I have stopped in at Brothers Bar and Grill a few times in the past month or so, and I think that the bar is starting to grow on me. My friends and I usually go downtown every Thursday, so we decided to bar hop down Park Street. When we got to Brothers, the line was out the door and around the corner. After about a half hour wait in the cold, we finally got in. The bar itself is very big, with a full wrap-around bar in the center of the room and several tables and booths along the walls. It also has a very large patio area for when the weather gets nicer and people want to head outside with their drinks. Although the bar was not worth the wait on this particular night due to the long wait and mediocre drink specials, I think Brothers would be an awesome bar to spend time at in the hot summer days when the patio is open.
Review Source:This place is the biggest joke of a bar that I have ever been in. Last night group of 8: Bottled Bud Light was luke warm. Service was the worse I have ever had. Took for ever for appetisers to comeout and there was no crowd. Server brought half the appetisers we ordered on the first round. I doubled the order and it took a hour to get  the second order. Reorders of beers never came and took 40 minutes to get our check. Nothing but a disaster. The only reason they get 1 star is the price was cheap. Save your time there are many other options in the area.
Review Source:Brothers is pretty low on the tier list of bars in the Arena District. Gaswerks has $1 bombs, and they're pretty much identical, so I don't really see any reason to go to Brothers over GW. The firepit outside is pretty cool, but like I said, any of the surrounding bars probably have better reasons to be there than at Brothers. They played Beat Dat Beat Up by DJ Pauly D last time I was there, and that was cool as fuck, so the music rules at least. (Right now, I'm imagining all the other Yelp reviewers faces contorting violently after reading that last sentence)
As I said in my Gaswerks review - it's a bro bar. It's fucking called BROTHERS for Christ's sake. You won't get high class when you're drinking at Arena District, so stop expecting it.
My wife and I stopped in here for a beer after shopping at the North market and then decided to have a burger too. Â Our first mistake was stopping here, next the warm beer and the third strike was the food. Â It has to be the worst food I've had since the high school cafeteria. Â The burger was one of those frozen patties you buy bulk at GFS. Â As far as the service, I can not even put to words how bad our dim-wit waitress was. Â With so many places close by DO NOT go here.
Review Source:Remember that Dave Chappelle joke where he talks about how a limo driver took him into the ghetto and he wasn't expecting it and his harsh realization that he was in the ghetto when noticing gun stores and liquor stores everywhere? This is the same experience for the sensible white person and Brothers Bar and Grill. You'll notice a trend in the previous posts on here. No one with a negative review came here as a choice. It was someone else's brilliant idea and the innocent Yelp! reviewer had to deal with it.
Like the Chappelle bit, here's what runs through every normal bar-goer above the age of 25's head upon entering:
"Wait a minute. Douchebag? Bachelorette? Another douchebag? Another bachelorette? Tans everywhere?! NO! I'm at BROTHERS!"
If this bar is symbolic of what it means to be a brother, then I prefer to be an only child.
Okay, okay. That's enough of the jokes on my part. Now, for what is hopefully a reasonable review.
Simply put, if you're not under the age of 30 (and I'd even go so far as to say 25 but I ended up being dragged here so maybe I want to make myself feel better for it) and looking to have sex with someone to the tune of some bad pop songs in a loud environment that is a giant bar, then this isn't your place. That's a lot of people whose place Brothers is not, but there are a lot of people whose place it is as evidence by how packed it is on every weekend night.
Case in point: My buddies and I ended up here after Comfest. You couldn't have picked two more opposite experiences. We prefer the Comfest life, and as such, have no business really being at this bar. We needed a button-up shirt and tons of Axe body spray to be like any of these guys.
To make this a real review and address actual criticisms previously brought up, let me start with the prices. I found them reasonable given the type of place it was and the area of town (also, Yelp, please label this as part of the Arena District. You're making the Short North look bad by including this bar in it). I got two domestic drafts and two cherry bombs (got to get two cherry bombs whenever you go to this place. Something's got to get your shirt off on the dance floor), and it was $15 including my tip, so it's not awful.
Speaking of the tip, there's been a lot of criticism of the service below. Do the bouncers look like douchebags? Yes. Then again, they should as being part of this bar and its clientele. Should there be more bartenders? Probably. But, since there isn't, I'd say the staff they do have managed to the best of their ability to just get you the drinks you need given the madhouse that is going on around them filled with early 20-somethings demanding drinks that get them closer to the human papillomavirus they will be spreading to each other later in the night. No doubt, the service staff has to make a killing each night here, but they are clearly working their asses off doing that, so I'm not concerned with them maybe not having a smile on their face. I guess my main point is that I didn't experience my order being wrong but I did experience the bartender having the same dead facial reaction as any stripper I've encountered, and I'm okay with that since I was served appropriately.
