Students and locals enjoy a beer at the new Third Place lounge on Main Street Thursday. Photo by Oliva Maher. 

Third Place Pizzeria officially opened its adjacent lounge on Tuesday, March 13. Since opening last year, Third Place has been a favorite spot for residents of Castleton and especially Castleton University students, to grab an affordable slice.

The official opening of the new space had every seat in the house filled with students as and locals checking out the new installment and enjoying drinks from the many taps at the bar.

Third Place owner Andrew Breting, a Castleton alumni, originally announced his plans to open a lounge next door last fall, and since then many students have been anxiously awaiting its arrival.

“The opening went great,” Breting said enthusiastically.

When asked for an estimate on the number of people who showed up, he said it was so busy that he couldn’t give an accurate guess.

“We’ve been much busier since the opening, it’s been great for business,” he said.

The new space includes a lounge with about 10 seats, two flat screen TVs, a few small tables, a selection of different wines and beers, and eight taps that include a variety of local and craft beers including Fiddlehead, Angry Orchard and Switchback Ale.

The lounge was bustling on it's opening night last week. Photo by Jacob Parrett. 

Many students on campus seemed excited about the lounge finally opening. In an informal survey of eight students, those who were 21 or over said they were looking forward to getting a drink there.

On Wednesday after the official opening, Third Place hosted a trivia night. Noah Richer, a 21-year-old student, said he planned to take advantage of the trivia night to check out the new lounge, but hadn’t yet.

Megan Harper, a 21-year-old visiting friends at Castleton, said that she really enjoyed the atmosphere of the new place.

“I really like the style of the whole place,” she said. “It seems really well suited for college students.”

She continued on to talk about how she wished her college, Southern New Hampshire University, had something similar nearby.

“None of the bars around my campus are catered to college students. I think it would do a lot for the students and community to have a bar similar to this one close to our campus,” she said.

Harper, who was at the bar on its official opening on Tuesday, said she wished she had gone on a less busy day, but was overall pleased.

Kinyenje Ngigi, another 21-year-old student on campus, said he is likely to take a trip to check out the lounge with friends soon.

“They’re definitely going to get a lot of students from here coming in,” he said.