The Rosenstiel Rathskeller

Students go to the Rosenstiel Marine Science campus to study marine specimens, take samples from Biscayne Bay and work in the wet labs – and maybe drink from them too.

The RSMAS student and faculty bar called The Wet Lab is located in the Commons Fine Dining and Spirits dining hall, and is open Wednesday through Friday from 5 to 10 p.m. or later.

The bar is priced for student budgets, with daily drink specials, Thursday food specials, a view of the water and music genres that change with each of its eight bartenders.

On Fridays, the bar’s busiest nights, there are as many as 40 people drinking, playing pool and laughing indoors or out on the patio overlooking the bay.

Open since 1972, The Wet Lab is something many Coral Gables students don’t know about.

“We actually don’t get very many students from the other campus[es] over here,” said Chris Roa, one of three event planners for the company, Parties By Pat, which helps run catered events at The Wet Lab. Otherwise, it is managed and bartended by Rosenstiel students.

The Wet Lab was established “to be a place to foster networking between students, faculty, the RSMAS community and other scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration community in a casual, non-academic setting,” said Lyza Johnston, one of The Wet Lab’s two bar managers.

But Roa noted that many Wet Lab patrons are faculty and students from the Rosenstiel campus.

“It’s a tight community” said Patrick Rice, a Ph.D. student and one of the eight bartenders at The Wet Lab.

Two or three times every semester, The Wet Lab hosts events sponsored by the Marine Science Graduate Student Organization, such as a talent show or a student auction.

“It’s a good place to meet other people,” said Michael Trapp, a Ph.D. candidate for Marine and Atmospheric Chemistry. Trapp added that it’s something he looks forward to on Fridays.

Last Friday, the MSGSO coordinated a talent show that showcased dancing, music, a baking contests and the first ever Miss RSMAS contest, where male faculty cross-dressed according to a marine, atmospheric or scientific-related theme.

Jillian Moran may be contacted at j.moran@umiami.edu.

The last RSMAS shuttle leaves the Coral Gables campus at 5 p.m. on weekdays.