I can't attest to their Happy Hour that people are raving about it, but also please understand that I'll likely never step foot in there for it. When your only experience with a bar is as a megaplex of drunk, messy people, you don't have any desire to ever sit down and have a meal there. In fact, I can't even imagine them having a kitchen.
I should comment on the bathroom experience because I always like to do that. Someone was actually pooping when I went into the bathroom. That's pretty impressive and had to be an emergency situation considering how crazy that bathroom was at the time. There are no dividers on the urinals, which creates the nice experience of some guys attempting to cover up their genitals as if any of us wants to see their genitals. This is yet another reason why Yelp needs to label this as part of The Arena District. The Short North has the gay bars. The Arena District has the bars where the guys worry that the guy next to them is gay and that this is a gay bar even though it's not a gay bar. As a result of the massive number of guys that walk through its doors, the bathroom turns into a mess, but then again, that's what you get in the arena of Hell that is Brothers.
I give Brothers a one-star, but that's just based off personal opinion. Like I said, people will be easy to rip apart Brothers for what it is, but it is that certain experience and it doesn't deny that. If you don't like it, just don't go, and just stop communicating with people who drag you there thinking it's a great spot. Instead, you should follow the words of a song I think I heard five times while I was there: "STARSHIPS WERE MEANT TO FLY!!!" Be a starship, people. Fly to the Short North for whatever you want.
Yuck that's all I can think of them. I have only been to Brothers with work associates prior to a hockey game. They are very nice when someone with a big wallet his paying for a bill but when you don't come with those people the feeling changes. Besides the stupid tuck your 1/2 I ch chain in because it's a choke hazard stupidity that was feed to my bf we couldn't get service. My friend and I stood at the bar while the bartender served his friends and despite the request for a beverage he looked and took another friend that walked up. Park Street Festival seemed fun until you walk into the business.....poor service! Don't go in!
Review Source:I had a good time. Mostly because I spent almost the entire time out on the huge patio drinking with friends.
They need a lot more bartenders and they could be nicer and more helpful when you do get their attention.
When I did venture in the music is just the worst I have heard in Columbus. Like the kind of play list that you're having a good time to and literally you have to leave the dance floor the music gets so bad.
By the way the bathrooms here are super super scary. Like broken glass, TP and pee every where. Come one ladies, no excuses for that.
I will start by saying that the service here was exceptional. Exceptionally slow. Even sitting at a table at an empty bar took about 15 minutes to get my beer. Other than that, the food was pretty good, and the specials were really good. It was a decent cheap place to drink after the hockey game I went to. Also loses a star because of all the fist pumping, plad wearing, quite obviousley immature frat guys running around this place. I felt like I was on the damn Jersey Shore for a few minutes there. I would probably avoid this place if you are either over 23 or have the mentality of someone over 16, unless you are stopping in for a quick bite and a few brews. (Also has a very good and big beer list so that was a plus).
Review Source:The greatest thing about the Arena District is that there is a bar to suit anything you're looking for. From hole-in-the-wall to live music to VIP club to campus feel to classy martini bar the Arena District has just about everything. Brother's definitely has a campus-like feel to it. This place has THE BEST happy hour on the street ($2 drinks-except top shelf-'til 9pm) No other bar comes close to that down here. So grab your group of friends, enjoy their happy hour deals fireside on their huge patio, shoot a game of pool & if this scene isn't you after 9pm-there are plenty of other bars in the area to spend the rest of your evening from that particular crowd. Like I mentioned, every bar has their niche & you can't expect a classy-douchebag-free-5-star experience if you are not in a place that provides that.
P.S. The BBQ Chicken Quesadilla, Cheese Curds & Wings are pretty tasty with a $2 draft & $2 shot of Jameson!
Oh lordy where do you begin with Brothers. Your review of this place is all dependent on your age, and then there's this threshold of the age 23 where everything just gets thrown out of whack. If you're under 23 this place is like a 4-5 star place because it's everything you want in a bar at that age - huge, tons of people, dance floor, cheap drinks, outdoor patio, fire pit, cute guys, scantily clad girls. But then you're 23 and you're like what am I doing still going here? You find yourself telling others you'll only go after 1am and if you're hammered. This is the breeding ground for who will graduate to go on to Bar Louie. People aren't dressed as well at Brothers than at Bar Louie, but they're learning how to hon their sartorial choices. Bathroom lines get egregiously long. TP and paper towels tend to run out but ladies, use your 2 brain cells that Eve left us with and look UNDER the bathroom sinks and low and behold you will find extra TP and paper towels. There's dance offs on the dance floor. There's NO DJ (don't be like me and wander around for 20 minutes trying to find the DJ booth). There are these useless booths around 3 sides of the dance floor where creepers will check you and your girlfriends out. There are pool tables, darts, and a basketball thingie - all of which I've played at some point. You really don't return to Brothers after 23 except when you're 25 or 26, post graduate school and realizing how broke you are. You'll come for their crazy good $2 happy hour that lasts until 9pm. Seriously everything is $2. You could probably convince the bartender to sell you a bottle of liquor for $2. But don't bother sticking around much after 9pm. Note for the underagers, back in the day my fake ID did work here. Not sure how savvy they are now. But use caution as there are always 3-4 cops stationed outside Brothers. No, the place is not unreasonably dangerous, but when you have that many people congested in one bar, there will be a time or two where you're like, GOOD THING THE COPS ARE TWO STEPS AWAY.
