Venturing off Franklin Street

I was in the adventurous mood tonight so I went out to bars by myself. The normal Kenan-Flagler hangout, Top of the Hill, was deserted. I ended up walking into this bar I have driven by a couple of times while looking for parking. It's called Off Franklin.

The bartender is a recent cute UNC grad who is taking the GREs to get a graduate degree in political science. The guy sitting next to me was a 32 year old assistant professor at the University. I had a couple of interesting conversations with these folks over $2 Coronas. We were talking about the UNC campus and he said all the construction projects make the campus look ugly. The bartender disagreed. He then compared this campus to UVA's (at this point, I had yet to identify myself as a UVA grad). The bartender then said "I hate UVA because I hate Virginia, except for Williamsburg. And UVA is always smarter than we are" before walking away.

I asked the assistant professor what it was like to teach with so many attractive women in his class. He said "students at UNC will do whatever they can do to get whatever they want" and said he's had girls in his class flirt with him to get grades. He proceeded to tell me more about himself. He married his college girlfriend ten years ago and left her last week. Since then, he's been at the bar almost every night.

I am not particularly "big" into the bar scene but what I would not mind is going to a "quiet bar," the type where you can relax, chill, have a drink, and engage in conversation with strangers and regulars alike. The assistant professor said Off Franklin was probably the closest to what I am ever going to get at a college town like Chapel Hill.