The restaurants of the Lexington community have issued a statement of support for student-thrown day parties, colloquially known as “darties” or “day chays”, after seeing a spike in revenue, especially tips, on the evenings of these events. It may seem unclear as to why students pretending not to be drunk would be beneficial for their business. One manager in town talked of how some customers complained that the noisy students detracted from the dining experience, but they continue to graciously make exceptions for the rowdiness because of the spike in business only a group of seven who all order individual appetizers can bring. Hangry students everywhere flock from the Quad to Main Street, their stamina fueled solely by the fact that they waited forty-five minutes for a ride from a driver and dreamed about pepperoni pizza the whole time they stood by the side of the road. Items that soothe a drunken distress, such as chicken fingers, burgers, and literally anything with cheese, are ordered three times more on darty days than on the average day. One server at a popular restaurant in town said that what really does it is “… those drunk girls. At first they were annoying, because they would come into the restaurant in those ridiculous German dresses and scream about how fucked up they were and how badly they just needed pickle chips. But then one group ordered $250 worth of pizza and were too drunk to notice that they tipped me 50%, so now I don’t even care. I can only hope that they will be return customers come St. Patrick’s Day.”
— Audrey Overholt ’22
The Radish 