Dining: Alpha Delta Phi dorms

The Reznik - a student pub unlike any I have seen before. Ever.

By ASI GAL
drinking beer 248 88 (photo credit: Courtesy)
drinking beer 248 88
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Student life is the best life. It takes only one semester to realize that studying doesn't take much time and that cheap beer and beautiful co-eds abound, allowing someone like me to frequently get drunk and hit on them (in that order). Having been a student at Ben-Gurion University in Beersheba, where everyone has their own place near campus and student bars are just a stumble away, I always wondered whether the student atmosphere was just as ostensible at the other universities. I assumed in the negative. Jerusalem, with its students scattered around the city, seeming dorm deficit and lack of campus life, seemed the perfect proof. In order to have a good time under such circumsances, there would have to be a great student pub. Their remedy is the Reznik. To get there, one must pass through the dormitories of the same name, all the while ignoring the surrounding graveyard atmosphere and then descend the stairs under the AM:PM. (Those bastards are everywhere! Well, good for them.) Only then do you arrive at the Reznik - a student pub unlike any I have seen before. Ever. Reznik is beautiful. It's huge, furnished with many comfortable sofas, equipped with a spacious bar and decorated with mirrors, multiple video games and framed soccer jerseys hanging on the walls. In fact, the main similarities shared with the student bars in Beersheba are its proximity to campus and the phenomenally low prices. Open to anyone, regardless of its on-campus location, the majority of Reznik's clientele is obviously students and they are catered to in the best way possible: alcohol for the impoverished. As such, the menu's prices range from cheap to you gotta be kiddin' me: NIS 11 for an Arak, NIS 17 for a half-liter of Goldstar and NIS 20 for a Grants (whiskey. Though if you need to ask you haven't had enough). And, if you're one of those ambitious students, you can come for happy hour where everything's - get this -- half price. Sure, alcohol's tops but what about the music? Well skippy, the Reznik's got live music twice a week. And, it's not that run-of-the-mill kiddie stuff we're talking about here. Rather they book such acts as Noam Rotem, the Magical Mystery Tour and Hadag Nahash. The last one being the least surprising since the groups lead vocalist, Shaanan Streett, has re-donned his bar-friendly hat (carrying on his legacy from the long-gone, hardly forgotten, well-missed Taybeh beer serving Gotham and Diwon bars) as co-owner of the Reznik. Of course sports are done right with games often shown on the house's big screen. We visited the place on a Sunday night, a.k.a. refill night, where for every beer ordered, your glass is refilled for NIS 5. Awesome. However, since we are reporters, we did the hard work of examining the cocktails menu as well. With a variety of sour cocktails, the only male-acceptable cocktails, my male drinking partner and I threw down some great whiskey sours. The bartender, who not only could mix up a great beverage, also had vast knowledge of alcohol and offered some great recommendations. Our female drinking partner, now a devoted fan, took his advice and had a Feigling sour and a Bad Apple sour. Both made me wish that I was a chick, if only just to enjoy them without the accompanying testosterone-based guilt. The nachos that first arrived with the drinks were quite edible though nothing to write home about. The pizza, on the other hand, was topped with fresh mushrooms (not a standard student pub occurrence) and roasted peppers. Suffice it to say, it was delicious. The background music that played while we sipped our sours could be defined as the best, but seriously the best, of Galgalaz and included such gems as Prince, Green Day, The Smiths, Depeche Mode with none of that Rihanna or Soulja Boy crap. A bit tipsy, the three of us left the pub humming that catchy tune from the You Don't Mess with the Zohan soundtrack along with the conclusion that the Reznik is a great pub. Period. Reznik at the Reznik dorms on Hebrew University's Mt. Scopus campus, Jerusalem. (054) 452-2194. Open Sunday to Saturday from 9 p.m. until the last customer. Happy Hour is from 7-10 p.m., Sunday-Thursday.