Tapping into Gecko's Thursday night crowd

Penny draft Fridays and appearances from Jerry Springer may be a thing of the past, but the absence of the night club Gecko from the corner of College and Crown Streets will not leave a void in Yale's nightlife for long. While the building's paper-covered windows and perpetually locked doors have left students wondering where to spend their Thursday nights, they now have their answer: Alchemy and Lounge 215. Expected to open next month, the club may help restore life in an area that was once a nighttime hot spot.

DAVID GEST/YH The building on the corner of College and Crown streets that once housed Gecko is vacant now, but not for long.

Flash back to the fall of 1999, when the intersection of College and Crown Streets was often packed. Students, 20-somethings and high schoolers alike, wearing anything from booty pants to backward baseball caps, made their way along the sidewalk to find a place in lines that were often hundreds of people long. The Alley Cat Club, Club Liquid, and Gecko were three of the main attractions— all late-night clubs that brought patrons from as far as Bridgeport and Fairfield, especially on weekends. Today, none of these clubs remain.

"I go to school over 20 minutes away and my friends would always be up for piling into a car and heading to Gecko," Kerry Mazzeo, a senior at Sacred Heart University in Bridgeport, said. "We don't have clubs like that near our campus, and it was always worth the trip and the trouble of designating a driver."

Although the liquor shops and restaurants along College Street have not been particularly affected by the recent exodus of night clubs and the excessive vacancies along the strip, local bar owners tell a different story.

Tom Kennedy, owner of TK's American Cafe, has noticed fewer people in the area, particularly between Thursday and Saturday. "We used to get overflow from the night clubs, so it has hurt us a little," Kennedy said. "We hope they open back up because the more people around here, the better."

Even though the buildings that once housed the Alley Cat, Club Liquid, and Gecko stand vacant now, plans are in the works to revitalize two of the locations. In addition to the arrival of Alchemy and Lounge 215, builders have already begun work on 230 Crown St., and signs claim that Risk Cafe (formerly Club Liquid) will be opening there soon.

The absence of Gecko has left Thursday nights up for grabs among the various New Haven bars. If Alchemy and Lounge 215 hopes to corner some of this crowd, they'll have to move fast. Its neighbors—BÄR and TK's—have already designated Thursday as "Yale Nite" in an attempt to expand the lucrative Thursday-night alcohol market. While TK's began this tradition last semester, it is looking to increase publicity this year and further its relationship with Yale students. Already providing a "free wing tent" in the student section during halftime at all Yale home football games, Kennedy is now giving away more than ever before.

"We're offering one-dollar drafts and half-price wings on Thursday nights if you show us your Yale ID," Kennedy said. No Yale ID? No problem, Kennedy explained, adding that anything with a Yale logo will suffice.

With so many fresh places on the night scene, it may seem that Gecko has already been forgotten, but many seniors who have watched the progression of Thursday night hot spots which began with Naples say otherwise. "If I did a psychology study every week for $20, then I could go to Gecko penny draft Fridays and get 2,000 beers," Laura Petrolle, TD '01, mused. "But I can't do that now, can I?"

With several bars, a tremendous dance floor, and pool tables, Gecko offered a little something for everyone, and it became a staple of Yale nightlife shortly after its opening in November 1997. The question was no longer "Where are you going Thursday night?"—it was "See you at Gecko?"

Brave freshmen, seniors leaving societies, athletes out of season, and nearly all of High Street frequented Gecko till the end of last year. And many students began to wonder if Gecko Thursdays might attain the stable popularity of the Saturday night booty cam at Toad's.

Yet students returning to campus this fall were startled to see that Gecko had not survived the summer. Now that they've had the chance to adjust to the closing of the familiar club, they have a new question. Instead of wondering what will fill the enormous vacant space on Crown Street, students are left asking whether Alchemy and Lounge 215 has what it takes to become a mainstay on the Yale social scene, or will Toad's remain the only long-standing nightclub in town?

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