I feel the need to address racism sentiments. I have seen numerous black people here on numerous occasions. In fact I have entered the bar w/ black individuals w/ no problem so I don't think they're completely racist. Profiling, perhaps is quite possible.
I'm not sure why this place has got such low reviews but I didnt think it was that badddd!!
It's too bad I don't live in the Columbus area, otherwise I'd probably be a regular. Â I was visiting during Park Street Festival and somehow we ended up here. Â Best happy hour prices HANDS DOWN! I'm originally from California and I've never seen anything like it. Â I believe I paid like two bucks for an ohhh sooo cold bud light. Â
Great times! Â The place is big too. Â
When I went in I didn't see the bro's and ho's some of the other people mentioned on here, so I have no idea what they're talking about!!!
I came hear after Comfest to meet up with my buddy. Brother's is exactly as it was every time I've made the mistake of coming in. It was packed with bro's and... girls. Young girls. Because, let's be honest, the majority of people who come here are looking for someone to buy their drink and maybe score a sugar daddy - as shown by the older amount of "bros" in the room.
You stay classy, Brothers. I'll go drink beer elsewhere where I won't feel dirty.
Maybe Happy Hour is its redemption - but unfortunately, nothing about this bar makes me say "oh, I gotta be down here for Happy Hour" - one star, it is.
I hate the fact that this place only has 1.5 stars because of the people who go there. What is a bar supposed to do... while carding at the door say "Oh, you look like you are in a frat, sorry no frat boys allowed"?? come on.. we live in Columbus, there are douche bags every where.
Personally, I think this place should have at LEAST 3-4 stars for the Happy Hour ALONE. Come on, $2 anything that pours except top shelf?? Where else can you find a bar that even comes close to that?
So maybe it gets a little douchey on the weekends when Jersey Shore boys come downtown.... but if you have your own group of friends that is just looking for some cheap drinks and a good time.. Brothers is the place to go! But, if you don't like douche-bags.. head some where else after happy hour.
I pretty much agree with all the other one and two star reviews. This place blows.
I was dragged here on a Saturday night by a friend who was turning 21. I'm not a fan of big douchey bars, but you can't argue with the birthday girl.
General Synopsis:
Huge. The whole place is huge. This might sound cool, but what it really means is that there's twice as much room for twice as many asshats.
Doormen: I didn't experience dress code issues like some of the others (although that is silly, since no one inside was dressed particularly well). That said, the doormen were less than friendly as we were walking in. Unless you were the trashed chick who looked about 18. Then they were perfectly friendly.
Bathrooms: should be huger. The line at the ladies' room was ridiculous (20+ minutes long). So naturally I did what other smart females were doing and went to the men's. Which was, not surprisingly, disgusting.
Service: The bartenders were definitely moving the whole time, but they need more of them. The wait just to get a drink at the bar was 20 minutes long. I'm not that patient.
Music: Meh. Pretty standard tunes for a large campus-area bar.
Dancefloor: This was the only nice part. It was large, though crowded.
Overall- I had a good time with my friends but that was more in spite of the bar than because of it. Â I wouldn't voluntarily go back.
28 reviews and still a 1 and a half star rating...that is an impressive feat, Brothers. Unfortunately for Brothers and would-be patrons, the rating is totally accurate and warranted. This is by far one of the least favorite watering holes I have ever set foot in.
The dress code IS ridiculous, and while a white guy dressed the same way will also not be permitted to enter, let's be serious...most of the people who don't fit the dress code are African-American males, and I agree with others that it is tantamount to racism.
The bar is Gigantic with an uppercase G. It's a great place to drink $5 Bud Light. Unless things have died down, it is probably packed from wall to wall with the Greek contingent of campus. A great place to sweat against your future wife whom you just met and will impregnate later tonight, then divorce five years from now. Good luck with that!
Oh Brother, what can I say about Brothers? Â
This place is like your older brother who loved to taunt and belittle you. Â The only difference is this place does it with their service. Â Â
I was in the mood to continue my exploration of what Columbus has to offer and being from the Windy City area, ventured out for the Bluejackets vs. Blackhawks game. Â
After finding most the restaurants around the Arena District packed, I headed north to grab a bite to eat before the game. Â I popped into Brother's because they seemed to be the least packed, I know now why.
