what the demographics of the bars in your area are before you even leave your home.

Other bars in the area that have signed up with Scene Tap include Jake’s Nightclub, Yogi’s Grill and Bar, Bluebird Nightclub and Opie Taylor’s. Scene Tap tracks public social networking websites and anonymously synchronizes data to provide you statistics about a venue, including capacity, male-to-female ratio, performances and drink specials.

What really makes me itch, though, is the way this data is compiled. Scene Tap installs cameras at the bars’ entrances and exits, which use facial recognition technology to register a face and determine someone’s gender.

The app also tells you what the median age of the venue is and allows users to post pictures and statuses from within the location.

In spite of its various pitfalls and scandals, however, the Kilroy’s franchise largely avoids scrutiny. Sports was briefly investigated following the disappearance of Lauren Spierer last June, but bar-goers continued packing the house, and things returned to as they had been before.

So next time you step into a Kilroy’s location, consider what you are buying into.

­— alliston@indiana.edu