The Chapter House is a pub located in Ithaca, NY that has been in the same location on Stewart ave. since the beginning of time. Despite it's collegetown location, it is not filled with the normal mix of jocks and bimbos primarily because they always card people and never let a fake ID slip by, so it attracts mainly locals and grad students. Along with the relaxed atmosphere, the other main attraction is the selection. There are over 50 beers on tap at any given time, all microbrews and imports. You simply cannot get a pint of Molson, but you can always get a pint of Boddingtons. At one time they had a small brewery in back, but they reclaimed that space for other uses once quality microbrews became readily available.
The place has an odd timeless persistance, the amber to umber warmth of aged and battered hardwood moistened by a yellow light from frosted low wattage bulbs pointing upwards from the top of dusty metal chandeliers that sway gently on chains from the apogee of the vaulted ceiling composted of yellowing plaster. The dark varnish on the walls and tables is visible in scarred and dirtied strata where generations of initials, dates, and various missives from the beery to the intellectual to the mundane have been etched over the years by all sorts of improvised carving tools. Photographs of Cornell University sports teams, graduating classes, fraternities, and local characters join framed beer labels from long discontinued brews, some dated as far back as the 1930s hanging on the walls amid the carved graffiti. Some describe this as filthy or run down, but to me it is the perfect comfortable atmosphere for such a place.