As echoe'd by Bryant M's review, this place was full of douche's if they even classified as that. Â Â It was full of yuppies who seemed to have no other mission rather than to see how tanked they could get prior to the game. Â Â
After spending about 10 minutes waiting, I finally was asked for my drink order and placed an order for some food. Â I really was not happy either at the fact that they hold your debit card until you cash out your tab. Â They do not put it in a secure area either, the just leave it setting out on the counter by one of the registers. Â First time I have been to any establishment that does a tab in that fashion. Â Â Despite the service and apprehensiveness of being seperated from my card, the food did rank as being decent. Â Â
When it came time to settle my tab, the bartender who barely looked old enough to be tending bar, could not find my debit card. Â Finally after wandering around the bar aimlessly, she found it and cashed me out. Â Â Regretfully, the experience was so horrible, I could not justify leaving any type of tip. Â
If you are ever inclined to undergo your childhood horrors of being picked on by the school bully or your older sibling and his preppy friends....give Brother's a try, it will pacify your craving.
OH BROTHER!
At one point, I thought Brothers Bar and Grill was a good idea. That was when I first graduated from Ohio State and had yet to grow out of the whole "party-til-you-puke" phase of college life. That's what this place is full of. Recent college grads who still want to party like they are in college. It's like purgatory between college immaturity and post-grad maturity.
This bar is ENORMOUS...which only means more room for more douche-bags. There is a dance floor, which I won't lie, I have had a good time on (except that time I slipped on my own spilt beer). There's also a nice big patio with a firepit that I have had good times on, playing cornhole.
The bar is very pretentious as well. I came one time wearing a plain white v-neck t-shirt from American Apparel and I was turned down at the door. It was very nicely fitting and I had nice jeans on as well. But apparently a "plain white t-shirt" is against the dress code. To resolve this, my friend took off his polo shirt and gave it to me. So, he went in with a plain gray t-shirt he had on underneath his polo (plain gray is OK kids!) and I had a HUGELY oversized polo shirt on, which looked RIDICULOUS but - hey - at least my $30 American Apparel v-neck was concealed. It was dumb DUMB DUMMMBBB.
So while I have had a couple of good times here (that I barely remember), I certainly am not impressed by Brothers, and don't quite recommend this bar, unless you fit the bill of my description in the first paragraph. I mean, I admit, I had a pinch of douche-bagginess in me in my younger years. But now, I have seen the light and will not voluntarily go to Brother's!
I see this place is still a dump, this is one of if not the worse bar in Columbus, I don't know though all the bars in the arena district are low on my list. Â Anyways brothers ultra bad bar, the dress code is a joke (the place is racist very racist). Â Please find another bar to go to, your better off giving your money to the homeless than this place.
Review Source:Hands down this place has the best happy hour in two. Â It runs from 6-9pm and everything is for $2, yes everything. Â I was surprised the first time i went there everything truly was for $2, we ended up drinking our fair share and our tab ended up being less then $30 for 4 people, unreal. Â At the time the crowd isn't rather small in size and laid back. Â That is the only reason why i'm giving it 2 stars but besides that there isn't too much to rag home about. Â After 10pm the crowd at Brothers totally changes and become filled with douche bags and groupies out of no where. Â All the sudden the place turns into a college frat house or a meat market.
The cheap drinks really don't make up for the poor experience and type of crowd frequenting this place. Â Oh yeah there is one little catch about the happy hour special. Â It is every day except for "special events" days, I'm still not sure what exactly that is, but if there is a festival around the area or the Buckeyes are playing expects the happy hour special to be off the table.
My suggestion is go there with a couple of friends, enjoy a few low price drinks and leave by 9pm and it will actually be worth your while.
Douche-tastic. Â Yep, that's Brothers. Â
I know, I know. Â What was I doing at Brothers in the first place? Â A bachelorette party - that's what. Â I hadn't been to Brother's in years, and time had not only healed my wounds but also had erased my memory. Â But as soon as I walked back in the door, a flood of awful memories came rushing back!
What is it that I hate about Brothers? Â Everything. Â Absolutely everything. Â Want a list? Â Okay, here you go:
* The front-door douche bags - apparently being a jack-ass is in the job description
* The bartenders - incompetent, rude, and slow
* The bathrooms - ewwww!
* The patio - filled with douches
* The dance floor - bad music and really skankily-dressed girls who are trying to hook up with douches
Can all future bachelorette parties please be in gay bars where they belong?
Another place that I would give zero stars if I could.
