On a sluggish Wednesday evening, Bill Cole stands hunched over the counter at the Garden Lounge. Cole has been working at the bar for six-and-a-half years. He’s bartended since college.

“The atmosphere is a little bit different here than any other bar,” Cole said. “If you want a place to just talk and have a good drink, this is the place to come.”

Cole suddenly notices a couple waiting for his attention.

“Another beer, sir?” he asks.

“Yeah, sure,” the young man replies.

“And what will the lady be having?”

“I don’t know,” she says. “I don’t know what I want.”

“You really seemed to be enjoying that cabana club the other night.”

“Yeah, but that’s expensive,” she replies.

“But it’s also very delicious,” Cole says, grinning. “And I’m sure this guy would love to buy it for you.”

The girl laughs. The young man smiles. Cole is already filling her glass.

On a sluggish Wednesday evening, Bill Cole stands hunched over the counter at the Garden Lounge. Cole has been working at the bar for six-and-a-half years. He’s bartended since college.

“The atmosphere is a little bit different here than any other bar,” Cole said. “If you want a place to just talk and have a good drink, this is the place to come.”

Cole suddenly notices a couple waiting for his attention.

“Another beer, sir?” he asks.

“Yeah, sure,” the young man replies.

“And what will the lady be having?”

“I don’t know,” she says. “I don’t know what I want.”

“You really seemed to be enjoying that cabana club the other night.”

“Yeah, but that’s expensive,” she replies.

“But it’s also very delicious,” Cole says, grinning. “And I’m sure this guy would love to buy it for you.”

The girl laughs. The young man smiles. Cole is already filling her glass.

The Garden Lounge was opened in 1959. Manager Deanna Robbins has been visiting it for 35 years. Between sips of her martini she explains how patronage has sank over the years.

 “Students used to drink more and party more,” she says. “I think over the years the school has put more pressure on the students with their studies, so they don’t have as much time. The economy isn’t helping, either. And laws have gotten tighter over the years. The world’s gotten a lot more anal.”

Ask anyone in the state which school is Idaho’s party college, and the response is nearly always UI. Although the town has yet to live down its boozy reputation, longtime residents have watched Moscow’s alcohol culture mellow out over the years. Is it a sign of success by the state legislature, the strength of local authorities, or the waning of an American college tradition? To the local professionals affected by the industry, the signs are mixed.

At the source

Mark Dagelen of Odom Distributing said Moscow accounts for around 29 percent of alcohol consumption for the entire market area. Odom delivers to Latah, Nez Perce, Idaho, Lewis and Clearwater counties.

Although Lewiston has a year-round population that is almost 40 percent larger than Moscow, it consumes only 35 percent of the market share. Moscow consumes more wine than Lewiston, 40 percent of the five-county area. Dagelen said Moscow drinks much more beer than wine by volume. The city consumed 117,000 cases of beer and 17,000 cases of wine during the fall 2008 semester.

The college town experience

Cole is a University of Idaho alumnus. As a student, he played on the football team when they won the Humanitarian Bowl. Cole has since seen Vandal sports go everywhere in between. He said the bar atmosphere has a lot to do with Vandal games.

“There’s no question that last year, when we won that home game and everybody stormed the field, there was a much better vibe in here,” Cole said. “More people were at the bar, people were in a better mood, and they were having a better time.”

The relationship between Vandal sports and drinking is perhaps most clear at the Corner Club.

 “Friday and Saturday nights are always good,” Corner Club bartender Mike Campbell said. “But of course, the best time to be here is when UI has won a game. Last (win) was a mad house.”

Campbell said locals are attracted to the Corner Club’s cheap drinks, 61-year history, small size and cozy atmosphere.

“It’s just a little cinderblock sports bar, but we cork up,” Campbell said. “Don’t ask me why.”

Campbell grew up in Detroit, went to college in Moscow and “never really left.” He said he has worked in nearly every bar in town. He has been at the Corner Club for five years. For Campbell, the prospect of his job has always been an attractive one.

“Let me get this straight,” Campbell said. “I get to hang out at the bar all night, have a couple of cocktails, women have to talk to me, and you pay me? Alright, I’ll do it. You sold me.”

Cole characterizes Moscow’s bar scene as exciting and full of movement.

