The Alley

This bar is so weird. It has everything I enjoy in a dive bar - cheap drinks, pool, erotic photo hunt, jukebox, yet there's still something totally off about The Alley. I love making a pit stop here when DA's is too crowded but I'm not ready to call it a night quite yet. Still, there is something very strange about this place, and it's not just getting the side eye when you walk in, or the fact that the only stall in the women's room doesn't have a door.

Anyway, if lots of other people start coming here, the mysterious qualities of The Alley will probably be lost, so stay away.

used to be cool when it was the only bar left that you could smoke in. but that's like the only reason it was cool, really. they don't have good beer , or good liquor.

I once had a friend who was a year older than I am. He lived on canned peaches, Snickers, and whiskey.  He wrote songs about SARS, listened to lots of country music, and wore the same pants everyday for a year. Or that's what someone once told me about the pants. We were close, but when I turned 21 he wasn't the guy I turned to for advice on what bar I should go to first in Saratoga. This kid, he liked the Alley. And the way he described it scared me.

I avoided the Alley until my senior year when the "edgy," but less "edgy" than Johnny Canned Peaches Cash, kids started going there on Tuesdays for karaoke. I actually only went once during college because I was usually in the library on Tuesdays (or at the BREWERY if I went out... review to come soon!), but I started going more often last summer and have up-ed my Alley frequenting quite a bit this winter. Karaoke is great. I have yet to sing alone but have done some quality duets and foursomes with the (retired) Timid Quartet. Mark the Shark has a huge binder of song selections. Just to give you an idea of the variety: I have sung Rocky Racoon, Shawn Colvin's Sonny Came Home, The Wallflowers' One Headlight, Better Than Ezra's Good, (okay, I love the 90s), and Islands in the Stream. I think that's it, but I have a long mental list of all the pop goodness I have yet to sing... just waiting for the right audience. So yes, they do have a ton of new music, too, even though I've stuck with "classics."

The best reason to go to the Alley on Tuesdays though is to see the regulars sing. Erin, the  bartender, has a killer voice even though I don't always love her song choices. And Tom #2 is an old dude who sings Snow Patrol and Avril ballads and leaves me wondering "Who is Tom #1?" He gets sad, however, if you don't applaud.

As far as drinks are concerned, eh, small selection, but cheap beer.

I have only gone to the Alley once on a non karaoke night. I met some Skidmore grads from 2004 at about 5 am on a Saturday morning, so I guess even alumni know it's the place to be?