Out-R-Inn, located at 20 Frambes Ave., was voted “Best North Campus Bar” in The Lantern’s 2024 “Best of OSU” polling. Credit: Carly Damon | Asst. Photo Editor
Disclaimer: The Lantern’s “Best of OSU” polling was conducted via social media and should not be considered statistically representative of Ohio State’s extended student body.
This year marks the 55th anniversary of one of Ohio State’s longest-standing campus bars.
Out-R-Inn, which opened its doors in 1969, has been voted as Ohio State’s “Best North Campus Bar” by The Lantern’s readers in this year’s “Best of OSU” polling.
Steve Valentino, the bar’s general manager, said Out-R-Inn’s motivated staffers have been responsible for preserving the bar’s various traditions throughout the years.
“For the most part, everybody that’s worked here has gone to Ohio State, and I think that shows up when we’re working,” Valentino said. “It’s easy to pass down the legacy when you have guys that are sticking around for 10-plus years, so it’s not like you have a fresh group of employees coming in year to year and starting fresh on how to efficiently and confidently run a bar and interact with customers.”
Valentino said not only does the bar have a rich history, but so does the building that Out-R-Inn occupies itself, which is over 100 years old.
“The building’s been owned by the same family since it was opened. In the 1910s, it started out just as a duplex house. It had students living here for the first 40 or so years before it turned into a bar,” Valentino said. “The bar itself has expanded multiple times as the bar slowly was built, starting in the late ‘60s.”
Billy Parrott, Out-R-Inn’s general manager, said the bar pulls in large crowds not just for game days, but also during weeknights due to regular event lineups and special deals.
“Tuesdays, we do our euchre league; it’s very popular,” Parrott said. “Wednesdays, we do our cornhole league; Thursdays, it’s double wells, $2 a piece on that; Fridays, we do $4 Yager and then Saturdays, we do $4 all Jack, which I think is pretty solid.”
Parrott said as a dive bar, Out-R-Inn offers a sizable array of drink options for customers to choose from, including Parrott’s favorite: the rumple mint shot.
“Rumple mint is a peppermint Schnapps, and, honestly, it gets the job done,” Parrott said. “You have one or two, and then you’re ready to go for the night.”
Valentino said the bar’s loyal following of customers, who have developed meaningful relationships with many of the bar’s workers and staff members over the years, played an instrumental role in Out-R-Inn’s over 50 years of success.
“We get a lot of repeat customers where if we’re open, they’re here four or five days a week,” Valentino said. “They pop in to say, ‘Hi,’ they know all the bartenders at work and that happens pretty often.”
