Lounge 62

Bar, Eatery, Beer-to-go

953 E Johnstown Rd
Gahanna, Ohio, 43230-1851
United States

// CLOSED //
PLACE STATS
Average:
3.61
Reviews:
8
Ratings:
8
pDev:
21.61%
View: Place Reviews
Recent ratings and reviews.
Ratings by Bonis:
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Reviewed by Bonis from Ohio

2.15/5  rDev -40.4%
vibe: 1 | quality: 2 | service: 1 | selection: 4
This place was ridiculous. This was the start of a saturday for me and some drinking buddies that were wanting to hit up some local places. Unfortunately, this was the worst stop of our day.

I have heard a lot about this place. They boast a number of taps that no one can touch in C-bus... 62 to be exact. The first problem is, is that they only have about 52 taps, not 62. Several that I ordered were no longer in service, and they didnt tap any additional kegs to replace them. Second of all, every time I ordered a beer, I had to tell the "bartender" which beer I was ordering. I had to point him towards the beer I wanted. I have never experienced this before. The guy never had any idea what we wanted. He was pretty clueless.

My first beer was a Two Brothers Cane and Ebel.. I don't think this is what I got. Seemed more like a Hop Oddysey beer from CBC. I just didnt get any rye from it, just mucho hops. I watched him pour it from the correct tap but it didnt seem like the correct beer. I didn't say anything, as the bartender already told us he didnt really work there, so I didnt want to be confrontational.

Everything else seemed to be going smoothly. Two of us each got a fleet of five beers, samples. Everything was poured correctly and everything seemed to be going well. Selection was good and prices were ok as well. My companions did order a GL Lake Erie Monster which tasted like vegetable soup and a maharaja that was beyond it's prime. This tells me that they don't keep fresh beers and that no one really cares how fresh their IPAs are. They just want to sell them.

The bar seemed more of like a club "vip" spot as opposed to a craft bar. As my friend told me, it was like 2 sports bar owners collaborating with a craft beer drinker to create a bar. Problem is, the beer expert is never around. Not to mention, the place was deserted.

This isn't even close to the true problem. We went to cash out, and the checks for my brother and myself were messed up. The only issue was that they put a fleet on his tab instead of mine.. Easy fix right?? Wrong!! Apparently no one in this establishment even worked there. They had to call someone to fix the tabs. After 30 minutes with someone on the phone, and a confrontational pizza shop owner, we finally got outta there. No one knew what was going on.

Also, I guess they do growler fills here, but I wouldn't suggest it, as they are skimping the customers about 8-10 oz on the growler fills. No one even knows how to do this. This was a prime example of how a bar/business should not be run. No one know what is going one, no one knows what beers they have on tap, no one knows what beers to pour, etc.. This was by far the worst experience I have ever had in a bar. I will never go back to this place and I recommend no one ever goes here either. You will probably be disappointed.
Oct 09, 2011
More User Ratings:
Photo of tkarsies
Reviewed by tkarsies from Ohio

4.08/5  rDev +13%
vibe: 3 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5 | food: 3
So I will provide a bit of contrast to the previous reviews but with a big caveat. I have to agree that as you get toward the weekends, this place becomes more of a club, complete with bouncers, cover charges, etc. We have gone a few times on Mondays with a much different experience. Here are a few of the highlights:

All drafts 3$ on Mondays, which is great.

As everyone mentions, there are 62 beers on draft. Most are fantastic, with several handles from Green Flash, Bell's, Great Lakes, Thirsty Dog, Founders, some Belgians. They have had Founder's Breakfast on several occasions, just had the Bourbon Barrel-Aged Siberian Night.

Food is average at best. You won't die from it, but better things come from my microwave. There is a pizza place right next door you can get pizza from.

Atmosphere is weird. It is still set up for the club nights but is pretty chill. On Mondays, they have Monday night football, a pretty active area with pool tables. Nothing pretentious, just beer.

