Friday, March 4, 2011

The thirstiest of Thursdays at the heavenly Haven.

I could not have chosen a better day or bar to blog about for the first time. Located on the corner of Pacific Ave and 125th (Parkland,WA) The Haven is just a hop skip and a jump away from PLU!
Thursdays at the haven = dollar domestic beers and that is just one of the many great marketing strategies the haven uses to attract its target markets (the locals and the college students of PLU).
DAILY SPECIALS:
So if you've never been to the haven before you are probably wondering what other great deals you can get the rest of the days of the week:
·         Monday- Steak Night & $2.00 Domestic Beer 5-8pm
·         Tuesday- Taco Tuesday & FREE bingo @ 6pm
·         Wednesday- Spaghetti ALL day, $2 off large pizza, and free spin the wheel for the drink special of the hour
·         Thursday- $3.50 Kabobs, $1 Domestic Beers 3-7pm, $3.75 fireball shots, & Karaoke @ 9pm
·         Friday- Fettuccine Dinner, $5 cherry and Jager Bombs, & Karaoke @9pm
·         Saturday-Seafood Platter, Biscuits and Gravy All Day, $5 cherry and Jager Bombs, & Karaoke @9pm
·         Sunday- Corned Beef and Cabbage Dinner, Biscuits and gravy all day, 12-4pm FREE pool, and $7.00 Coors light pitchers


Food & Drinks
I’ll be honest, the first time I went to the haven and saw people ordering food I was skeptical. But all you have to do is order one of the many delicious foods off of their decently priced menu and you too will be converted to a believer- The food is awesome at the Haven! The pizza, burgers & fries, quesadillas, chicken wings, spaghetti, fettuccine, and sandwiches are all delicious and are perfectly complimented by the equally reasonably priced drinks.
Your best bet is to try and utilize the daily special for the drinks. But if you have an urge for something other then what the special provides you will be happy to know that they are not watered down so you get what you pay for! The drinks are well made & mixed and the beers are perfectly chilled.  If you’re feeling fancy there is wine and Champaign available, but just like the Haven, you’re not going to get the fancy classy stuff.






GAMES AND ENTERTAINMENT
Not unlike other bars, the Haven has the usual pool tables...nothing special there right?  But right next to the pool tables on the wall is something you probably won’t find at many other bars. In fact this punching bag machine is more likely to be at a carnival or an arcade. Either way it is a huge hit! Throughout the night you can see people gathered around with their friends punching as hard as they can to get the ever so coveted HIGH SCORE! Some other fun things available are darts as well as a trying your luck with different lottery games.
But if playing your games isn’t your cup of tea, or should I say pitcher of beer, you can watch different sports games that are constantly playing on 7 different TV screens throughout the bar.





SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT
The Haven is a great place to go with a group of friends. It’s not a fancy bar so you will find that most people are dressed fairly casual. Most of the “usuals” are posted up at the bar seats Bull $h**ing with each other or talking with the bartender. The rest of the bar is full of a mixture of people, but you can usually find two or three groups of PLU students laughing and taking shots or ordering pitchers. The waitresses are pretty friendly; in fact, most of them either go to PLU or recently graduated so you always feel welcome and greeted by friendly faces.
Even with all the conversations and laughs you can still hear music playing in the background, and there is no genre that is left out. But at the small chance that you are not enjoying what is playing at the time, you are more than welcome to request songs or go up and sing them yourself.




LAST CALL….

With all the fun and excitement it is easy to lose track of time as well as your $$$$. If you are a price conscience person I would suggest going in with strictly cash so you know when to cut yourself off. But if you are looking to have a good time go ahead and open a tab and see where the night takes you!
The Haven does a great job attracting its target market. By combining daily deals and weekly specials as well as fun games and entertaining music and television sets The Haven covers up the fact that it is a modest bar. The Haven provides an atmosphere and products that its competitors do not, which is a marketing strategy of differentiation.

-Vic

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Beer We Go!

How did you first hear about your favorite bar?? Was it your friend or co-worker? Maybe it was the closest place to grab a drink from school or after work. Our group is getting numerous requests for the local bar called THE HAVEN, a local, smaller bar near PLU on 125th street. We will be recommending, as well as critiquing numerous bars throughout the next couple week. Don't get us wrong, we are no Simon Cowell, but we will do the best we can to give you informative and relative feedback!! Each person will be blogging about a different aspect of the restaurant/bar/grill. This could include:
  • Favorite drinks
  • Daily Specials- Times and events
  • Prices
  • Food
  • Social Environment
  • "The Usuals"
  • Games/Entertainment
  • Etc.
What bar have you always wanted to check out or think we would enjoy? Let us college kids do what we do best!!

-Bret

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Welcome to our Blog!!

Welcome to a blog started by an E-Marketing class at Pacific Lutheran University! The three people that will give their opinions, advice, and pure wisdom are Bret Handy, Scott Wall, and Victor Bull. We are all athletes at PLU, and are HOPING to graduating in May of this year! We are opening this blog to everyone, spreading the word through Facebook and college students in particular. As a class driven blog, our group has decided to review, rate and show marketing aspects of local bars in the Tacoma area! We would love feedback and ideas of different bars you are interested in, maybe one that you were thinking about checking out but did not want to waste your time or take the risk because it may be a bust. Let us visit and give our expert opinions on the quality and features, daily specials, and flaws of the particular bar. We will post pictures and possible videos so you can truely have a sense of the experience you could have if you wanted to go to any of the bars we blog about. We would love recommendations to get this site started!

~Bret