It’s hidden in a quiet corner of Carleton University’s student epicenter, but Mike’s Place isn’t exactly the university’s best kept secret.
Tucked at the back of the second floor of Nideyinàn, the small gr
ad student pub carries a legacy that stretches back to 1972. Once packed to the brim with laughter, live music and weekly trivia nights, Mike’s Place is now a lingering shadow of what once was.
Faded signage and rows of empty tables fill the pub, and these days, it serves mostly as a pit stop between classes where a handful of students and faculty gather in small clusters around the bar or perched at the black high-top tables. Its charm lies in the stillness of its low chatter and occasional shuffle of chairs.
But Mike’s Place hasn’t always been this way.
For years, it was a hub for students looking to attend some of “the most happening events” of the week.
“You had to go two hours ahead of time to get a seat and claim a spot,” Eric Hitsman, a music performance coordinator at the university, told the Charlatan.
Hitsman, who has attended the pub’s once weekly trivia nights since 2009 and started hosting them since 2015, said Mike’s Place was “jam-packed all the time — and when it happens every week, the word catches on.”
Where did all that magic go?
Mike’s Place in the 1990s: ‘A nurturing place’
Mike’s Place was also known for live music, cleverly named “Open Mike” nights.
Carleton alumni Rob Currie used to play at the Open Mike events up until he graduated from his masters in International Affairs in 1993.
For Currie, Mike’s Place marked his start playing live east coast Canadian folk music.
“There was a Carleton grad student culture,” Currie said.
“Mike’s played a big role in that — it had a unifying effect.”
Currie said the togetherness brought on Mike’s Place was mostly because of how busy the pub used to be, brimming with people throughout the week.
Those nights in 1992 were especially busy, Currie describes Thursday through Saturday as packed, but says there was a constant buzz at Mike’s Place throughout the week.
“It kinda had the feel of an old-fashioned coffee house,” Currie said,
“It was a really nice, friendly, laid back atmosphere, just a good place to go to have a beer after class, or to have a night out, or as a place you might start your night out.”
“It was a nurturing place. It really created ties, friendships that I still have today … I am still friends with people from my program.”
But Mike’s Place is not open on the weekends anymore. The pub is now open from 11:30am until 7 p.m. on Mondays through Wednesdays, and until 9 p.m. or 10 p.m., Thursday and Friday nights.
To Currie, the idea that Mike’s Place is not as busy or as well-known as it was in the ‘90s is troubling.
“It was one of the fulcrums of the community for us. You know you can go back further in time, like back to the ‘50s, any Canadian university, there’d be these bars and coffee shops that were the hangouts and they were just vital social institutions.
“So, the idea that it’s fading makes me sad.”
Currie said his era of Mike’s Place was incredibly important to the Carleton graduate students at the time, and to him now, because of how inclusive it was.
“At a school that size, you have lots of different graduate programs and students who are kinda far-flung and don’t necessarily have a lot in common, but Mike’s was a place where we could all come together.”
Mike’s was a place of mingling for all levels of the Carleton community, from undergraduates to professors, Currie said.
‘Back to its former greatness’
The gradual decline in attendance over the years coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic has taken a major financial toll on the student pub.
Stephanie Duffy, the pub’s hospitality and operations manager, said initiatives aiming at bringing costs down while still providing quality food haven’t helped the pub’s financial burdens.
“We’re just bringing some of the prices down on the menu to help students,” Duffy said, adding that expenses have increased over the years.
But providing food and services at a reasonable price made it difficult for the Graduate Student Association (GSA) and Mike’s Place to afford labour costs and food prices.
According to GSA’s 2023 financial statement report, Mike’s Place spent $228,586 for operation expenses in 2023, a 34.4 per cent increase over the $170,114 spent in 2021.
The GSA proposed and successfully passed a referendum in March 2024. The referendum proposed a $7 increase to graduate students’ tuition, which would go directly to supporting Mike’s Place.
“The referendum passing means that Mike’s Place gets to stay,” Hitsman said.
“It doesn’t necessarily mean that all its problems are solved, but it would help to bring it back to its former greatness.”
Hitsman, who once served as president of the GSA, said Mike’s Place was never meant to be for-profit.
“It’s never been a profit producing company. It’s supported by student services, just like everything else at Carleton,” he said. “We always had the idea that we were gonna give the food as cheap as possible because students don’t necessarily have a lot of money.”
A lingering legacy
After the referendum successfully passed, Mike’s Place is undergoing somewhat of a rebirth, looking to regain its spark through events like trivia nights.
Tal Friedman, a cognitive science master’s student who works at Mike’s Place, said he sees a bright future for the pub.
“Now that we’re open five days a week, we’re really, really ramping up.”
Part of the attempt at revitalization is a renewed focus on trivia and live music.
To Friedman, part of the allure of Mike’s is its coziness.
“It’s like somebody just cut out an English pub and just stuck it right in the middle of Carleton,” Friedman said.
While cozy, Mike’s Place is quiet, far from its lively heyday in the 1990s. Pop music now echoes through the room from large speakers across the bar. TVs display various professional sports to the few sitting in for a meal. It is immaculately clean but tends to be starkly empty.
A comic of Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson hangs in the pub, watching over the room. Pearson, a Carleton University alumnus, was affectionately known as “Mike,” a nickname he earned while serving in the Second World War.
His legacy lives on at the pub, where a comic and a portrait on the wall pays tribute to his life and achievements, celebrating his accomplishments as Canada’s 14th Prime Minister and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
“It’s a shame because most people don’t even know Mike’s Place exists anymore,” Hitsman said.
Featured image Alisha Velji/the Charlatan.
