The Old Bag of Nails Pub, Tremont Center

What to expect at The Old Bag of Nails Pub, Tremont Center

The Old Bag of Nails is a small central Ohio pub group built on an English template — dark wood, brass, booths, a long bar and fish and chips served on paper — and the Upper Arlington branch occupies a unit at Tremont Center, the 1950s shopping strip that functions as the city's town square. The combination is odd on paper and works completely in practice: you park in a free suburban lot, walk under a mid-century canopy, open a heavy door and find yourself in a low-lit pub room that could be anywhere. It matters to a visitor because Upper Arlington has almost no bar life of its own, and this is where the neighbourhood actually drinks — a mixed room of families early, sports on the screens later, regulars at the bar throughout, and nobody performing anything for anyone.

The order is not complicated. Fish and chips is the reason the place exists, battered cod served on paper with chips and tartare, and it is the plate to have on a first visit. Around it sits a broad American pub menu: burgers, wings, sandwiches, a few salads for form's sake, soups, and specials chalked up during the week. The bar pours domestic and Ohio craft taps alongside the expected imports, and the whiskey shelf is deeper than the room suggests. Booths line the walls, high tables fill the middle and the bar seats twelve or so; there is a small patio outside under the canopy when the weather allows. It is loud during Ohio State games and quiet on a Tuesday at three.

Plan it as lunch or an early dinner. Walk-ins are the norm and a table is usually available within ten minutes except on Friday and Saturday evenings and during televised Ohio State football and basketball, when the room fills and stays full. The kitchen runs straight through the afternoon, which makes this one of the few places in the city where you can eat properly at 15:30. Skip it if you want a quiet conversation during a big game, and skip the salads. What to do instead: come at noon on a weekday, take a booth, order fish and chips and a pint, and you will have spent under $30 and seen more of Upper Arlington's actual life than any drive around the parks will show you.

Getting there is a two-minute drive from most of the city. The pub sits at the eastern end of Tremont Center on Tremont Road, roughly three quarters of a mile north of West Lane Avenue. From downtown Columbus take I-670 west to SR-315 north, exit at Lane Avenue, go west and turn north on Tremont Road: six miles, about fifteen minutes. Parking is free and unmetered in the strip's lot, immediately outside the door, with no time limit — a genuine luxury after a night out anywhere else in Columbus. COTA Line 5 reaches the Kingsdale area a mile and a half north, leaving a flat twelve-minute walk, with thin evening service, so a rideshare home at $14-$22 from downtown is the realistic option if you are drinking.

Costs are pub-normal. Fish and chips runs about $15-$19 depending on the portion, burgers $14-$18, sandwiches $13-$17, wings $12-$16 and soups and starters $7-$12. Salads are $12-$16. Draught beer is roughly $6-$8 a pint with craft and imports at the upper end, wine by the glass $8-$12 and spirits $8-$14. Two people eating a main each with two pints will spend $55-$70 before tip; a solo lunch with a soft drink is about $22-$26. Tipping at 18-20% is expected. Weekday lunch specials and daily food and drink deals shave $2-$5 off, and there is no cover charge, no minimum spend and no separate charge for the patio.

Timing: 11:30-13:30 on a weekday is a comfortable lunch with quick service; 14:00-16:30 is the quietest stretch of the day and the best time to sit at the bar and talk to someone. Weekday evenings fill gently from 18:00. Friday and Saturday from 18:30 to 22:00 are the busiest hours of the week. Any televised Ohio State football or basketball game turns the room into a sports bar — great if that is what you want, hopeless if it is not, and the fixture list is worth checking from September to March. Sunday is family-heavy in the afternoon and quiet by 20:00. Summer adds the small patio; February is the low, easy month.

It suits solo travellers, couples wanting a cheap honest dinner, families at lunch and early evening, and anyone who wants a pint somewhere that is not a hotel bar. Access is step-free from the car park with a level entrance, though the interior is tight between booths and a large wheelchair will find the middle of the room a squeeze; staff will seat you near the front. Children are fine before about 20:00. Who should skip it: anyone hunting for craft-beer depth or a cocktail programme, which this is not, and anyone who needs a quiet room on a game night. It is an excellent rainy-afternoon plan and a poor one for a special occasion.

What is nearby: everything at Tremont Center itself, which means the bakery and the family market are under the same canopy, thirty seconds away, for pastries to take back. Northam Park with its pool, courts and ball fields is a five to eight minute walk north, and the Upper Arlington main library is the same distance. Kingsdale Shopping Center is a mile and a half north for a supermarket run, and the Mallway with its 1920s Tudor shopfronts is a ten-minute drive east. Fancyburg Park is five minutes west and Thompson Park about the same. For a longer evening, the Lane Avenue restaurants are ten minutes south and Grandview Avenue's independent bars fifteen minutes southeast.

The honest caveats: this is a suburban chain pub, not a historic English inn, and the Englishness is decor rather than provenance. The menu is broad and the things that are not fish and chips or a burger are ordinary. On game days the noise is total and the kitchen slows badly — waits of forty minutes for food are normal when the room is full. The unit is small, so a party of six or more should call ahead or expect to split. Beer selection is solid but not a craft destination; anyone chasing that should be at a Columbus brewery taproom instead. And the location, wedged into a 1950s strip mall, is exactly as unglamorous as it sounds — which regulars consider the whole point.

Plan your visit Tickets$12-$20 a main Time needed1-2 hr visit WhereTremont Opening hours Mon-Thu 11:00-22:00 Fri-Sat 11:00-23:00 Sun 11:00-21:00 Hotels near The Old Bag of Nails Pub, Tremont Center

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