Stephanie B.
Yelp
I couldn't decide whether to give Out-R-Inn three or four stars. I wish I could give it 3.5. As far as campus bars go, this is one of my favorites, but it just depends on the night. Sometimes I come here and have an amazing time, other times it's hell. It all depends on how crowded it is.
I'll start with what I love about Out-R-Inn. There's a lot. First of all, this is the most interesting-looking bar on campus. It used to be a house, and while it's old, it's pretty because it's all wooden and to get in the front door you have to climb some stone steps and then you're on this cool front porch area that does have some places to sit down. The inside is pretty big. The bar is right inside the door, and the building is sectioned off into large rooms. There are pool tables and the back is open to a great patio. On the patio you'll find wooden picnic tables and there is a bar out here. A great place to hang out in the summer. In the winter, they cover the patio so you can still hang out in the space. There's a set of stairs and some pool tables upstairs, and there you'll find the bathrooms.
I like the crowd here. Yeah, it's a lot of students, but for the most part everyone keep to themselves and are pretty chill. I don't see fights and drama going on here. Out-R-Inn is in the north campus area on Frambes, just around the corner from High St. I used to live on Norwich so I'd walk down here all the time. There is also a heavenly pizza place right next door. You can go over there, get a pizza and bring it back in here to eat with your friends on the patio. We used to do this all the time in the summer. The pizza is delicious - great drunk food. It's pretty greasy, but the crust is soft and chewy and they load on the cheese. What more do you want when you're trying to soak up all that beer? The music is always kick-ass too - less mainstream than other campus bars.
Out-R-Inn is famous for their mugs. At some point in their lives, it seems like every OSU student acquires dozens of these plastic mugs in neon colors with a picture of Out-R-Inn on them. In fact, I have several in my kitchen cupboard right now. When you get these mugs, you bring them in on Mondays and Tuesdays and fill them with beer for $1. Gotta love that. Definitely the best nights to come here in the summer, because the beers are cheap and the students are gone so it's not crowded. I really love this bar in the summer.
That leads me to the stuff I don't like about Out-R-Inn. The crowdedness. Oh my god this place gets packed, especially around football season. I'll never forget, the last time I was there, it took my friend and I half an hour to make our way to the back bar because it was so packed. It was insane, very uncomfortable and pointless. As I mentioned, wait for the kids to go home for the summer and take advantage of this place then. I give Out-R-Inn 5 stars in the summer and 1 or 2 when the students are back full force. It becomes a whole different bar.
It smells in here. Yeah, I know it's old, but it kinda smells like dried up puke and I wish they could do something about it. Another reason I like to sit on the patio. But. No joke, one time when my friends and I were sitting at a table on the patio over the summer, we looked over to see several rats running around chasing each other. Yep. Big furry rats. I only saw them that once, and I thought it was kinda funny because they were playing, but my friends were grossed out and wanted to leave. The rats were in the cornhole area, so they ended up scurrying away when some people came to play.
The service isn't so great. Of course it's hard to get a beer when it's crowded, but sometimes that doesn't matter. The bartenders are often rude and there's a $10 limit on credit cards here and they don't warn you. That means you're in it for the long haul if you open up a tab on $1 mug night by accident, which I've done several times. When you're not here for mug night or happy hour, the drink prices suddenly become not so impressive. Sometimes it can get expensive. I stick to the $1 mugs so I expect to stick to beers if I come here.
The bathrooms are kinda crazy. Everything in there is covered by writing and they are small. If it's crowded, forget even going in there, you'll be in line forever. It's pretty well stocked, but they have those disgusting fabric hand towels instead of paper towels. You know, the ones where you pull them through the machine and they "clean" themselves? Hopefully they have done away with that since then. Parking also sucks. Not easy to find a spot on the street most of the time.
Overall it depends. This place reaches its full potential in the summertime, so I highly recommend coming on a summer mug night to take advantage of the cheap beer, sit outside at one of the tables, and enjoy the fact that all the students are back home, not in here crowding the place. I really love it here then. Other than that, this place can get pretty overwhelming and I tend to steer clear.