Harvard Square Bars Win Big With The Game

Saturday night was a good one for business at bars in the Square, as Harvard students celebrated the Crimson's football victory and Yalies drowned their sorrows before heading back to battle-scarred New Haven.

Bars were filled to capacity, and long lines stretched out the doors throughout the night, according to managers.

Grafton Street Pub and Grille on Mass. Ave. earned the most revenue since its opening on October 8, said Peter J. Lee, one of the owners.

The Hong Kong pub and dance club also brought in more than it usually does on a Saturday, and a line poured out the door and curved around the front of the building, according to Sean P. White, the manager.

Although customers were generally well-behaved, some managers said they had to stop serving people who had had too much to drink.

According to Robert M. Vernava, the manager of John Harvard Brew House, Saturday's crowd was composed of a "lot of younger kids that had been drinking all day," and several people were asked to leave.

"We had to be a lot more alert as to who was doing what and what was going on," he said.

White noted that a few Yalies who were disgruntled by the loss in The Game tried to stir up a row.

"We asked three people to leave because they were Yale people antagonizing Harvard people," he said. "They were being rude."

Yalies who stayed in Harvard houses were better-behaved, presumably too tuckered out to cause problems, according to Jeff Moran, a tutor in Mather House.

"There were a bunch of Yalies sleeping in the Junior Common Room from our sister house at Yale who had permission to sleep here and apparently didn't have any friends," he said. "They were all really nice."

Harvard police said they increased patrols in the Square but revelers began to quiet down by approximately 7 p.m. Saturday.

"It was actually a pretty mellow weekend for a Yale weekend," said Sergeant Robert A. Cooper.

Although Cooper said police received several calls for disturbances, there were no major incidents and only one minor injury.

Somebody on the Yale side fell on the stadium steps while trying to rush the field after the game, Cooper said.