Pitch Social revamps ‘Blucy’s’ to unleash club energy on SU’s bar scene
Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox.
Subscribe to our newsletter here.
Today, Marshall Street’s bar scene is limited to three options: Faegan’s Cafe & Pub, Orange Crate Brewing Co. and Harry’s Bar.
At Faegan’s, a typical 21-plus Syracuse University student can expect a laid-back night playing cards with friends and sipping beer on Flip Night. For a rowdy night filled with dancing, students head over to Orange Crate, while Harry’s primarily operates as a sports bar. Once all three options have run their courses, a night out can become repetitive.
Enter Pitch Social at Syracuse.
“Students that we’ve talked to have told us that back in the day, the bar scene was way different. Now, it’s a little more stale and it’s the same stuff over and over again,” Drew Patel, Pitch Social’s founder, said. “Orange Crate has its charm. Faegan’s has its charm. Harry’s has its charm. But I think it’s time to bring something new to campus, a new idea.”
Since July, the former Lucy Blu Island Bar & Club, also known as “Blucy’s,” has been undergoing a makeover with Pitch Social, a college bar that first started at Rutgers University last September. Centered on creating a night club atmosphere, Pitch Social will be opening its second location at SU in the next four to six weeks, Pitch Social partner Sebastian Ramirez said.
Ramirez, who is from Syracuse, had been coming to 161 Marshall St. for several years, even before Lucy Blu had its start in 2021. Over the years, Ramirez has seen the space evolve and always knew it needed a Pitch Social spin. Ramirez tried connecting with Lucy Blu’s owner, R.C. Faigle — who also owns Orange Crate — for a while, until his chance came last October.
One night, Ramirez said he saw R.C. in Syracuse’s downtown area. He went up and introduced himself.
“That’s how it went and was a lot more organic than I thought it was going to be,” Ramirez said.
The innocent conversation led to Pitch Social’s involvement. At the time, Faigle owned and managed two bars simultaneously. When Faigle decided to focus solely on Orange Crate, he entrusted Ramirez and the rest of the Pitch Social team to manage the space.
Patel, who graduated from Rutgers in 2022, started Pitch Social when he purchased a local bar near Rutgers, Golden Rail. Similar to SU, Patel said Rutgers lacked a varied bar scene, making a night out difficult to enjoy. So, when Patel had the opportunity to create a bar with a completely different atmosphere, it was a “no-brainer.”
A Pitch Social mural is surrounded by a DJ booth and strobe lights. Located at 161 Marshall St., Pitch Social features club-like energy — not the standard dive bar atmosphere. Reese Niccolls | Video Editor
“We saw a need in the market for something different, something that’s not just normal lights-on and people just talking about what class they had and what essay they’re writing,” Patel said. “We wanted to create something special. We wanted to bring special experiences.”
Last Sept. 4, Patel and his team officially opened the first ever Pitch Social, which has since accumulated 85,000 followers on Instagram, becoming the most followed college bar in the country, according to its Instagram bio.
Patel credited Pitch Social’s success to its social media virality, when the team began documenting a 10-part series of the bar’s transformation journey. Its first ever Instagram video accumulated over 100,000 likes, with users — from both Rutgers and outside the school — eagerly speculating what the anticipated bar would look like, Pitch Social partner Cris Caballero said. By teasing Rutgers’ Pitch Social renovations, followers began streaming in. It even caught the attention of celebrities like Bert Kreischer and internet personality @jerseyyjoe.
“Social media is going to decide which businesses go to the next level. The brand behind any business is what keeps you relevant and keeps you appropriate by social standards,” Caballero said. “If you’re able to push any events that you have, specials, deals, clothing you’re releasing, it keeps people on top of that.”
As Pitch Social brought in big names like NAV and Sommer Ray to the Rutgers bar in New Brunswick, New Jersey, the bar cultivated a huge following on and off social media. That attention and revenue paved the way for its expansion to Syracuse less than a year since its original location opened.
