Nov 28, 2025 - Education Brief

A nostalgic dive into Richmond's legendary college bars

Sabrina Moreno

Illustration of beer foam overflowing from a trophy. — Illustration: Maura Losch/Axios

Reading about your favorite college bars has me feeling nostalgic about my JMU days of ordering dollar jello shots and smoking indoor cigs at Finny's.

And let's not forget downing beers under the bra-covered ceiling of the OG Jack Brown's — or all the times we fell off the mechanical bull at Backcountry (RIP).

Yes, but: Your college bar picks were even better.

At VCU: One reader remembered Andy's in the '70s, where 18-year-olds drank 3.2% "kiddie beer" in the back room.

Another met their spouse at Chuggers in 2002.
Several shouted out the Jade Elephant on Grace Street in the '80s, where throwing peanut shells on the floor was encouraged.
Then there was Back Alley Tavern on Robinson, known for $4 Sam Adams pitchers, 25-cent wings and eventually, a fire.

University of Richmond: City Limit — now Toast — was where one reader would walk the two miles from campus in the early 2010s and "try to convince the Jimmy John's delivery drivers to give us a ride back."

Honorable mentions: The now-closed Chancey's at Radford was so beloved that its "Chrusties" pizza rolls have a Facebook fan page.

Maggie's at American University in the 1990s had a quarter-operated breathalyzer machine students definitely used responsibly.

The bottom line: Some met the fire marshal. Others rebranded. All live on as part of someone's best (or worst) story.

Education Brief

A nostalgic dive into Richmond's legendary college bars

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