Charlie Bear

Before CBear moved out of the campus area, friends and I would frequent this place (especially since for guys 21+ there was NO cover charge). They had dollar bombs before midnight which is one of the main reasons we went. We’d often stop here before going on to our next destination. The campus location was so convenient and I’m so sad that they have moved further away!

This is where you go when you have nowhere else to go.
What could be an upscale, classy (if there were such a thing) nightclub experience, is ruined by the clientele– but this is to be expected for a campus area bar. The overall space and décor is tasteful, I took a peek at the private room that can be reserved for parties, and it was actually very nice. The music on the night I went was your typical top-​40 remix (standard Columbus fare). My friend enjoyed the little go go elevated dancing cubes. If you’re a dude looking to awkwardly stand in the corner and prey upon intoxicated women, this is your spot. If you’re a female and you’re looking to trot about in a short sequin mini dress and make out with your girlfriends, this is probably the place.

Pretty much the worst place you can go in the campus area. Dirty, sticky, tacky, incredibly lacking in class/​civility. Not sure if that’s really because of the bar itself, or if that’s just how OSU students are.

Great dance club!
Stopped by after the Buckeye’s game and the environment was live! If you are looking for the small, dive-​bar experience this is NOT the place for you.
The music they play has a little bit of everything: House, Rap, Pop, Dubstep (to name a few)
The only intimidating thing you experience is when first you walk up and see the long line of people waiting to get in. However, I decided to wait it out and we ended up getting in within 5min!
Other than that, they have two rooms: a large dance floor area and a smaller more intimate room that seems more like a VIP area.
The nightclub is located on High St. with access to cabs and the COTA, so you don’t have to worry about drinking and driving.
Overall, great place to go if you are looking for an experience that’s a little more upbeat and you can dance all night.
Hope this helps!

This past Friday night, I bought two bottles of Miller Lite here after watching Ted at the Gateway. Virtually no one was on the dance floor during that time, but the music was pretty bad anyway – mainly top 40 from last year, save for Lady Gaga’s «Bad Romance,» which is a good enough song *but* from circa late 2009 to 2010.
Anyway, I sat at the outdoor patio to down my bottles and escape the noise. Some older redneck-​ish guy – apparently an out-​of-​towner from Pittsburgh – approached me and asked about whether I had a boyfriend, but he eventually left me alone. His friend sat in front of me, told me she’s not a lesbian, and curiously asked me why I’m by myself. She proceeded to light up a cigarette and then moseyed over in the opposite direction to tug ‘n’ hug her boyfriend, whom I assume is also close friends with that first guy.
Some other guy at the Ugly Tuna’s patio also waved at me, and I waved back.
I wondered whether anyone on the patio at Charlie Bear can drink alone in peace, but eventually I was able to do so.
Two stars … and I don’t like those stupid silhouettes of dancing party-​goers inside the establishment.
P. S. I had bookmarked this place on May 28, and here is an accompanying note I had written for it: «I want to go here just for the LOLz. From what I understand, it takes everything I detest about contemporary youth culture and submerges it in sweat and alcohol, so I’d best remember to pinch my nose shut.»

Maybe because I knew from word of mouth and other reviews what I was getting in to here but I like this bar for what it is worth.
Its a great spot to dance they have the best mix of music to dance to i have heard. The service at the bar is very fast, and friendly.
The serious downsides to this bar, the floors are super sticky like the kind where your foot goes up but your shoe stays on the floor. The drinks here are nasty, they officially have the worst long island I have ever tasted, and they serve cruzin rum (yuck).
Go late be drunk and ready to dance those tips will help you enjoy Charlie Bear.

