On a cold Thursday night in March, Fred Jaquin sits at the center of attention at The Night Drop. The 68-year-old narrates —scene by scene — the 2007 British dark comedy Death at a Funeral for the three patrons and owner Jamie Crouse.
This soliloquy fits Crouse’s vision for his establishment. He refuses to play sports or news on The Night Drop’s singular television, which sits high above the bar on the wall that used to serve as the entrance to the vault of the Bank of Onondaga. So, after an earlier showing of the 1943 Orson Welles film Journey into Fear, Jaquin — who says he comes to The Night Drop four days a week — suggests Death at a Funeral, which he watched at home the day before. However, the lack of a beefy stereo system connected to the distant TV means Jaquin must step in and narrate.
His memory easily rose to the task; Jaquin possesses an intellect which makes itself known within moments of striking up conversation with him. In this case, that first conversation was about the number three and its “cosmic significance.” Jaquin’s word choice is appropriate given his former job as a professor emeritus of astronomy and physics at Onondaga Community College. In early 2021 at the Syracuse Astronomical Society, he gave a talk entitled “Measuring the Distance to nearby spiral galaxy NGC 2442 using the method of ‘standard candles’ and supernova SN2015F,” with “standard candles” referring to the luminosity of the supernova, a brightness which at its peak can eclipse that of entire galaxies.
Jaquin’s luminosity similarly peaks when asked about The Night Drop and its place in his life. Under Crouse’s ownership and in the bar’s previous life as The Remedy, Jaquin frequents the bar to celebrate, mourn, and, unsurprisingly, to consider the mysteries of the universe. He says one of his fondest memories of the bar was when, with a scotch in hand and friends alongside, he tried to work out how he could measure the distance to the moon without modern technological assistance. He settled on the use of a surveyor’s transit, a simple tool that measures horizontal and vertical angles.
But Jaquin also spends his more grounded moments here. In fact, Jaquin says the bar touches just about every aspect of his life. But disagreement exists regarding exactly how long he’s been coming. Crouse says since 1972, and Jaquin says he first began taking refuge on a stool in the 1980s. It may as well be a lifetime. He met his wife, Brenda, here; they tied the knot in the bar in a small ceremony in 2009, one which he cryptically describes as “untraditional.” He also met the men who helped construct his home. “I met the guys I built my house with [here],” he says. “I built it with three guys I met at this bar.”
As the credits begin to roll on the TV screen for Death at a Funeral, the conversation around the bar turns inward. Though a recent addition to the bar’s long history, Crouse’s vision for the place resonates with the now near-ubiquitous Jaquin, who unsurprisingly leans into lyricism when cutting to the heart of his love affair with the bar: “The calculus is a little more complicated than just getting drunk.” He says, adding, “this is a bar where people talk to each other. This is a bar where you make connections with wonderful people.”