Fries Cafe

Fries is a good beer bar in the Gas Light District of Cincinnati. They have a good selection of bottles and drafts, service is good, and they have great prices, especially for the area. They also have an outdoor area for warmer months. I like this spot.

Cool local dive bar. Great neighborhood regulars to hang with. Fun late night spot.

Fries is a great spot for some serious beer drinking. They make good use of their of their 8 or so taps and have a terrific bottle selection as well. Emphasis is definitely on American craft, the Midwest in particular (esp. Bell’s). The building is old and historic with lots of charm. Three floors and an awesome outdoor area make this a great place to stay a while. They hold some great beer events, the most recent of which they poured samples of their case of Founders CBS instead of merely selling the bottles first-come-first-serve. Even at five bucks a sample it was a great idea to give as many people as possible an opportunity to try the beer. Overall, Fries is one of Cincinnati’s top beer bars.

One of the better craft beer bars around UC. Good Jukebox, table shuffle board, and darts. Food is your basic pub fair. Draft selection is not too large, but they tend to have one or two craft beers on draft. Bottle selection is ok.

Great craft beer bar near campus. Beautiful building built in late 19th century, nice historic bar inside as well. Nice selection, a little heavy on the bells, but...bells sells! Owner is a rad dude. Cool crowd too, hop heads, professors, hippies, and no frat boys. Their fall beer festival is one of the best in the region.

Fun bar not far from UC. Spread out through a few rooms and a patio/backyard area. Lots of games- shuffleboard, darts, pool, etc. Since it reopened there aren’t as many bottles but like before, there are usually a few treats on the 8 taps. It has a neighborhood feel on a less crowded side of campus. Lots of regulars hanging out, playing games, and staying late. It’s always louder than you’d expect based on the number of people here. Glad they reopened!

Low end looking place with a great jukebox and pretty good beer at pretty good prices. Great dive bar!

One of my old college stomping grounds. An old building that has a nice pub feeling about it. Mostly local neighborhood regulars and college kids. Decent draft lineup and hosts the annual Clifton Ale fest in a beer garden outback. Wonderful, charming setting.

Fries Cafe is another one of my old stomping grounds from college. I actually forgot all about it until I saw it listed here on RateBeer. I took illinismitty as part of our pub crawl while he was in the area for business on 3/06/2007. Suprisingly, there were several good micro beers on draught including two Barrelhouse offerings (Helles Bock and Boss Cox Double Dark IPA), Bell’s, and several others. They too have a cooler of assorted bottles to choose from if nothing on tap meets your fancy. The place was somehwhat empty the evening I was there since the university was on Spring Break, but this place is full of college students on most regular nights. They have pool and darts among other entertainment options. My only complaint is that this place is exempt for the smoking ban since it’s a bar, so the cigarette smoke inside is thick and plentiful. I hate that. Parking is available on the street and maybe in a couple nearby lots, but for the most part, parking is tricky if not nearly impossible to come by. Credit cards are not accepted, so BE SURE TO HAVE CASH! (Thanks again for covering me Sean.)

This was the second stop on the pub crawl with Shigadeyo. Located inside a very old building, the look is "worn historic." Seems to have a lot of neighborhood clientele. Bartender was very friendly. They have 4 or 5 taps of micros, including two barrel house beers. There were more than 20 bottles on our visit. An adequate selection of micros, including Victory, Bells, Arcadia, etc. Nothing rare. After work, it can get very loud and smoky. Bring cash because they do not take credit cards.