While Patel and his team could’ve simply continued growing their Rutgers location and audience, he didn’t see a reason to stop at the Garden State. After the high engagement on social media, Patel figured college students craved a bar that featured club-like energy rather than the typical dive bar environment.
“We found a product that really works that people enjoy,” Patel said. We want to continue sharing it with campuses, and the love that we’ve gotten on social media from these other schools, students and people of all sorts, like celebrities and stuff like that, is unfathomable.”
Using the same format when opening its first location, Caballero and the team documented the transformation process — from Lucy Blu to Pitch Social — at Syracuse. Just like at Rutgers, SU students, mostly seniors, quickly became curious about the new bar’s appearance.
When SU students Macey Arden, Taylor Serrano and Olivia Katz first came across @pitchcuse on Instagram, they immediately expected a club-like addition near campus. Less than a week into the fall semester, the three were already tired of Marshall Street’s bar options. They believed Pitch Social offered something unlike any other bar on campus.
“I’m seeing bottle service and shot girls, so I think it’ll be interesting considering the other bars we have,” Katz said. “(Pitch Social) is not the vibe of the other bars, but I think it will be fun to switch it up and go a little crazy.”
SU senior Jack Hicks didn’t venture into Lucy Blu much, even before it closed. When he saw Pitch Social taking over the space, he wanted to see something different. With Pitch Social partnering with Margaritas Mexican Cantina, the new bar will feature a fully operational kitchen that serves food while the bar is open — which Hicks thinks is much-needed in the current Marshall Street bar scene.
In terms of the bar’s atmosphere, Hicks believes it can go two ways. Pitch Social could be turned into a “mini Westcott Theater” by bringing in big name celebrities like Clavicular and featuring local DJs to spin. The other possibility is having a more relaxed atmosphere for seniors to simply have a good ol’ time. Hicks prefers the former.
“I’m leaning more towards the first one because I feel that it just gets more eyeballs, and if you’re also doing social media, that is a part of the goal, too, not just to make a good bar,” Hicks said.
Pitch Social’s DJ booth will help create a night club atmosphere. The second-ever Pitch Social location adds another option to Marshall Street’s classic bar scene. Reese Niccolls | Video Editor
Since construction began in July, the Marshall Street space has swapped its tropical, Tiki-style theme for a strobe-lit atmosphere with new murals, lights and an added kitchen. With a fully functioning bar already in place, Patel said there’s minimal construction required — all that’s needed is to add the “Pitch Social touch.”
As newcomers on the block, Pitch Social has seen how the other bars and SU’s community have welcomed its team to the Hill. From visiting bars downtown to meeting SU athletes and Greek organizations, Caballero said Pitch Social has no complaints about the friendly charm in Syracuse. However, even with local support, the bar still has big shoes to fill.
In 2023, SU was named the “Best Bar Town” in the country by Barstool, while Niche placed SU as the seventh-best party school in America in 2026. However, Arden, Katz and Serrano disagreed with SU’s party school reputation, and Ramirez noticed how SU’s bar scene hasn’t lived up to what it once was through his time partying on campus.
Though Ramirez never attended college, he grew up in Syracuse and has witnessed the bar scene shift. When his SU friends went to bars and house parties on campus, Ramirez often tagged along, seeing firsthand how active SU’s nightlife was. But when COVID-19 struck, Ramirez watched the bar scene decline.
With Pitch Social introducing itself to Syracuse, Ramirez firmly believes in bringing the party reputation back to SU.
“We want to bring the Pitch Social-ism from Rutgers to Syracuse to set and elevate the whole bar scene and hopefully win ‘Best Bar Town’ for our school in the country again,” Ramirez said.
Similar to Ramirez, Patel has seen how Rutgers’ declining bar scene transformed when Pitch Social entered the conversation. At SU, students can expect the same change.
“We plan to bring some really cool experiences like we did at Rutgers here. We want to bring something new for the students,” Patel said. “At the end of the day, that’s what we’re looking to do. Made by students, for the students.”