Brothers is a chain, and you should know what to expect - Top 40 jams, over-dressed girls, and frat boys. Despite being well-aware what we were getting ourselves into, I hadn't prepared myself for the top-notch douchbaggery of the staff.
First jerk: the bouncer at the door. We had a group of 13, and twelve of us filed in, no problem. However, dude decided to single out a male in our group who was carrying a messenger bag. He refused to let him in. Friend called his wife over to take the bag, and the guy at the door wouldn't let him give it to her. He also refused to search the bag, or have the three police officers standing outside search him.
It's not posted that you can't carry in bags, and regardless all the girls waltzed in, no problem, with bags large enough to conceal 1.75s of alcohol, weapons, and food -- none of which we had because we are functioning adults.
At worst, jerk #1 was a homophobe (because a man with a bag MUST not be straight), and at best it was just flat-out gender discrimination.
Second jerk: waiter/bartender inside. He decided he wanted to wield his non-existent authority by telling us that he's "not someone you mess with." Get over yourself. Please.
We ditched out as soon as the people who'd already bought drinks before our friend got denied finished up. I kindly thanked the guys at the door for their discrimination on our way out. Ughh. Jerks.
The Place: In terms of square footage, Brothers may very well be the largest bar in Columbus. There are plenty of tables around and things to do within the bar. In the warmer months they've got a nice patio out front on Park St. as well. There's an area to dance towards the north side of the bar. The bathrooms are serviceable, as I remember.
The Drinks: standard full bar. Nothing special in terms of beers, but the drinks I've bought have been mixed well, and they don't tend to skimp on the alcohol.
The Price: not bad when compared to the other bars in Arena Dist. I've never encountered a cover, but then again I've only been twice.
The Service: not awful, but nothing special either. If you were to pick a random bartender from the crew, I'd bet 10 cents that he's a bit of an a-hole, but they work pretty quickly and move through the line of people waiting in a fair manner.
The Crowd: this is where Brothers enters the FAIL category. The crowd is zero fun. The place is usually filled with younger frat-boys with their "Affliction" and "Tapout" shirts on. These are not my type of people at all. I'd choose the crowd at any of the other bars in the Park St./Arena area over the crowd at Brothers. Despite the average service and huge space, I'll never return to Brother's because of the crowd.
Overall: If you're one of the dudes I referenced above, you'll probably like this place. Likewise, if you're one of the chicks that likes the dudes I referenced above, you'll probably like this place as well.
I'm neither, so I don't like it one bit. However, I've got to give Bros. two stars just because the service isn't awful, and the prices are fair.
I was taken to Brother's when I first moved to Columbus by someone who said, "We have to go to the Arena District bars, it'll be a fun time downtown!" Well. First I thought, "Brother's...like we're going to someone's brother's house?" It took me a while to realize that "Brother's" probably refers to the part of the population that falls into the "bro" category. I wasn't properly prepared for what came next.
The best way to sum up Brother's: If the people from "Jersey Shore" were to come to Columbus, Ohio, and look for a good place to juice up on Jaeger and neon-colored shooters, they would probably stumble into Brother's and talk about how they were having "such a good time."
I like to think of it as the Train Wreck Effect, which is the same one that inevitably has drawn me and 5 million viewers to watch said "Jersey Shore." There's a fight in every episode, the girls are catty, and people make bad decisions. You know you probably shouldn't watch, but you can't look away.
Why watch this on TV when you can experience a local version, live, any night of the week at Brother's?
The "entertainment" is induced by the drink specials at Brother's, which are actually pretty decent for the Arena District. They have plenty of well drinks and shots to get people good and drunk, and then some. A lot of the people here go for the "and then some." The place gets packed on weekend nights pretty much all year round. During the school year Brother's draws the OSU crowd, and in the summer the large fenced-in front patio is brimming with people wearing next to nothing, and not just because it's hot outside.
Inside, Brother's looks a lot like a spacious warehouse that has been decorated as if it's a frat house. The ceiling is a steel beam, open rafter type of deal, the ground is concrete for easy clean up, and the tables and chairs are as cold and uncomfortable as they look. There are neon signs, large TVs everywhere, several bar areas, booths, and open spaces that randomly turn into dance floors as people bust moves to the Top 40 pop and hip-hop tunes blaring into your ears. I tell you, Paulie D. would be in heaven. I, however was not.
Another "Jersey Shore"/Brother's similarity: everyone is looking to get laid. And being very obvious about it. This is really entertaining as far as people watching goes, especially if you're dragged here with a group of old friends and feel inclined to awkwardly sit aside sipping a watered down domestic while silently judging people, as I do.
That said, I prefer to watch my entertainment from the comfortable remote location known as my couch, but rest easy knowing that in between episodes of The Shore, people are living it up just a few miles down the road.
