Bowling Green becomes a home for some students while they are at Western.

Some alumni reminisced about places they frequented as students.

• Courtney Mims, a 2008 graduate who lives in Memphis, Tenn., said the Great American Doughnut Shop, at 901 U.S. 31W, is her favorite place to visit when she comes to Bowling Green.

While at Western, she frequented GADS during sleepless nights, she said. There she and her friends contemplated how they could finance adventurous road trips on the limited funds of a college student.

Mims said she hasn’t forgotten the GADS employees.

“I feel that they never sleep,” she said. “There are always the same people there, day or night.”

• Elizabethtown resident Jennifer Underwood, who graduated in 1997, said Mariah’s, at 801 State St., is her favorite place to visit because she thinks it has the best food in town.

“It really doesn’t feel like I’ve been to Bowling Green unless I go,” she said.

She said she doesn’t always order the same thing at Mariah’s, but her favorite is the fried mushroom appetizer.

• Nashville resident Steve Hopper, who graduated in 2005, said he thinks Mariah’s welcomes everyone from bankers and lawyers to average college students.

“The staff and homey feel at Mariah’s sticks out to me,” he said.

Hopper also has fond memories of Froggy’s, at 1265 College St. He said Froggy’s has evolved a lot over the years. It used to be called Baker Boys.

“I kind of grew up with it,” he said. “It’s the quintessential campus pub.”

• Ameerah Cetawayo, who graduated in 2005 and now lives in Albany, N.Y., said she loves Chaney’s Dairy Barn, at 9191 Nashville Road.

She said she sometimes buys it for her New York friends and her family who live in Louisville.

Cetawayo said Chaney’s Dairy Barn became her favorite place in Bowling Green during her senior year at Western. Then, as a business reporter for the Bowling Green Daily News, the owners became some of her favorite people to interview.

“Chaney’s is an awesome force of tasty food and Kentucky Proud products,” Cetawayo said.

• Owensboro resident Laura Mathis, a 1985 graduate, said she likes to look over the city of Bowling Green from Van Meter Hall on campus.

“From up there, usually around homecoming time, it is beautiful to look out over the city, “ Mathis said. “I feel so comfortable up there.”

Downtown Bowling Green has its fair share of dive bars where scatterbrained jukeboxes supply the music and student regulars spill and swallow equal amounts of beer.

But Fluid, a new nightclub on State Street, makes sure to distinguish itself from other bars, Executive Manager Bill Smrtic said.

“It’s a different feel than when you go to a bar somewhere and you kind of stick to the floor, and you feel like you have to burn your clothes and take a shower when you come home,” he said. “We wanted to do something clean and contemporary.”

Since Fluid opened in June, Smrtic and his wife and co-owner, Amy, have offered upscale entertainment every Tuesday through Saturday evening starting at 7 p.m.

Weekends at Fluid feature a live disc jockey who spins an eclectic assortment of tunes, Bill Smrtic said.

“It’s not just something you’re going to hear top 40 on the radio,” he said.

A spacious hardwood floor under a ceiling draped with white curtains gives clubgoers a place to dance in the glow of red, yellow and purple neon lights.

For clubgoers too timid to take a spin without a little liquid courage, Fluid has a custom drink menu featuring a green rum-based cocktail called “Kryptonite” and a famous Lemon Drop Martini, said Amy Smrtic, a 2004 Western graduate.

Bartenders are working on a custom shot menu, and a variety of beer and liquor are also available, she said. Fluid frequenters have learned to eat before they come because, as the name suggests, the club only serves liquids.

On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, Fluid hosts live bands to offer a more relaxed environment during the mid-week rush, Bill Smrtic said.

But, overall, Fluid has one goal.

“We’re bringing big city to Bowling Green,” Amy Smrtic said.

Guests must be 21 or older, according to fluidbg.com. Women get in free every night, and men get in free Tuesday and Wednesday nights. There is a $5 cover charge Thursday through Saturday.

Fluid’s dress code is “stylishly elegant,” according to fluidbg.com.