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By: Addie Robinson, Print Reporter
The semester is starting to turn up the heat as we inch closer and closer to finals week, between projects, exams, labs and major papers students are becoming more worried about what’s going on with their grades over most other things. Yet one thing that has not dwindled is students destressing their academic worries by letting loose at the bars.
Out of my friend group, I am the only one that is not a STEM major, and hearing about their workload makes me extremely happy I chose the major I did. With their extremely busy schedule, having a late night out is really one of their only options, but trust me, none of us are complaining about our nights out.
That being said, we continued our journey of rating all of the college bars in Statesboro on atmosphere, drinks and overall experience. We’ve already knocked Dingus Magee’s out and we’re onto Southern Social - usually called ‘Social’ for short by most students at Georgia Southern.
Last Thursday, I dragged my roommate, who is a masters student in Mechanical Engineering, Brandon out of the house for a night of drinks and live music at Southern Social. We left when he was done with one of his labs, which goes from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., so it goes without saying that he would need time to have fun after doing research for four hours. We pulled up to Southern Social around 10 p.m.
Southern Social is located on a plot of land that is somewhat hidden from the view of the street. All that is there to signify its existence is a blue wooden sign with the outline of letters that have since fallen off, so it feels kind of secretive to show up because a lot of the time you have to go based on directions from a friend. Or just use something like Google Maps, which takes away some of the novelty of just knowing.
Luckily for us, the line to get in was nonexistent, even though it looked crowded on the inside. Brandon and I were able to get right up to the bouncer, show our IDs, pay the $5 cover and almost instantly get in.
This night was definitely more crowded than other nights that I had been to Social, but it was not bad enough to be immovable. It was still easy to get around, talk to people, dance, etc. One thing that was a little difficult was the process of actually ordering a drink. A lot of people, after ordering and receiving their drink, would stand still by the bar and talk, making it almost impossible for people that needed to order to get to the bartender.
Social had pitcher specials before 9 p.m. where small pitchers were $6, and big ones were $10, unfortunately, we did not get there before 9, but we will keep that in mind for future outings here. Canned drinks; like beers, White Claws and High Noons were also $5 a piece, which was the same as Dingus so compared to each other they weren’t badly priced at all in my opinion.
After fighting my way through, the first drink I ordered was the classic Addie Robison starter, the Vodka RedBull, for $5. At this point, the last Vodka RedBull I had was at Dingus, and as I wrote in the last bar review that one was exceptional. Since this drink is so simple, it mostly had to do with the pour I would guess. With them being so busy, I would imagine that the pours would not be the most consistent which is somewhat understandable. After getting my drink, Brandon saw someone he knew, Clayton Hester, a senior Mechanical Engineering major.
He asked me what I was drinking, and when I told him, he said, “That’s a good one to start with, it gets you juiced up for the rest of the night. It makes me feel like I’m gonna punch a hole in the wall.”
I would rate the Southern Social Vodka RedBull 3 out of 5 shots.
We hung out with Clayton for the next hour or two. They talked about classes, jobs, the professors they hate, the usual. When it was time for my next drink, I wanted to change it up, so I ordered Lemondrop shots for us. These you cannot go wrong with. They’re easier to take than regular hard liquor shots and they don’t leave a terrible aftertaste. These were $4 a piece, which I didn’t think was a bad price at all. These are consistent and good almost everywhere you go, so I will have to rate Lemondrop shots a solid 5 out of 5 shots.
At Social, there are two major areas, the inside and outside. Both have bars and music playing, but what was unique about the outside was that they had live music. The outside was a lot more chill, with the music being acoustic guitars and vocalists, versus the inside which was playing more club-style music. There was also a cornhole set up in a plot of artificial grass, which Brandon and I were especially bad at.
My last drink before calling it a night was going to be rum and coke, but as I approached the bar I saw the girl next to me order a Vodka Cranberry. As I was watching the bartender pour it, it looked really good. I caved and went with the Vodka Cranberry which was also $5. After seeing it, I expected it to be good and it met my expectations. This was the highlight drink of the night for me so I’m glad I made the decision to get it instead. This Vodka Cranberry deserves a 5 out of 5 shot rating.
After that, we called it a night and headed home around midnight. As far as my $20 went, I spent $5 on the cover, the Vodka RedBull and the Vodka Cranberry were $5 a piece, and the Lemondrop shot was $4 which made my total before tips $19 for the night. I felt like this was a great deal for the multiple hours we spent there. After tipping the bartender, my total was $23. A recommendation I have is to prepare to pay in cash because there is a slight upcharge for card payments which can suck if you didn’t expect to pay it. Overall Southern Social was a really great place to drink and have fun, with an inside for dancing and music, and outside for chilling and playing games.
Our time at Southern Social definitely deserved a solid 5 out of 5 as far as atmosphere, drinks, and music. We had a great night, and it looked like everyone else there was as well!