Ohhhhh man, I've been wanting to review this place for the longest time! I've been here countless times when I was young, as there is this inherent unstoppable force that draws groups of friends here on a night out.
If you are looking for a charming bar where you can grab a pint and enjoy the company of a good crowd, this is not the place.
This place is like the Walmart of bars. It is a large high-volume, understaffed bar with sh**ty service that is always crowded. And like Walmart, it will be around forever and thrive just fine!
Where to start...to get to the bar you have to fight a mob. There is no line. People will just cut in front of you. To get the bartendar's attention (assuming you ever get to the bar), you have to stand tall or really lean over. And be careful leaning on the bar because it's sticky with Jaeger and stale beer. Don't expect them to just notice you because they are well trained at not making eye contact customers who want service.
If you want to open a tab, the bartendar, who is overworked and devoid of any personality whatsoever, will ask to hold onto your card AND your ID (so you don't fraud them). You can order a domestic beer, Jaeger or Cherry bomb without too much trouble, but request anything different and you'll be waiting.
The bar blasts booty music 24/7. I can't think of one night that went by when I didn't hear them play that song "It's getting hot in here, so take off all your clothes!"...what a timeless classic that is rarely ever played.
If you do decide to go here, follow these instructions...
You'll want to put on your Banana Republic, Hollister, Abercrombie, or Express Men outfit and go out to the meat market and select the best looking meats...scantily dressed, imbibed young women looking to meet their future husbands. Joke's on them! Hahahahahaaaa!!!
It doesn't matter who you are on the inside, as long as you look good on the outside at Brothers and Gaswerks! Same goes for the women. If you are a complete a-hole, you'll probably do pretty well with the girls here. For whatever reason, the type of girls that frequent Brothers and Gaswerks seem to find this trait in men attractive.
If you get a hot girl here, then great! Drive her home intoxicated and be a complete sweetheart to her for the night and then leave her a** empty handed the next morning...and repeat (by going back to Brothers the next weekend). But if you don't get a hot girl, then just get hammered and get in a fight with some stranger...or settle with a girl lower on the totem pole and that should do (usually requires more drinks). Oh yes, don't forget to get your driver's license back from the bar so you can drive home!
After being here a few times with friends and looking back at this quagmire of a place...I can honestly say that's how the system works there. So...enjoy!
The only times that I have been here have been the times I've been dragged here against my will. Â And every time, I think I was the oldest person here. Â And that was even when I was 25. Â
Everyone here is really young, if not under the drinking age and dressed in as little clothes as possible. Â Like most people who have reviewed this place, I think I just may be too old for this place any more...
Two things about this place.... I might think it was awesome if I was 22.
And for my age now: Â Murtaugh List
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My first trip to Brothers was in Iowa City, Iowa. Â Much better place then then one in Columbus. Â The drinks were cheap, that's about it. Â I think they had $1.00 draws on a Tuesday/Wednesday night. Â Not bad for drinks if you want to drink in a 8000sq foot bar with 10 people in it. Â
I am sure on the weekends this bar is full of people and good fun, I would rather not go here again. Â I too enjoy a more trendy bar like Bar Louie.
I've thought long and hard about this and I think I'm going to give Brothers 2 stars. I was leaning towards just one, but as a matter of fact I have had some good times here. I wish I could give it 1.5. That was all the work of my friends, but still. Plus, do prefer Brothers over Gaswerks and Lodge Bar, so I guess that has to count for something.
First of all, parking sucks. You pretty much have to go park in the lot back behind Brothers and all those other bars, where they charge you like $5 to park. Brothers is right on the corner and there is usually a line, although most of the time the line is short and moves quickly. I hate that on the corner drunk girls are sitting on the curb crying for some reason, people are running out into traffic, guys are getting dragged away by policemen for fighting, and taxis are everywhere making driving for other people impossible. It's just a mess.
Brothers is trashy. That's just fact. It's possible to have a good time here, but you have to come with friends and completely ignore everyone else here. Girls will sit at tables by the door and look you up and down when you walk in and glare at you if you're female. Because apparently everything's a competition. Seriously, children, doesn't that get exhausting? Guys strut around here with their collars popped wearing sunglasses indoors like douchebags. If you're a guy don't look at them, don't bump into them, or they'll be trying to gang up on you with their cookie-cutter image friends. Unfortunately, most people here are 21-23 (maybe younger with fake IDs), still the ages where most students are immature and act like big babies. Coming here gets harder and harder to stand as I get older.
I don't know why this place is so full of students when it's nowhere near campus. That damn shuttle that beings people from campus to here might be to blame, but honestly they come here in droves in taxis. Like it's worth the cost of the ride over.
What I can't seem to understand about Brother's is that I always seem to end up here. For some reason it always happens. No one likes it, but it has this weird power to draw everyone in whether they like it or not. I've been here so many times it's ridiculous. Thankfully not that much anymore. There really isn't too much to like.
