COURTSIDE: Beer and pizza: the cornerstones of collegiate civilization.

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HUNTER HOWATT-NAB/THE POST

Courtside Pizza off-duty employees Pete Russell (right), delivery-man, and Joe Christian, supervising manager, relax and enjoy food and drinks at the bar. "I prefer working for family-owned restaurants because I like the employees. . .you don't always get that with a major restaurant chain," Christian said Wednesday. The bar was recently added to the restaurant to bring more of an atmosphere and alternative to other businesses in town.

by Mandy Edwards and Ritu Kelotra
THE POST

So Athens has another place to drink, but we're not complaining.

Courtside Pizza, 85 N. Court St., opened its newly remodeled bar Tuesday.

Reviewing a bar may sound like an easy job. After all, it required drinking beer. On the contrary - picking apart a bar for Ohio University students, the connoisseurs of drinking establishments, is a tough job.

But, somebody's gotta do it.

The first good thing about Courtside Bar is that it's 21 and over. This assures that Athens won't have another teenager-filled Cheese.

The brick walls and large windows give it a warehouse feel. The pool tables and arcade games have been replaced with booths and tables. Not bad. But pizza pan-type things hanging from the ceiling detracted from the décor. If anything, their presence was a bit confusing.

The music added to the relaxed atmosphere. Selection varied from Portishead to Tom Petty to U2 during our time there. The method was to play part of a CD, then switch. Televisions were mounted around the room, but all that showed were movie previews for DirectTV (We're hoping they'll switch programming in the future).

With the pizza parlor in-house, Courtside is like Chuck E. Cheese, only with a bar and minus the rugrats. A large cheese pizza was just $4.99, and went well with our drinks. The alcohol selection was pretty typical of most places (we were a little disappointed about the lack of hard cider, though). So far, there are three beers on tap. Prices seemed average, if not slightly higher, compared with other Uptown establishments. A bottle of Amstel Lite cost $2.50; a bottle of Budweiser cost $2 and a Stoli's raspberry and Sprite will set you back $3.50.

The service is definitely above average. The Courtside bartenders actually acknowledge you right away, rather than blatantly ignoring you for 20 minutes (which is what we've become accustomed to). The service was quick and courteous.

Overall, Courtside rates high. We liked the fact Athens now has a place to grab a beer ••and•• a slice with friends.

Our only suggestion to readers: Get there quick, while the toilets still flush and the walls haven't been inundated with graffiti.