The O Patio & Pub

Debatably the best bar on OSU’s campus! Friendly staff, great deals, and home to honestly the best pizza I’ve had in Columbus. Almost all of my favorite college memories revolve around this bar in some shape or form. If you’re in the area, I HIGHLY recommend making a trip here while you still can!

No, just don’t even. everywhere you look are bros in their Sperrys hanging out by the dozen. Been to about every bar and this is the one that I’ll never even consider again. The drinks weren’t terrible but the atmosphere caused me to finish my drink ASAP and get the hell out of there.

For OSU Campus nostalgia this is one of the few bars left for me. Larry’s is long since gone, Bento Go-​Go and their Saki Bombs… gone. There are still some classics like Out-​R-​Inn but how much longer will they last? I just want to say this now… O Patio will be gone soon (November 2015?) as it has been purchased by Campus Partners (the death of all things I loved about OSU’s bar scene). Get to O Patio while you can. Stop by Canes, Slice of New York/​Pizza by the Slice, Mamma’s. as they will all be gone soon.
Past Review:
I cannot seem to get away from O-​Patio. Almost every time I walk by I am pulled in by nostalgia and days long past… or not so long past. It seems to never change but I prefer day visits to night pop-​ins now. Liquid Dope is always my drink of choice but they have a pretty decent craft beer selection as well.

Frat-​io as us students call it. Come here and be expecting drunken frat boys hitting on orange, annoying sorority girls. While it is a laid back place, you can’t get past the drunken bro’s spilling beer everywhere and being louder than all get out.
’”EY, YO, BROSEPH, I WAS SO BLACKED OUT LAST NIGHT. OMGROFL“
They do have a fire pit during the colder months, but the crowd they attract keeps me away from this place.

There is one reason and one reason only to come to Four Kegs aka O-​Patio (You comin’?) or whatever else it gets changed to.
Liquid Dope. Sweet tart in alcohol form, served in a pitcher. A sugary, alcoholic mess of a drink.
Oddly enough, they have craft beers hidden behind the bar as well, which surprised me because it’s a crappy campus bar.
I’ve never eaten here, but I’ve drank several times — it’s a college bar, and during school is jam packed with drunks, off-​school, it’s often empty, and slow.
The second best thing — it’s location, so close to Raising Cane’s and A Slice of New York, two of my favorite post drinking eateries.

This place was full of all guys that had way too many drinks when we got there. Beverages were cheap– didn’t taste that good and the bar service was pretty lame. Can’t say that I’d head back here the next time I was in town. On the upside it’s within walking distance of where I was staying, my company was good, and it did give me a good idea of the culture on campus.

It’s almost pointless to review this bar because it changes owners, names, and what have you at least once every two years (often much quicker than that). Despite all this changing of hands, every bar that opens at the location is exactly the same, so truthfully, Unilocal ought to just copy/​paste over all reviews from existing businesses at the location to the new one.
The main thing the location is known for, as the name implies, is the patio. It has a big patio renowned for having drunken bros and hos hanging off its rails in large numbers. As if that weren’t bad enough, they have a pretty stellar sound system that they use to blast Jack Johnson and John Mayer in a mile-​wide radius.
The interior has two levels. Bar on the ground floor, some games and stuff up top. I come here for two things: to hand out promotional materials and to piss.

Had a blast here this past weekend (⁹⁄₄) with our softball team, in town for the ASA «D» States — don’t ask how the tournament went. We came here after going to another local bar. The staff was friendly and helpful. I only had a couple beers — no food, so I can’t comment on the food — but still had a good time.

