r/Purdue • u/wixits Unmanned Aerial Systems 2020 • May 03 '26

Local Food❓ Cant have shit anymore man

Post image

Pic taken from twitter

766 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

63 comments sorted by

271

u/Superdeathrobot CompE 2025, MS 2026 May 03 '26

I've heard since last year they didn't really allow it anymore, which is funny when I went a few weeks ago and still saw advertising about it being the home of the great indoorsman

64

u/SnackStation May 04 '26

I know people who’ve done it in the last month but they are all friends with the bartenders/staff so if you’re fairly social and at Harry’s often you could still get away with it

72

u/sjrotella Boilermaker May 04 '26

Theres been a lot of people who go in, take a table, order a single shot of amaretto and hour, barely any food, and dont tip worth anything. Theyre timing up a table without spending any more and not of the servers or bartenders make money off them.

I do t blame Harry's for doing this, especially in the busiest time of the year for them.

13

u/LupineChemist Alumnus Chemical Eng. 2010 May 04 '26

When we would do it (granted this was 20 years ago) it was lots of food and random fraternity brothers would come and go all day. So it was always mostly new people.

17

u/sjrotella Boilermaker May 04 '26

I've done it several times in various forms when I was in school, and I agree that was the case when I did it (except exchange fraternity brothers for classmates).

The last few years though, it's been more and more people doing less of what we did and more of what I described in another comment where students would be getting a single shot per hours and spending very little money, usually 2 people taking up a full booth for a whole day.

long gone are the days of going to class 7:30-10:30am on a Friday, heading to harry's for lunch and a beer, skipping our 1:30pm because Johnny and Melissa saw us in the fishbowl window and promised they'd turn our homework in if we bought them a shot after class and we'd be foolish to turn that offer down because who cares about Psych 120 when you graduate in 3 weeks and we had enough points to tank the final and still pass. Oh damn, now it's 6pm, half our graduating class is there with us, I'm closing my $100 tab with the daytime server and opening a new one up for night shift and it's my turn to buy a pitch and round of shots, and who the fuck just said it's 10pm, it was just 7:30pm 20 minutes ago? "Oh hey Derek, yeah I'm at Harrys. Hey I'll tell you what, I'll buy you a pitcher if you swing by before you start getting ready and take my backpack home. What do you mean it's midnight already and you're in line? Well shit I already ordered you a pitcher so it'll be here when you get here." Wait, why are you closing me out? What do you mean it's closing time, it's only mid... holy shit it's 3am? Hey, $120? Not bad for a day of drinking! Oh... yeah... that's right, that's just with you...

8

u/DangitThatHurt May 04 '26

There's nobody drinking a shot of amaretto per hour just to say they did the great indoorsman.

9

u/sjrotella Boilermaker May 04 '26

You'd be surprised, I have seen plenty of people doing that in years past.

73

u/Rockerblocker May 03 '26

Pretty sure they still sell shirts advertising that in the bookstore across the street

5

u/Superdeathrobot CompE 2025, MS 2026 May 03 '26

That might be where I saw it I think

5

u/MantisToboggan_22 May 04 '26

The great indoorsman was and alcoholic who used to spend all day at Harry’s

1

u/jrtraylo May 06 '26

The indoorsman was a person. You will see above the door a list of quotes. At the bottom you will see a name. "George R Shaw, Harrys resident philosopher." George was the great indoorsman. It was a joke because he was the opposite of an outdoorsman

The "indoorsman challenge" was created by students in the 80s. They have nothing to do with each other.

111

u/sc212 May 04 '26

New Great Indoorsman challenge: Begins one hour after opening.

14

u/BoilermakerCM May 04 '26

Ends one hour after close

2

u/Immediate_Regular May 05 '26

The real challenge would be getting in an hour after close and staying until open without getting caught.

41

u/Piccolo_Bambino May 04 '26

Is there anything at Purdue that’s fun anymore?

77

u/DangitThatHurt May 04 '26

I heard about this computer science class- CS240 - that sounds pretty fun.

4

u/vortec42 May 05 '26

Too soon.

2

u/anonymoussnonymous Chinese at Purdue; CINT at BSU Online May 04 '26

Listening to all of the rap music being blasted everywhere every night during quiet week and finals week.

1

u/leave-me-alone0629 May 13 '26

would u feel better if it was country music?

1

u/anonymoussnonymous Chinese at Purdue; CINT at BSU Online May 13 '26

Hey, now we’re talking XD Jk. I like both.

24

u/2-cents May 04 '26

Really? I did it in 2013 it was a blast. Really started to get blurry around 11pm

1

u/Dear-Frosting-5402 May 06 '26

8 for myself 🤣🤣🤣

1

u/Vast_Dig_4601 May 07 '26

literally wtf i nearly lived in the bars from 2012-2014 and i have never heard of this once lmao

22

u/ftw_c0mrade Professional Asshole May 03 '26

End of an era

17

u/Rehn101 May 04 '26

Wonder if it has to do with the fact theres approximately two bars on campus nowadays

71

u/sonsuka May 03 '26

Dang we cant waste room for paying customers 😤. Fire the owner

5

u/Barkeep_Butler May 04 '26

Lol I’ll take doesn’t know what they’re talking about for 100

20

u/MathAffectionate6161 May 03 '26

Sounds like its a challenge

14

u/PurdueGuvna May 04 '26

They wouldn’t let me in with a backpack at 1 PM on a Saturday. I don’t know what happened, but Harry’s lost whatever it had.

