Avenue Bar

This is the place where a local hero* claimed the crown of pickled egg eating champion by eating 24 pickled eggs, "no puking." The title was previously held by a local former-hero* who downed 23 pickled eggs but made no claims to keeping them down.

Various other local heroes make claims to either eating a lesser number of pickled eggs, or taking down one of Avenue's signature drinks, the Fishbowl- mixed drinks which consist of 4 or more shots of hard liquor- in impressively short times.

As I don't claim to be an expert in either the field of pickled egg consumption or fishbowl drinking, I just settled on a couple of glasses of Blue Moon, served by the friendly bartender, Connie.

What does Connie think about all of these local heroes gracing her friendly, low key neighborhood tavern?

"People are crazy," she says, "just like in the song." What song? Just a few minutes later, Billy Currington's Great Plains mega-hit "People are Crazy" came on the juke. "God is great, beer is good, and people are crazy." I had never heard that tune before.

Later in the night after our visit to Avenue, I relayed the story of the pickled egg eating champ to a townie. "I was there!" he proclaimed.

Small town.

*The names of all local heroes, including pickled egg eating and fishbowl drinking champions, are omitted to protect their privacy, but you can be read their names on 8.5" x 11" crayon-printed awards pasted behind the bar.

This was a really nice dive bar, located a little bit off the main drag in downtown Columbus.  

We hadn't originally planned to stop here during our visit, but construction on the adjacent railroad made this the stop were we had to abandon the car and set out on foot.     We're glad the construction stopped us here, as this was an enjoyable visit.

The bar had just opened but our bartender was able to serve us and keep us entertained with conversation despite performing her opening duties.   She was able to give us a lot of useful information about the town.

I really like the look of this place too.  It was clean and well-kept, yet still managed to maintain the gritty character of the old building in which it is located.

There's one dart board and a jukebox, but not enough room for a pool table.