The bathrooms should be declared disaster areas. Ladies, take tissues in your purse because there will not be toilet paper. And be prepared to wait in the longest line ever and get in there to find that most of the toilets aren't being used because people forgot how to flush or puked all over the place.
The bartenders are awful. They don't really know how to make anything beyond cherry or jeager bombs or hand you a beer. I've never been here for happy hour and I've heard that's not bad, but things aren't that cheap on weekend nights. It's like $3 for a Bud Light. Several times I've opened tabs here and received the wrong credit card back. That's just scary. Plus it takes forever for them to take your order and they are always slow and rude. The people that work here are just like the people that love to come here.
There are pool tables, but they are always occupied by douches that usually end up getting in a fight over a game. It's unusual to come here and not see at least one fight.
The dance floor is beyond skanky. You can't step onto it without someone of the opposite sex humping you. Recently I came here with a friend and sat in one of the booths surrounding the dance floor. They were actually having a dance-off like in one of those movies. That might have been amusing, but they were acting like it was life and death and they were serious, which was just sad. There was a pretty girl going back and forth between each guy - letting them "fight" over her, and when she bent over to dance you could see her entire ass. I wonder if she eventually caught on that everyone was laughing at her and guys were taking videos with their camera phones. I bet it's on YouTube somewhere.
The patio isn't so bad. I like it out here, there's a nice fire pit to sit around and a bar outside. But the assholes are out here, too. Last time we sat out here some guys bothered us the whole time trying to get us to go dance with them. It's hard to avoid the jerks anywhere you go here. I should also mention that the music is awful - all booty music to grind to and those god awful "end-of-the-night" bar songs like Def Leppard's "Pour Some Sugar on Me," which these young kids don't even know what that is.
This place isn't so bad if you end up mingling with other people that hate it there also. Not everyone here sucks, but the decent people are hard to find. I've managed to come here and have a good time with friends but for the most part I can't stand it. There is nothing likable about the bar itself, but it just depends because if you're here with a bunch of friends it's not all bad. Just take my advice and try to pretend that no one else here exists.
I agree with all of the 1 star reviews.
Any given weekend night you usually see a handful of underage girls trying to convience the cops that the id is in fact theirs. The ones that made it inside are so sloppy drunk that they can't hold themselves up while waiting for the bathroom. The guys are  at the same level of intoxication, only along with not being able to hold themselves up they want to fight every thing that moves.
Please, take me to the next bar. Just not Gaswerks....where the same crowd is.
In the interest of full disclosure: with the exception of a couple of bars on the Arena District's infamous bar alley (as I'm now calling Park Street), I do not care for any of the bars there. None of them. So please, take this review with a serious grain of salt. Because I admit that I do not generally like these places in the first place.
Secondly: Brothers also gets a much lower than usual review on my part. probably because I walked in on one of the best (and worst) nights for a bar to operate: Halloween. This means a overworked, exhausted staff is going to be a lot more short on paitence than they normally would be.
All that being said, Brother's is about dingy as a bar can get. Even on Halloween, the bar is literally a room with a bar in the middle, restrooms, and a dance floor the size of a small storage unit. My shoes made the familiar noise that came from pulling them off sticky, alcohol-covered floors, and the clientele I was surrounded by...was a less than scrupulous crowd. The place worked hard to call themselves a college bar. In that way, much like the other bars on bar alley, it achieves that -- it attracts a young, cheap crowd looking for a quick and cheap thrill.
I was not a fan of Brothers. I became even less of a fan when a fight broke out on the dance floor. It surprised me that on the little tiny dance floor, they had the room to swing their fists. The place left such a poor impression on me, that I don't think I'll be heading back to Brothers anytime soon. Or ever, for that matter. It didn't leave an excellent impression on me...and I don't think it ever will. I can not recommend it to anyone else with a good conscience.
But that being said, if you are a college kid looking for a good, cheap time...you may want to look into going there. It could be a good time...I just didn't have fun when I went there. All a personal preference.
What do you want in a bar when you're headed out to have fun?
Cheap drinks?
Dance floor?
Large patio?
Fun music?
Hot girls (guys)?
No cover?
If you answered yes to any or all of the above questions, welcome to the greatest bar on Earth.
There are downsides, as detailed in most of the other reviews here, but every bar you go to has people you have to put up with. Â I go to Tip Top I have to put up with getting condescended by hipsters. Â I go to Hyde Park and it's snotty rich people. Â I go to Zeno's or Short North Tavern and it's territorial locals.
Sure there was a long streak where without fail everytime I went to Brother's I saw a fight. Â However, I've never actually had anyone try and fight *me*, and I can't say the same for Lodge Bar, PromoWest, Ugly Tuna, and at least a handful of other bars/venues that don't have nearly as bad a rep.
