'Playboy' exposes Smoke's

Shampoo boasts nine rooms and decor that can only be described as "fabulous." The Five Spot prides itself on a loungy atmosphere and cocktail culture. Delaware Avenue is a constant battle for the most outrageous club. None of these nightspots, however, ranked in the top 100 college hangouts listed in Playboy magazine's September "college issue." Instead, in what may be indisputable proof that "location, location, location" is a bar's most important feature, the 64-year-old Smokey Joe's Tavern was Philadelphia's lone contribution to the nationwide list. Students unwinding at the "Pennstitution" at 40th and Locust streets last Thursday night said they were dubious of the unpretentious pub's qualifications for making the national list. "It's not a sexy place, it's just a bunch of people," Engineering sophomore Josh McGrath said. It was University students themselves, however, who elected Smoke's to the list in a nationwide survey by the college marketing company "Beyond the Wall" -- an enterprise run, coincidentally, by a Penn alumnus. "People all over are saying, 'Oh, I can't believe they made the top 100 -- I used to hang out there all the time, they had $1 pitchers and sink or swim on Wednesday nights'," said Brian Gordon, the 1991 College graduate who co-heads the company, which, in addition to conducting the survey for publication in Playboy, has given the top bars commemorative T-shirts and other promotional items. While emphasizing that favoritism played no part in the results, Gordon noted that for him, like many students, Smoke's was a second home. "I was [at Smoke's] seven days a week," he added. "And I don't care if you went to private school, if you went to boarding school -- if you had to pick one bar to hang out all four years, that was it. Occasionally you'd go to the Palladium for a change of pace, but Smoke's was it." Indeed, the bar still draws a diverse array of clientele from all circles of the University -- along with its faithful regulars. "We're like Norm and Cliff," said Ben Schwartz, a College senior sitting at the bar Thursday. Most patrons cited Smokes' "ambience" and the comfortable variety of people inhabiting the bar as their favorite things about the bar. "Where else can a guy in a three-piece suit mingle with a college frat guy in a T-shirt and ripped jeans?" said a bartender who requested simply to be called "Fun" Bob. And 1982 College graduate Lisa DePaulo -- a contributing editor at George magazine who waitressed at Smoke's while at the University --Epraised the bar for its "cross-section" of people. "It was a great balance to Penn," she said. "At a University so big, it's all subdivided, [and Smoke's is] the only place where you get the head of law school sitting at lunch with captain of football team with some nerd that slithered out of a Wharton class. I get really misty [going back.]" "You could say that I learned more working at Smokey Joe's than I did in most of my classes at Penn -- not all of it good -- but it was definitely a life experience," she continued, adding that she once incorporated her waitressing job into a Sociology project examining how bartenders judge their patrons based on the drinks they order. Like several patrons Thursday, De Paulo cited the kindhearted Pat and Paul Ryan -- whose family has owned the bar since 1952 -- as a primary reason for the bar's success. And while not awestruck by his bar's top rating, Paul Ryan stressed that his pub was a bar like no other. "In what other bar could a 44-year old man stand up and sing with G. Love?" said Ryan of his winter duet with the singer. Not all the regulars are free from gripes, though. "It's dark, lacking windows and the bar is inaccessible," said a female student with Schwartz. "And people get decked out to come here -- it's all about how low on the hips you can go to show that fashionable, yet trendy tummy ring." DePaulo, too, did not refrain from cynicism regarding her Smoke's experience. "A lot of frat guys would be hanging out, and sometimes the same guys who would sit down next to you in Marketing would treat you differently because they didn't see you as a college person but as a waitress," she recalled. "It said a lot about the Penn attitude." But most students Thursday treated Smoke's simply as their favorite spot to drink and be seen -- and hopefully find someone to flirt with. "You can't get the full effect of Smoke's unless you go home with someone," said a College senior, who requested to remain anonymous. And according to Wharton senior Jill Botwick, "Smoke's is only fun after seven shots." Asked what he liked best about his hangout, a student requesting anonymity put it bluntly: "The bottom line? The pitchers are cheap and the girls are easy."