For the longest time I didn’t even know that The O Patio and Pub existed. That is to say that I knew all about 4 Kegs, but I didn’t know that it had opened back up and that it had a new name. Really, I didn’t even care. I didn’t like 4 Kegs and I don’t like The O Patio. But if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. They are exactly the same. It didn’t change at all.
4 Kegs was one of the few options in my early college days because it was 18 and up. But I have no idea why because there really isn’t anything to do but drink. They finally caught on that underage drinking was running rampant here, so it became 21 and up. Did that make much of a difference? Not really. This place is so easy to get into it’s insane. People would just jump over the patio railing and they were in. The only thing is that you had to have a wristband, but I’m not sure how strictly they enforced that rule. Finally it was shut down, I believe. But like all bars around the area, it sprang back up after the summertime with a new name. But nothing new to boast, unfortunately.
A friend asked me to come out with her here around Halloween, so I decided I might as well. It wasn’t too busy, but I kind of instantly regretted coming in seeing that girl were in costumes (it wasn’t Halloween yet) and I’m talking the sluttiest costumes I’ve ever seen. The worst were the female bartenders. They looked like hookers. Just trying to get the tips from all the frat boys that frequent this place, so I guess I see the strategy. Anyway, my friend wanted to go here because The O Patio still carries on with a 4 Kegs tradition — Wednesday Liquid Dope night. It’s sort of a cross between the fishbowls at Ugly Tuna and mug night at Out R Inn. You have to buy a big plastic cup the size of a small pitcher — I think it’s $ 5 for the pitcher. But you can keep it and bring it back with you next time so you don’t have to pay the $ 5 anymore. Then you take your pitcher and get it filled with liquid dope for $ 8. Liquid dope is some concoction of cheap liquors and overly-​sweet fake juice. I think there are two colors: blue and orange. They aren’t all that strong, but I can’t drink too much because they are so sickeningly sweet.
Anyway, I got there and I brought my pitcher. I go to the bar and finally get the attention of this hooker/​sailor/​bartender. It was early in the night, and hardly anyone was there, but she was busy chatting it up with some guy behind the bar. I ordered liquid dope and she asked me what color. I told her blue. So she makes me an orange one. As she’s topping it off, the plastic ring from the gallon of fake orange juice falls in my pitcher. She said, and I quote, «Oops! Oh well, it sunk. It’s not like you’re going to accidentally drink it through the straw, though, right?» And serves it to me. Then she shakes her head like she just snapped out of a dream or something and says, «Wait! You wanted a blue one! Oops! I’ll fix it!» And grabs it back and dumps it out. Then she proceeds to make me another one. And wouldn’t you know it — it ended up orange again! She said, «OMG, I forgot again! Oh well, you’ll drink it, right? Sorry!» I’m like, whatever, just give me my drink at this point. I mean seriously, how hard is it to make one drink? She was obviously only hired for her looks. That’s just the kind of place this is. Ugh. I didn’t really want to pay $ 8 for that kind of service, especially when it wasn’t even what I ordered, but I felt like any conversation beyond that point would have made her head explode with confusion.
When you’re not up at the bar dealing with the horrible service, the place isn’t all that bad. As long as you can find a table and you’re there with a group of friends. This particular night, we all sat and played card games and made drinking games out of our liquid dope pitchers. It gave me a terrible headache the next day, but it was an alright night.
But I would never choose to come here on my own. First of all, the parking situation sucks. That’s why most people who come here walk. And since it’s right on 15^th, the people that come here are all from frats and sororities and are definitely not my type of crowd. This place quickly fills up with douchebags, so this is not a place to socialize. The patio isn’t bad, but it gets too crowded and I just can’t stand the kind of people that come here. That and the fact that they are mostly young kids who just turned 21 or got a fake ID. So the vibe here’s pretty immature. And the music they play is also awful. It’s either Top 40, R&B or country, which everyone feels the need to stop what they are doing and sing along.
Inside, the bathrooms are usually a wreck and really gross. There are only 2 or 3 stalls and one of them is almost always not working. There are some pool tables and an upstairs area that helps to get away from the crowd a little bit. There is another bar up there but I have yet to see it actually be utilized. Maybe that’s just for game days. And plus they do have nice TVs.