Giving this place one star is generous.
Awful, awful, awful.
I try to be not too harsh on campus bars but this place is sincerely where souls come to die, and all things good and great in this world are extinguished.
Ya know… It reminds me of walking into Mordor. But worse.
Why is this place so bad? Aside from many circumstantial events that led me to never want to come back (such as terrible service, doorman letting his fratty friends with hats but making the poor nerdy guy pitch his before going in, girls throwing drinks, guy puking in stairwell), the general feel is just sad.
When this place first opened up it was a SEMI bearable (ha! pun) experience and kind of fun if you were super plastered and had your dancing shoes on.
Now, me at 23, can’t walk 3 feet without getting hit on and/​or ass-​grabbed, lazer eyes from underage females in labia-​flapping dresses, or drinks getting spilled all over my being. The place is overflowing with crappy music and has a raging case of the bro-​bonic plague.
Just do yourself a favor, and stay as FAR FAR FAAAAAAARRRRRRRR away from this place as possible.

I am not sure what kind of creation campus has made now…
Everyone always said this place was «awesome, oh my god dude you got to check this sh*t out…» Hence the reason I never went.
But I found myself on Gateway (which is rare) and decided to stop in, and oh did I ever get the Charlie Bear experience. The place was packed with college kids bumping and grinding, Bill Cosby would have had a thing or two to say. The place is decked out like a underground club that is either trying to hard, or nailing it perfectly for this the pre-​adult crowd.
I witnessed two fights, lots of tears from the girls, and a lot a lot a lot of ill-​fitting clothes in the span of an hour.
But what can I say, this is a campus dance club/​bar/​thing so I shouldn’t expect anything else.

This is a haven for 16 to 21 yr old girls which follows with 26 to 35 yr old males. The techno music is alright, of cource miley cyrus is playing, and some good rap. Great name and thats where it stops

Charlie Bear: «I’m going to pretend like I’m a cool, hip, swanky dance club. It’ll be so awesome!»
*crickets chirping* Mmmhmm, yeah right.
I do not fancy this place at all. It seems to be an undergrad favorite but I don’t get the allure. It’s dirty, sticky, and packed like sardines during the school year.
I had an instance here where I lost my clutch and iPhone one Saturday night, and after countless calls all day long (with no answer — annoying), I stopped by when they opened at 9pm. By the grace of some higher power, they had EVERYTHING of mine in their lost and found. My phone was in one piece, and even $ 2 and lipgloss was left in my clutch. Score.
If you’re a dude, I’m sorry… they tend to cater to the female crowd and if you order the same drink as a girl, expect to pay more.
It is 21+ every night, but so many underagers with fake id’s are drunkenly stumbling around every night.

Music was good, but it would have been more fun if there was actually space to dance!
Didn’t take long to get drinks. Took forever to get to the bar though.

This place recently opened in the former Skye Bar in the Gateway area of campus, and according to the press release, the goal of Charlie Bear was to be a «classy but fun» place.
I went here last night and am here to report that Charlie Bear is neither.
Unless, that is, your idea of «classy» is being served drinks in plastic cups, and your idea of «fun» is hanging out with AXE-​bathed gentlemen who up and grind on young ladies without their prior consent.
This is no upgrade on Skye Bar and, in fact, the space has taken a giant step back. The already terribly-​designed dance floor now seems even smaller thanks to the presence of giant columns with luminescent pictures of strippers, causing immense logjams of people and basically turning this into a fire marshal’s worst nightmare. The space has always been too long, narrow, and bowling alley-​esque to be a decent spot for dancing, and absolutely zero has changed.
The DJ last night was a Club WNCI abomination who continuously shouted over the music — not that the music was worth listening to, anyway. You could have gotten the same experience by just turning on the radio at home, without being lathered with bro-​stench all night.
The only positive was that, despite the seething mass of humanity, I never had to wait more than a minute or so for a drink. I think this was because there were roughly 1,432 employees working last night, so kudos for having an appropriate number of staff on hand.
I’m not sure why all campus bars have to be so goddamn disgusting. Does anybody really know what «class» means in this area (or own a set of actual glassware), or are we just conditioned to accept that all college kids like to drink out of plastic cups?
Avoid.