The quintessential college dive bar.
Halftime kamikazes.
All you can eat Jumbo Wings.
My personal favorite--3 in 1 Wednesdays. Not 3 for 1, 3 IN 1. You order a rum and coke and you get a triple pour of rum. Can't fit more than a splash of coke on top. The drink was still clear! I remember chicks getting a coke on the side because the damn thing was too strong.
Got my very first "legal" drink there on my 21st birthday. Bartender gave me a free shot, a "gorilla fart" also known as a "252". It was equal parts Bacardi 151 and Wild Turkey 101. Imagine shooting 80 proof whiskey neat. Just straight, at room temperature, no chaser. That's a girlie drink compared to a gorilla fart. A gorilla fart is like shooting 126 proof neat. And it was a heavy Porpoise pour too. Typically straight liquor is 40% alcohol, a gorilla fart is 63% alcohol. Ouch. Welcome to the big leagues, rookie.
I remember girls having "porpoise shoes". It was always so crowded and the floors were disgusting. Girls didn't want their cute shoes ruined.
I visited it after it became Gator City. It still smelled like the Porpoise. You'd come home after a night at the Porpoise and leave your clothes in a pile on the balcony or bathroom because they would make your whole closet smell like the Porpoise. Pass out in your clothes and your sheets would get the smell. That smell would get in a girl's hair too.
One time, I walked out of there, right past the bouncers, with 2 of their empty pitchers. A friend of mine actually got arrested for trying to steal a Porpoise pitcher but I strolled out of there like a boss with one in each hand. Dunno how the hell that happened.
I still own a black "Decadence...A Way of Life" Porpoise T-shirt.
There was a unique way of meeting girls at the Porpoise. There was a very narrow space between the booths and the bar. When it was crowded, you couldn't walk through there without being pressed up against everybody else (like Mardis Gras crowded). You had to become adept at interpreting the rubbing game. Was this girl just trying to get to the bathroom, or was she rubbing those highbeams against your chest because she was interested? Was she boxing you out, or was she rubbing her ass against your crotch for another reason? You had to read body language and facial expressions. Part two was figuring out if the girl was just teasing, having fun, or was she looking.
They used to run an ad in the newspaper. Free pitcher of the beverage of your choice with an hour of pool or something like that. They assumed the beverage of your choice would be coke or draft beer. My buddy and I go in there and ask for a pitcher of kamikazes. The bartender talked to the manager and agreed. These weren't the pre-mixed halftime kamikazes. This was the real deal. Brilliant or stupid? You decide.
You were somebody in Gainesville when you knew enough people and enough bouncers that you didn't have to wait in line or ever pay a cover at the Porpoise. Loved that place.
I wish I knew they were gutting it. I would have driven up there and gotten one of the booths.
We didn't have cell phone cameras back in my day. I don't have pictures to remind me of our escapades at the Porpoise. Only hazy, drunken memories. Maybe it's better this way.
Alex.
WTH 
