The Battle of the Bars

by Scott Angles

In these times of budget cuts and possible tuition hikes, Ohio University students would do well to count their blessings, all 19 of them.  Students enrolled at Ohio University’s Athens campus are endowed with a surplus of bars.  With the newest uptown bar addition, 12 East, thirsty bobcats have their choice of a myriad of uptown dives in to imbibe their favorite poisons.  The sheer number of options is enough to make even the most modest drinker’s head spin, not to mention the occasional logistics nightmare for tipsy bar hoppers trying to find their friends.  I.e., “Did they say the Cat’s Eye or the Cat’s Den?”

Of course such a clumped density of bars prompts competition.  Slightly over half of O.U. students attending classes here in Athens are of legal drinking age or older.  This translates to one bar for every 556 drinking age bobcats presently enrolled on the Athens campus.  In such a competitive marketplace, a bar’s ability to survive depends largely upon how it caters to its customers.

In the Athens bar world, the greatest measure of success is longevity.  In this rough and tumble trade, it seems like businesses almost open and fail overnight.  An O.U. alumni returning to Athens for the first time in 20 years would be shocked to find uptown filled with unfamiliar dram shops and dives that simply did not exist 15 years ago.  So, what is the formula for a long-lasting establishment?  It can be said in one word: Customers.

Every uptown bar has unique ways drawing in crowds.  Extended happy hours, daily specials and distinctive drinks are all common techniques used to draw in costumers and profits.  Junctions’ signature punch, offered for $2.25 on Thursdays has contributed to too many skipped Friday classes, and Tony’s delicious Hot Nut shots have laid many hardened bar veterans low.  And while economic incentives and tantalizing drink offers traditionally form the cornerstone of any successful business enterprise specializing in the serving of alcohol, these policies do little to encourage a regular patronage; the majority of dram shops endorse such a policy.

Equally important to an uptown bars’ success is creating a niche of loyal student patrons.  Over time, various cultural strata have become associated with certain bars, whether due to their music venues or their usual clientele.  The Crystal premiers as the foremost hangout out for O.U.’s various fraternities and sororities, although the C.I. takes in a fair share.  Casa Cantina tailors to Appalachian music fans by hosting a weekly ‘bluegrass night,’ and each Wednesday finds the Smiling Skull Saloon brimming with clientele eagerly viewing and participating in karaoke.

Thus, the success or failure of any bar hinges largely upon the successful, simultaneous implementation of these two business strategies.  In a rational world, such an arrangement would certainly guarantee an establishment’s ability to take in profits year after year.  Unfortunately, for Athenian purveyors of libations, modern psychology has largely proven that the choices of average consumers are often irrational.  Given that there are with 19 separate uptown taverns, all located within a third of a mile from college gate, it is inevitable that some will fail.

And Athens history is filled with many such failings.  For instance, in 1945, any respectable ‘pub crawl’ (the contemporary term ‘shuffle’ is a relatively new colloquialism) would have included stops at the Wonder Bar and the Sportsman’s Bar & Grill, the most reputable bars of the time.  These venues of the distant past are practically unknown amongst O.U.’s current crop of students.  In their heyday however, the names of these institutions were regular fodder of classroom conversations and frequently shouted across college green.  But all nostalgia aside, these two forgotten businesses provide useful reference points that can be compared with current conditions.

Wonder Bar was once located at 24 W. Union St., which is now Jackie O’s Brew Pub.  Jackie O’s currently plays host to a loyal patronage of beer coinsurers, a testament to their impressive inventory of craft beers that they brew on-site.  It is hard to dispute the success of Athens’ only microbrewery, given their 2009 acquisition of Skippers, an adjacent bar that had recently gone defunct.   This is a fickle economic locale however and Jackie O’s itself is a recent phenomenon at this site, having only bought the property in 2006 from O’ Hooleys, another bar that had gone under on the same sight.

The Sportsman’s Pub & Grill formerly occupied 63 N. Court St., another uptown location with a sordid past.  While students may not recall this establishment, many certainly remember a more contemporary occupant, the Blue Gator.  Until recently, the two stories of the Blue Gator were a hotspot for local blues artists and enthusiasts.  The Gator went  under in 2008 when its owner, Terry Anderson (a fascinating figure who was held hostage in Iran by Hezbollah extremists for close to seven years and successfully sued the Iranian government for $26 million), was forced to liquidate the property due to bankruptcy.  The property was auctioned to the Hocking Valley bank last year for $600,000 which promptly put it back up for sale for $675,000, around $125,000 more than the properties appraised value.  The building has yet to be purchased. Its foggy windows, which once reverberated jazz saxophones and trumpets, now gaze emptily out at Court Street collecting dust.

Given all this doom and gloom, it would be easy to consider Athens too volatile a market for even the most well planned enterprise to thrive for long.  And while many uptown enterprises are ‘as the grass of the field,’ here today gone tomorrow, there are some stories of success.

The Pub, located at 39 N. Court St. is one such example.  Before it took on its current, this establishment went under the moniker J.C.’s, a dingy establishment with few customers.  In 1974, Steve Sines and his wife Teresa purchased the dive and fixed it up, reopening it as the Pub.  The Pub has remained a steadfast presence on Court Street for the last 37 years, serving their signature beer-cheese soup and 34oz aquarium beers to generations of bobcats.

Only one uptown bar in business today has survived the tumultuous years of the Great Depression, far outliving any current establishment serving customers today: the Union.  This two story bar, located at 18 W. Union St, was legitimately established in December 1934, after the repeal of prohibition.  The building had been in operation as a speakeasy since 1924, and when the noble experiment of temperance was disbanded, the bar opened as a legal business.  So what is the secret to the Union’s ability to survival?

Foremost, it has an excellent location.  It’s the closest bar to college gate, lying closer to campus than many other bars.  This positioning has allowed this longstanding member of Union Street first access to students heading uptown after class. This explanation falls short however, as the history of the Union’s current neighbor Jackie O’s can attest.  And the Union doesn’t have any really spectacular customer incentives; an average pool table, blatz beer for one dollar and an upstairs stage hosting bands practically every night.

It’s really amazing that such an unassuming place has been so successful while droves of its competitors have failed.  Whatever the explanation underlying its success, the Union has a remarkable history and deservers respect, if only for vulnerabilities sake.  Today’s bobcats should sleep well, knowing that whatever the future may bring, the Union will likely still be serving cold beer and loud music.