 “You’ll definitely see pockets in this town,” Cole said. “At every bar you’ll see the same groups of people, but you’ll see those same groups of people at every bar. People don’t really go to the bar here. They go to the bars.”

While it’s the beer and liquor that brings people downtown on the weekends, a thriving scene still remains for wine enthusiasts in the Palouse.

Nikki Woodland, chef and owner of Moscow’s Nectar Wine Bar, said roughly 20 percent of her clientele stop in just to taste the wine, which can cost anywhere from $4 to $21 per glass. She said Nectar doesn’t see many students, but is popular with university faculty. While the wine culture may stand apart from beer enthusiasts in Moscow, Woodland said Nectar’s business has helped by the Main Street bar scene.

“We’re kind of the pre-bar scene,” Woodland said. “People will come in here to get a little bite to eat and have a few glasses of wine before they hit the bars.”

Considering consequence

It was Aristotle who coined the term, “all things in moderation.” The idea certainly applies to the perspective of local police and paramedics living in a college town.

“It was way worse when I used to come over here when I was 19 and the drinking age was 19,” Moscow Police Department Officer Rick Whitmore said. “You may think that was a long time ago, but it doesn’t seem that long ago.”

Whitman said changing the drinking age has significantly morphed the alcohol industry in Idaho.

“Everyone came over from Washington State, and we probably had twice as many bars,” Whitmore said. “The road between Moscow and Pullman was extremely dangerous.”

As laws changed over time, so too did the pastimes of college students, Whitmore said.

“We didn’t have the Internet,” he said. “People didn’t have as many other activities to keep themselves busy. Today it’s gaming. Back then, everybody just went drinking. It’s just a theory, I guess, but there’s more in life to do than just go out and party.”

Whitmore said the last time police had a major alcohol-related incident was in 1998. He said every police unit in the area was called to control a riot in Pullman, a student response to a proposed alcohol ban on the Washington State University campus.

The Moscow Police Department is contracted by UI to patrol every area of campus as another part of the city. Officers have been asked by the university to occasionally walk through campus living communities.

“It would not be unusual to see an officer on the seventh floor of Theophilus Tower on any given night,” Moscow Police Department Lieutenant Paul Kwiatowski said. “However, that’s not where we find the majority of our (minor-in-possession charges). We don’t go knocking on doors saying, ‘Give us your beer.’ It’s usually some kid walking down the street with a keg cup.”

Kwiatowski and Whitmore said alcohol-related injuries are a common occurrence.

“People do stupid things,” Kwiatowski said.

A woman once fell out of a window during sorority rush, Kwiatowski said. A drunken man fell into the creek on Sixth Street near Elm Street.

“It was the middle of winter, and he was lying in the freaking creek water,” Kwaitowski said. “We pulled him out, and of course he had hypothermia.”

Police and emergency services claim alcohol incidents fluctuate seasonally.

“Between August and October, I’ve seen it where teams of officers have issued around 45 to 55 tickets in a weekend for MIPs,” Kwiatowski said. “But in January, we may have only issued five.”

Kwiatowski said alcohol makes up a vast majority of the Police Department’s calls, including overdoses, sexual assaults, drug abuse, fights and car wrecks.

“If it wasn’t for alcohol, it’d be pretty quiet,” he said.

In 2008, the Moscow Police Department logged approximately 142 driving-under-the-influence arrests, 278 MIPs, and 55 urinating-in-public citations.

“When the university has a big function, like school coming back in session, the number of alcohol-related calls tends to be pretty high,” said R. David Reynolds, EMS division chief for the Moscow Volunteer Fire Department. “It’s not unusual to get three or four of them in a given evening.”

Reynolds said the ambulance service responds more frequently to fights and overdoses than car accidents. Working as an emergency medical technician for 25 years, he said Moscow’s alcohol emergencies seem different in nature.

“It’ my impression, apart from any statistical validity, that in other places I’ve worked, there didn’t seem to be as many overdose patients — people drinking to the point of unconsciousness,” Reynolds said.

Reynolds, Kwiatowski and Dagalen all agree safety is reliant on responsibility.

“This is preventable,” Reynolds said. “If a meteor falls out of the sky and hits you, that’s probably not. But this is stuff people do to themselves — it’s free choice.”