Bottom line is if you're out with a fun group of people and aren't worried about going to a 'trendy' place, instead just looking for a footloose fun time, head to Brother's and don't let minor details and other people's sour grapes bother you.
It's places like this that make me wish I could give a place a ZERO rating. Â I have been dragged to this place against my will more times that I care to admit, and will do everything in my power to never end up back there on a weekend night again.
It is the people. Â It starts when some 20 year old punk snears at you while checking ID's at the door and continues with every sweaty meat head that bumps into you and shoots off that "you wanna fight" look. Â Every time I have gone here I have felt as if I have dumbed myself down, and it ruins my night every time.
Patio or no patio, the list of horrendous details that gives Brother's it's distinctly awful personality is far too long for a strategically placed iron fence to ever overcome. It's impossible for me to ever understand why this place gets as busy as it does on weekends, and after getting suckered in to going there more times than I'd care to admit, I still have little insight about the issue.
My first gripe with this not-OK corral of drunken idiots is the bar service. Run by a handful of the most vacuous ex-sorority girls they could pull from the streets of OSU, the circular bar area in the middle is absolute bedlam at all times. Instead of manning a specific spot at the bar, the bartenders circle around in perpetuity so they can find the largest groups of people to serve in order to yield greater tips. If you're the lone patron that got stuck ordering the next round of drafts for you and your friends, you might as well forget it; waving that twenty around like it's on fire will do you no good.
As bad as the bartenders are at Brother's, the first thing you'll notice upon approaching the bar is the horde of unsavory drunkards that are spilling out in to the street. Every kind of person you ever hated in college is represented in full force at Brother's: frat guys with rub on tans and ice cream-colered polo shirts, Paris Hilton-wannabes that are falling off their high heels from the cheap vodka they mixed with the Crystal Light they drank on the way there, neanderthal UFC enthusiasts with faux-hawks and shiny OBEY t-shirts, greaseball T-Mobile salesmen that try to impress underage girls with their business cards, tiara-sporting "Girls night out!!" groups that are falling-down drunk by 10 pm...any surreal caricature of a subhuman stereotype that your mind can imagine can be found at Brother's on a Friday or Saturday night.
The real icing on the cake is the fact that despite this place's size, it's unbearably crowded between the hours of 11 PM and 2 AM. Ordering a draft beer is ill-advised, as you're almost certain to get it knocked out of your hand and on to the cut-rate designer jeans of some aspiring body-builder from Grove City that polished off a creatine shake in his Camaro on the way there. If you can't find a place to remain stationary outside on the patio, you'll get sucked in to the perpetual motion of the crowd and will likely end up getting spit out on the dance floor across the bar half an hour later, disoriented and separated from whatever jackass told you it was a good idea to come down here.
You're telling yourself right now that you'll listen to my advice, but unless you're passing through town and have the common sense to pick a better bar, you will end up here regardless. All I can recommend is that you get as buzzed as possible before you come. Once that wears off, however, you're on your own.
Likes: No cover, great happy hour, nice large patio to sit out on during the spring and summer (great people watching as well out there), plenty of taxis lined up outside at the end of the night, and good music that makes me want to dance. Â
Dislikes: the line for the bathroom as the night goes on (make sure to take a drink with because you'll be waiting a while); the cramped feeling I get as the night progresses and the bar gets more crowded (I'm sure pool tables seemed like a good idea, but they take up a lot of much needed room) and slow service at the bar inside.
Bottled beers runs around $3, which is OK I guess, but puts a dent in the wallet if you are there all night and are drinking heavily. Â The dance floor definitely gets crowded, but the booths around the dance floor are a nice touch. The crowd is pretty much early to late 20s with the obligatory creepy old guys as well.
My major beef with Brothers (actually all of the Park Street bars) is there completely subjective dress code. A few years ago, my husband (just boyfriend at the time) and I went out with a group of friends. We started at Gaswerks and headed over to Brothers. My friend Christa is first and she gets in fine; my husband does next, he gets in fine. My friend Orienthus tries to get in and they say no, you're not dressed appropriately. Since when are nice jeans, nice shoes and a button down shirt not acceptable bar attire? I hardly doubt the fact the shirt wasn't tucked in was keeping him out. Â My husband was wearing pretty much the same exact outfit and they allowed him in!! Of course, we pointed this out and the bouncers were like no, he can't come in. Insane if you ask me! That definitely left a bad taste in all of our mouths and we boycotted Brothers for about six months after that. Â In fact, an article was even written in the Dispatch about the seemingly shady dress code policy at Brothers and some of the other Park Street bars.
Since then I've been back to Brothers and had good experiences, but for that one bad night, I am docking two stars.
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