Before downtown San Jose became a premier hub for late-night pub crawls, San Jose State had its own slice of nightlife where the Student Union now sits.
With its welcoming name and even more welcoming beverages, the Spartan Pub blessed students with 16 brands of beer and two bottles of wine to choose from on any given night, according to Theodora Tsagalakis, former pub manager from 1976 to 1977.
“Band nights were on Thursday, and nobody wanted to miss band night,” Tsagalakis said.
Now a lead cook at the SJSU Dining Commons, she said the pub opened up as early as 11 a.m. and students would regularly skip class just to get a drink before hitting the books later that day.
So many of them would storm the pub on band nights that it would hit maximum capacity and people would have to wait outside like any other club.
Behind the madness of Thursday nights was then-art major Geoffrey Nixon and his band Mojo Nixon who played at the pub in the late ’80s to get exposure for his group.
“People didn’t necessarily come for the band, but when they were here they checked us out,” he said in a phone interview. “It gave us a chance to leave an impression.”
Nixon, who now lives in New Hampshire, described the music scene in San Jose as thriving and the biggest source of entertainment in the city before it saw an influx of downtown restaurants.
“We played there two or three times, it was a small venue,” he said. “If we had Facebook or YouTube back then, I probably wouldn’t be an operations manager for a landscaping company right now.”
Another person who could always be seen in the Spartan Pub was Alex Dalzell, who now works as a financial advisor.
She came to SJSU from New Zealand in 1991 and said her student visa only allowed her to work on campus.
“I started work on the kiddie side, with the pizzas, food and stuff,” she said over a FaceTime interview. “[Then] migrated over to the pub side and became a supervisor.”
Dalzell eventually migrated over to the pub side and became a supervisor at the location.
Even with the almost 15-year gap in having worked at the Spartan Pub, Dalzell and Tsagalakis both described the venue as unmatched in its popularity.
“I love how we all got sweatshirts like a fraternity or sorority, with the letters on that spelled ‘Pub,’ ” Dalzell said.
There were two entrances to the pub, one for students who wanted to drink, and another for those with the munchies looking to get the best hand-tossed pizza in town.
There was even a taco bar complete with taco salads, even though some student workers weren’t the best at making the salads.
“We had this student from England and they weren’t too good at it, but once they learned, they were the best tosser in the place,” Tsagalakis said.
Students also overcrowded the pub during finals week every semester, while restaurants and other places where students studied became empty.
Tsagalakis described the pub as a straight bar, but was turned into a horseshoe bar with beers against the walls like a traditional bar and.
There was usually one or two bartenders tending to the hoards of students.
But as the years went by, the pub was eventually closed in the late ’90s, when coalitions such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving allegedly said the Spartan Pub was responsible for drunk drivers around the university.
Natasha Thomas, executive director for the Mothers Against Drunk Driving Northern California region, said in an email to the Spartan Daily that the San Jose region of the organization closed more than 10 years ago and has no information on its past programs.
Though the Spartan Pub may be closed, the memories it brought for Tsagalakis, Dalzell and many other former students are something that no bulldozer can take away.
“It never got, well not while I was working there, real rowdy or out of control. It was loud music, but just people having fun,” Dalzell said. “The guys were just real kind and protective and used to walk us out to our cars after a late shift, it was kind of like working with a bunch of brothers.”
