The 80 Bars Mission

Around Columbus in 80 Bars is an idea that came to me one day, as I said in this previous post, when I was invited to a bar I'd never been to, but that I'd known about for probably 15 years or more. I wondered why I'd never been there, or even considered going there, really. I realized that sometimes you just need a reason to go to a certain place; someone invites you, a good band is playing, convenient location, etc.

Then I started thinking about how to come up with some reasons to go to those places without relying on pure chance or circumstances. Reasons to go to those places that you never even considered going to because they just didn't seem like your kind of place. Reasons to go to those places that maybe you'd wanted to go but just never got around to.

But I couldn't come up with any, really. Not any good ones anyway. Then I remembered something from my college days down in Athens, at Ohio U. A place called, well I can't remember exactly, but I think it was O'Hooley's or something like that, (Help me out here, fellow Bobcats.), had a thing called Around the World in 80 Beers. The gist was you sampled beers from around the world over time, and when you reached 80, you got a t-shirt. (Woohoo!) College students are easily entertained.

So, taking these two disparate ideas and creating a new one, I came up with Around Columbus in 80 Bars! It also plays to the fact that Columbus was an explorer, and the book titled Around the World in 80 Days, and...oh well, you get the idea. Yeah, maybe I'm thinking about this a little too much.

So the mission of Around Columbus in 80 Bars is to visit those places that are tucked in out of the way places, neighborhood bars, local establishments, and the like. We will not be visiting any BW3's, bars with tv's all over the place, or sports themed bars. We may visit some popular places, but ones that have a unique aspect to them, that are out of the ordinary.

I'll be making a list and keeping it on this site, but I need your help. I can probably come up with about 10 places, but I need your ideas, places you've noticed in your travels around town, or heard about, and think would be good candidates.

Then I want you to go there with me, and tell me what you think. This idea would be much better experienced as a group, with old friends, and hopefully some new ones too. I'll try to create some kind of schedule, or we can make impromptu visits to places. Leave me your email or some way to get in touch, and we'll go from there, on a trip around Columbus, in 80 bars.