Blue Wall Cafe

Blue Wall Cafe is a former dive bar and current restaurant at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Opening inside the Murray D. Lincoln Campus Center in the 1970s, the bar made upwards of $600,000 in the late 1970s (over $2,300,000 in 2013 dollars), and went through 1,800 kegs a year. This made it one of the largest beer-consuming establishments in the Northeastern United States. Following the raising of the drinking age to 21 in the United States, the bar experienced a decline in sales, before finally going dry in the 1980s.^[1] In the early 2000s, alcohol was again served,^[2] although it proved to be unprofitable.

In 2014, the cafe underwent an almost year-long nineteen million dollar renovation, which saw it connect to a nearby restaurant and increase seating capacity by thirty percent. The new combined area totals 42,000 square feet and has space for 900 customers.^[3]

References

1. Pritchard, Marietta (Summer 1998). "http://www.umass.edu/umassmag/archives/1998/summer_98/sum98_f_drake.html#anchor1714104". UMass Magazine. Retrieved 30 December 2013. External link in |title= (help)
2. Bucholz, Sarah (28 March 2003). "Alcoholic beverages return to Blue Wall". The Campus Chronicle. Retrieved 30 December 2013.
3. Reidy, Chris (10 September 2014). "$19m renovation of a UMass Amherst dining hall is completed, building authority says". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 12 September 2014.

External links

• UMass student work on the Blue Wall
• Images of bands performing in the Blue Wall

Coordinates: 42°23′29.72″N 72°31′36.11″W / 42.3915889°N 72.5266972°W