First Night in Columbus: Three Bars and a Kroger Run

Our first night in Columbus did not begin with a grand plan. It became a route: a neighborhood bar, an apartment check-in, a brewery built inside an old factory, a practical Kroger run, and finally a room full of strangers singing together.

We arrived in Columbus on Wednesday, August 12, with the e-bikes, a birthday trip ahead of us, and several days to see what the city felt like from street level. Before we had even settled into our apartment at River & Rich, we found our first answer.

It felt local.

Club 185 set the tone

Club 185 was our first stop, and it immediately gave us the kind of welcome we hope for when we travel: unforced, comfortable, and rooted in its neighborhood. The bar's own description is refreshingly direct—an authentic neighborhood bar serving food and liquor most of the day—and that is close to how it felt from our side of the room.

There was no need to decode the concept. The dark wood, closely set tables, old mirrors, and familiar bar energy did the explaining. One of our photos caught the Club 185 name reflected backward in a mirror, the kind of small visual detail that becomes a timestamp for a trip: this is where Columbus began for us.

After a travel day, a place like Club 185 is useful in a way a polished “must-visit” destination sometimes is not. You can sit down, reset, and watch the ordinary rhythm of a city. We were visitors, but the bar did not make us feel like we had wandered into a performance staged for visitors. It was simply a fun local bar.

That distinction mattered. Our goal was not just to collect attractions. We wanted to experience Columbus with the loose curiosity of wanderlust and the close-up perspective of two people exploring by e-bike. Club 185 gave the trip its first real note.

Checking in at River & Rich

By about 2:52 p.m., the photo timeline places us at our apartment near 431 West Rich Street. The bedroom and living-space pictures are not glamorous travel photography, but they explain the geography of everything that followed.

River & Rich put us in Franklinton, close to the Scioto River, downtown bridges, trails, breweries, restaurants, and the public spaces that would become our launch points. It gave the e-bikes a practical home base and let us build days from the neighborhood outward.

Once we unloaded, Columbus stopped being a destination on a map and became a place we could move through.

Why Land-Grant belongs in Franklinton

Our next photographed stop was Land-Grant Brewing Company, where the first taproom pictures begin at 4:39 p.m. The brewery was close to our apartment, but its story also made it a fitting first-day stop.

Land-Grant co-founders Adam Benner and Walt Keys met at Ohio State. A homebrewing hobby and a talent for branding eventually became a brewery idea first called Oval. When that name proved unavailable, they chose Land-Grant as a nod to Ohio State's status as a land-grant university and to the ideal of making education—and in their interpretation, craft beer—more accessible.

The company also acknowledges the more difficult history behind that name: land granted under the Morrill Act had often been taken from Native peoples. Including that truth makes the brewery's origin story more honest than a simple piece of Buckeye branding.

After a successful Kickstarter and a failed attempt to secure a building in Grandview, the founders found their home in Franklinton. The 1920 structure at 424 West Town Street had been an elevator factory, later producing track systems used to move huge rolls of paper in printing plants. Land-Grant renovated it and opened the taproom in October 2014.

That history is visible in the space. It is large and industrial without feeling hollow, a former workplace adapted into a gathering place. Our photos show us seated with drinks, taking in the room rather than racing toward the next stop. On a trip that would later cover parks, campuses, trails, restaurants, and a ballpark, Land-Grant introduced a recurring Columbus theme: old structures finding a second life without hiding their first one.

The least glamorous stop was still part of the story

From Land-Grant, the written log sends us to Kroger.

There are no Kroger photos, and that feels appropriate. Grocery runs rarely become hero images. They are still part of real travel, especially when an apartment replaces a hotel room. We needed supplies, so the evening route included fluorescent aisles between brewery taps and karaoke.

That small interruption keeps the story honest. Our Columbus trip was a mixture of exploration and ordinary life: charge the bikes, buy what we need, rest when the mileage catches up, then head back out.

The Walrus gets its own story

By 6:40 p.m., we were at The Walrus. The local crowd began filling in around 8:30, and the night turned into sing-along karaoke. Our route had carried us from a classic neighborhood bar to a modern craft brewery, through a grocery store, and into a room where the entertainment depended on everyone joining in.

The food and drink deserve their own review because the score was memorable: the bacon, mushroom, and pepperoni flatbread was a win; Jason's vodka tonic was very good; Kellie's Cosmo tasted more like rubbing alcohol than a Cosmo. That complete account is in “The Walrus: Flatbread 1, Cosmo 0.”

Read The Walrus: Flatbread 1, Cosmo 0

Here, The Walrus matters as the ending of the route. It turned a collection of stops into a first-night story. We had arrived, found our neighborhood, handled the practical details, eaten, had a drink, and listened as Columbus sang to itself.

What our first night taught us

Columbus was going to reward movement. Not rushed movement, and not checklist travel, but the willingness to connect places that reveal different parts of the city.

Club 185 showed us a lived-in local bar. River & Rich gave us a base in Franklinton. Land-Grant connected Columbus history, industry, beer, and community in one building. Kroger reminded us that trips also run on errands. The Walrus finished the night with a shared chorus.

The e-bike miles and birthday route were still ahead. So were Brown Bag sandwiches, the Book Loft, Ohio Stadium, Cobra, a birthday cream puff, the Park of Roses, baseball, and the moment our energy finally ran out. But the first night had already given the trip its method.

Pick a direction. Stop when something looks interesting. Let the useful errands count. Listen to the room. Then keep going.

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Club 185
185 East Livingston Avenue
Columbus, Ohio 43215
Official website

Land-Grant Brewing Company
424 West Town Street
Columbus, Ohio 43215
Official website and current hours