It is understandable that this place only has two reviews. It has had so many freakin’ names in the last few years I don’t even know what to call this place anymore. Saturday after the first home game me and three other OSU alumni get in a taxi trying to go to this bar. All four of us shout out a different name for the place, and our taxi driver knows NONE of them. «Bar with big patio on 15^th and High» — never really changes, though, regardless of whatever they may be calling that bar this month.
Now that it is the O Patio it pretty much looks the same. The main improvement is the patio area on the outside is actually (semi) covered now. In the past extreme direct sunlight could actually endanger your day-​drinking by cooking you too early in the day — greatly hindering your ability to stay out and continue drinking. I see the new owners are doing their best to keep you happily drinking instead of actually attending classes.
Less seems to have changed on the inside, except the giant picture of Ohio Stadium is gone — you know… the one that is in Playboy behind OSU’s delegates for the girls of the Big 10 issue. Shit — Jerome is still there. Chances are good that if you have attended Ohio State in the last decade you have at least seen Jerome. He is the only 35 year old behind the bar (looking more like 28) who refuses to grow up and get the deuce out of Zig’s. Every time my boy Bender comes to town he has to go into Zig’s to shoot the shit with Jerome, just because he can.
Look — this is one of the very few places left that is a campus staple. If you have never been — don’t go, unless you are in the mood for some serious campus scene because that is why places like this exist — it is a campus scene.

With such a storied past, The O Patio (still known to most as 4 Kegs, its previous moniker) has come to be the most ubiquitous part of the OSU bar scene. Everyone you know that visited here has at least one story involving an extremely awesome or extremely terrible evening, and before they cracked down on the rampant underage drinking that would pack this place to the ceiling every night, there was rarely any happy medium to be found.
After a particularly unsavory incident that I’ll refrain from giving the details of (do some Googling and you’re bound to figure it out for yourself), 4 Kegs was under fire from local law enforcement and women’s groups for their lax ID policy. They quickly switched from being an 18+ bar to a 21+ bar, which, in my opinion, was when this bar really shined for what it was: a centrally located sports bar with cheap drinks and an awesome patio. With freshman scared back in to hiding the the Greek scene in search of a new place to roofie pledges and dance to terrible 80’s music all night, it was easy to show up with a group of 10 or more, take over a cluster of tables outside, and cause mayhem until last call. Then it closed.
After a winter-​long hiatus, 4 Kegs reopened to little fanfair as what is now known as The O Patio & Pub. A few renovations were made to jazz up the both the inside and the patio, but it was only a matter of weeks until The O was up to its old tricks. There may be less minors here now, but this is still one of the most obnoxious bars on campus. The service at the bar here is absolutely terrible. There’s usually two bartenders on duty on busy nights, but there is no semblance of a line when waiting to get a drink. You’re likely to find yourself standing at some sort of angle hoping to not get cut by a group of frat guys that know the bartender well enough for her to forget you were even there in the first place. Half the people here order neon colored shots that take 5 minutes to make, which doesn’t help either. It’s a lot like the worst keg party you’ve ever been to– everyone seems to have house privileges but you.
The specials here are lackluster as well. Sunday and Tuesday nights offer cheap mason jars of PBR, but you have to spend 3 dollars on the mason jar at first, and it’s likely to get tossed at a dumpster in the back alley on the way home. Wednesday is their notorious «Liquid Dope» night, which is nothing but a watered down mixture of peach schnapps, cheap vodka, orange juice, and red sugar syrup. If that doesn’t make you gag, the steady soundtrack of country music definitely will.
The only reason The O gets an extra star is it’s «Beat the Clock» special on Friday afternoons, which is the perfect way to kick off your weekend as early as 3 PM. If you can get there early enough to snag a table, it’s the perfect place to go in lieu of that last class that no one ever goes to in the first place. It gets packed by 6, however, and by then it’s business as usual at the latest incarnation of the lewdest bar that OSU has to offer.