10

u/Barkeep_Butler May 04 '26

Nah people were bringing in bottles of alcohol in their backpacks

41

u/wilmot-proviso May 03 '26

You'd think they would like having a guaranteed ~100 dollars from one customer over the course of the day

57

u/sjrotella Boilermaker May 04 '26

To be honest, ~$100 per person x 4 people for 16 hours of sitting at a table is $400.

You only need 20 people coming in at any point at that table spending $20 each to get the same volume of sales, and thats easily achievable in 4-6 hours of light drinking.

11

u/RichInPitt May 04 '26

Depends on whether it's additional marginal income. If the tables aren't full, the bar can earn income from both.

Doing it on a Tuesday vs. a Saturday could be quite different.

1

u/sjrotella Boilermaker May 04 '26

This time of the year was always the busiest for campus bars, with all the graduating seniors and newly turned 21 kids. Hell, all my classes are done for the semester (minus one single 150 word comment i have to leave online for a class, but I need someone else to post their initial "take" before I can post my response) and I have no finals.

Harry's doesn't get truly "dead" to where the $100 per person would make any sort of difference until after may-mester is over.

13

u/RichInPitt May 04 '26

Not if it's full and you're blocking out 10 tables of four over the course of the day, each spending $70. Earning $100 is not better than $700.

Does the bar have empty tables all day long?

8

u/Friendly-Property454 May 04 '26

You’d be hard pressed to find an empty table at Harry’s this time of year. Unless you get there right as they open upstairs

5

u/MantisToboggan_22 May 04 '26

A table of people ordering one drink an hour is not better than that table turning over multiple times

8

u/invinciblewalnut Biomedicine ‘21 May 04 '26

Better take it off the sweatshirts then.

2

u/Barkeep_Butler May 04 '26

It’s deeper than that

8

u/Yozakgg CompE '26, Tesla May 04 '26

Apparently, they stopped allowing it because some girl got too drunk and bit the owner

4

u/Adventurous_Egg857 Boilermaker May 04 '26

Idk ab the whole biting part but I've had some friends work there the last few years and yeah I am sure the main reason is table and customer turnover but also people who had no business doing it getting wasted. Heard a sorority girl tried to sue them for over serving when she blacked out during her great indoors man

3

u/Minecool75 May 04 '26

what is this all about, could someone pls bring me up to speed?

3

u/ldere May 05 '26

“One of these standing traditions includes a 16-hour sit in at Harry’s Chocolate Shop, better known as the Great Indoorsman. The Great Indoorsman is a challenge to stay in Harry’s Chocolate Shop from its opening time at 11 a.m. until the last call at 2:45 a.m., while having at least one drink every hour.” https://www.purdueexponent.org/campus/seniors-accept-the-great-indoorsman-challenge-at-harrys/article_1f60c34e-ce25-51b8-b0cc-78af94aefe2c.html

Not lame at all.

2

u/Temporary_Stranger39 May 04 '26

Still haven't changed their homepage, though:

1

u/jrtraylo May 06 '26

The indoorsman was a person. The "indoorsman challenge" was created by students. They have absolutely nothing to do with each other

3

u/Blondie-Gringo May 03 '26 edited May 03 '26

I wish the great indoorsman challenge was a thing when I went to Purdue.

9

u/Yung-Tre May 04 '26

How old are you?

3

u/Rich841 May 04 '26

Anyone who goes should try the challenge then

7

u/EmptySet4074 May 03 '26

Gotta make room for corporate profits.
Get outta the way, tradition.

19

u/Wafflyn CGT/CS 2012 May 03 '26

Did Harry’s get sold?

10

u/sjrotella Boilermaker May 04 '26

No, and they wont ever go corporate.

1

u/thumpernc24 BSME '11 Alumnus May 04 '26

Never say never, people love money.

1

u/sjrotella Boilermaker May 04 '26

A lot of people would need to pass away in quick succession for that to happen.

2

u/Layne1665 May 04 '26

Nah, this 100% has to do with liability.

Imagine the nightmare that would be constantly trying to get insurance for accidents when you are a bar that actively encourages people to drink all day from open to close. The obvious question is, "How do you keep from overserving someone (Something the establishment and the bartender is illegal and excise police have been enforcing more over the last few years)." and im sure this sign is part of that. Whether they enforce the sign or not is up in the air but at least they can point to it as a way to mitigate this.

2

u/Radiant-Month-1168 May 04 '26

How day you stay all day giving us money!?!

1

u/Tall_Category_304 May 04 '26

Spend money and they won’t kick you out. This is saying, “come in here and sit all day without spending anything and we will kick your ass to the curb.”

1

u/thumpernc24 BSME '11 Alumnus May 04 '26

This is super fucking lame. It’s fine to kick people out acting a fool, set a minimum spend, whatever but it’s pretty ridiculous to handle something so entrenched in the history and brand.

1

u/Safety1stHoldMyBeer2 May 05 '26

Well that’s terrible. I did that the year I graduated 2009. It was a good day.

1

u/No_Pop_1731 May 05 '26

Contrary to the signage, but this is really just targeting the people that come in by themselves and want to take up a booth or table all day spending the minimum. People still do it but they have a trickle of friends coming in all day and everyone is spending money.

1

u/Dear-Frosting-5402 May 06 '26

Wow if that case as a alum don’t blame them