The Thirsty Become The Hungry

It’s cold outside on this Thursday evening, and the masses continue to systematically pour in to relieve their hunger. I am at Illegal Pete’s a little after 10 PM, and the line is almost out the door, but I decide to wait it out. There is something to be said for the packed tables and hungry students. This is the prime spot for a late night munch, especially when a large population of students are a little more than tipsy.

            Fast-food service with a little class – you wait out the line to be met by a train of three employees who will make your meal. The vast majority of orders here are burritos, as they are not only delicious, but give you the most bang for your buck. You can also order up quesadillas, salads, and an array of American-Mexican food. The first staff member takes care of the first part of you order - you order what you want, and that involves what kind of meat, rice and beans. The second employee tops you off with the vegetables and toppings, be it salsa, onion, cheese, guacamole, sour cream, corn… and the list goes on. From there, they wrap the oversized calorie-plagued burritos, something that takes more skill than meets the eye. The staff then marks your order, hand it to the employee at the cash register, and ring you out.

            Generally, it’s a pretty simple process, and the burritos are pretty damn great. The staff however aren’t so much, at least from what I’ve experienced. They tend to be abrupt and rude. Their fast pace meets the demand of the hungry students, but often leaves the customer feeling unappreciated, just a pawn in the food line. Occasionally you can strike up a conversation with the staff, but for the most part that seems to be reserved to the bartenders. The bar is relatively small, and the one or two staff working there aren’t nearly as busy - they’re just trying to make some tips.

Occasionally a band will play, a lot of the time local musicians from DU. Those nights seem to be more lively, and this place does stay busy, often late into the night. The staff wear Illegal Pete’s shirts, and the franchise is part of a small chain of restaurants. The setting is pretty low key, and seems to be mostly a college hang out spot. The tables are pretty loud, and everyone seems pretty engaged with their food if they are not drinking. There isn’t a person here eating by themself, marking Illegal Pete’s as a prime social hang out joint.

            At Illegal Pete’s, productivity is their priority. One of the more attractive parts of the restaurant I find is that you see all of the ingredients out before your eyes, and most consumers try to imagine they are the freshest ingredients as possible. The bar aspect gives the restaurant a laid back vibe, one where customers come and go as they please. The later hours into the night seem to see more and more intoxicated students walking in and out of the doors. It is an ideal place for drunk students, they can be satisfied by food for the cost of seven dollars, along with a free drink if they present their Pioneer ID. But Illegal Pete’s is just one of the many DU drunk-eating spots. The campus is surrounded by fast food and cheap restaurants that appeal to the average college student. Back to drunk eating though, it seems to be one of DU student’s favorite hobbies, and it is probably one of college student’s favorite hobbies in general – that is if you can call it a hobby.

            So what is the appeal to chowing down when you’re slightly inebriated? I was bound to solve this puzzle, because anyone walking in late night would be reminded that this ideal restaurant setting is in close proximity to DU for a reason, in fact it stays profitable by remaining a college-catering business. More than that, it seems to be mostly privileged college students eating when you look around, so I am going to go ahead and make the claim that spoiled college kids partake in this late night activity more so than the average American. Most people outside of college that I know don’t binge eat because they are drunk, but at DU, that justification is more than sufficient.

            Back at my Quaker boarding school, my teachers who live simplistic and self-sustaining lives may be appalled at the sight of Illegal Pete’s. When you grow and kill all of your own food, you start to take on a new appreciation for what you eat. For myself, it gave me a reason to eat all the more food when I left the school. You could say it gave me an appreciation for eating food we did not grow ourselves and eating animals we did not slaughter.

            Well for one thing, there aren’t too many articles out there discussing why people drunk eat. I mean besides the obvious factor that it tastes good, what else is there to drunk eating? The closest thing I found to an answer was in Men’s Health, where Spanish researches found that, “Alcohol could even make you eat more. In a U.K. study, men drank either 12 ounces of a non-alcoholic lager, or the same lager spiked with about 2 drinks worth of alcohol. Even though the alcoholic lager contained more calories itself, men ate 30 percent more calories after drinking it—despite the fact that they didn’t report higher appetites than the other group” (Men’s Health).

            Drunchies 101: it takes longer to feel full when you drink before a meal because of the fact that your body recognizes alcohol as a toxin rather than a calorie. Social contexts also provide reasons why to eat when you’re drunk.  Junk food all of a sudden tastes great when you drink, and great food tastes remarkable. For the most part, it seems to be a social reason: kids drink, they socialize, and they want to eat. Drunk eating may be as simple as that; food tastes better when you are drinking. Illegal Pete’s defines itself as a haven for both sober and inebriated kids. One can eat with their friends and enjoy the later hours of the night. From my experience at this lively restaurant, Illegal Pete’s unifies the hungry, the inebriated, and ultimately satisfies students from all over Denver.

Works Cited

Aaron, Kiera. "Why You Eat When You're Drunk | Men's Health News." Men's Health

News. 15 Apr. 2011. Web. Apr. 2012. <http://news.menshealth.com/why-you-

drunk-dial-domino’s/2011/08/15/>.