Overall it has to get mixed reviews. Great for the beer and hanging out early in the week. Better for sipping cognac and people watching later. I'll stick with the selection and value from the beginning of the week and avoid the weekends.
Dec 06, 2012
Photo of Docrock
Reviewed by Docrock from Illinois

4.4/5  rDev +21.9%
vibe: 3 | quality: 4 | service: 5 | selection: 5 | food: 4
Visited on a Thursday night, not many patrons when the three of us entered. Bellied up to the bar and were greeted by Craig, the Manager/barkeep. He was knowledgeable and helpful. Offered us samples of anything we wanted to try. Nice selection, Dark Horse, Stone, Lagunitas, plus a few more. A few more people showed up so maybe 15-18 by 8:30, still plenty of room, hopefully business picks up a bit since there was a nice selection and prices were reasonable. Will definitely visit again next time I roll through Columbus.
Dec 01, 2012
Photo of bobh63
Reviewed by bobh63 from Ohio

4.55/5  rDev +26%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 5 | food: 5
Lounge 62 as the name implies has 62 amazing craft beer choices on draft and the selection is updated on a weekly basis. Thursday nights are a blast with the $1.00 promotion, the $10 cover gets reimbursed after the first two drinks. There are not many places where you can get a great pizza, watch a game, and have 62 great beers to choose from. The only down side is that some of the bartenders are not craft beer people, but the beer list is updated weekly and has a description of all the beer on hand, so if you like great beer and a great environment, this place is well worth the trip.
Nov 20, 2011
Photo of schwaeh
Reviewed by schwaeh from Ohio

4.1/5  rDev +13.6%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4
I heard about Lounge 62 on BA like many others. I decided to stop in on Saturday afternoon with my fiancee to check it out. The location doesn't really stand out too well; We ended up driving past it and had to use the second driveway.

From the outside I wasn't expecting a whole lot. The front looks like any other strip-mall BMC bar. Once we got inside I was fairly impressed with the overall quality, especially of the actual bar layout. It was a comfortable place with plenty of places to sit depending on your mood or the occasion. They had 2 pool tables in the back and a second bar for busy weekend nights. It was Saturday afternoon in January so the 10-12 people there seemed about right. By 4 o'clock we were the only people there and decided to head home.

The bartender was very helpful and didn't mind letting us sample small amounts of the beers before purchase. She had no problem topping a beer off if the pour wasn't perfect. My only complaint with her is I could usually find the tap I had asked for before she could(could have been my point of view/long row of 62 taps).

The selection and value make it a very good place to stop if you live in the area and aren't looking for a big party spot. I started with a sampler paddle with 5 glasses all around 6 ozs or so for $10. The paddle is a nice touch if you don't want stuck buying a full glass of something you're unsure of.

They had Burton Baton, Choc oak aged Yeti, Creme Brulee, Czar, Hopslam and several other beers I had been waiting to try. They didn't have any mindblowing rarities but 62 quality beers seem like more than enough to keep most beer geeks happy.

Not a place to roadtrip to but certainly a worthwhile bar if you're in the area. I would go back.
Jan 31, 2011
Photo of ADVbengals
Reviewed by ADVbengals from Ohio

3.3/5  rDev -8.6%
vibe: 1 | quality: 4.5 | service: 3 | selection: 4 | food: 1
Well, I don't really know where to begin to explain this lounge/club/bar/restaurant? I found out about this place from BA, and a buddy of mine and I decided to try it out. Hey, what can go wrong with 62 beers on draft?

As we walked in there was no one to greet us, so we kind of just awkwardly sat down at a table. There were three other people in the entire place not including us and the bartender/server. Sadly, the only three people at the bar were drinking Budweiser in a bottle. They had many decent beers on draft(Stone Ruination, Founders Breakfast Stout, Columbus IPA, Avery IPA). So the beer selection was the only decent thing about the place, besides that it is nice looking on the inside. The food there is absolutely terrible. My buddy ordered wings that were frozen still when served to him. My food was not served to me until 20 minutes after he got his wings.

There was one server in the entire place, she was a nice girl and gave us many free drinks because she felt bad we traveled 25 minutes to eat there. The place is very awkward and empty inside and now I know why.

Good selection of beers is the only positive thing about the place. There are too many nice places to drink around Columbus to waste your time here.
Jan 12, 2011
Photo of Spider889
Reviewed by Spider889 from Ohio

2.8/5  rDev -22.4%
vibe: 2 | quality: 3.5 | service: 1 | selection: 4 | food: 3
I've known about this place all year and just this week finally made it out. It looks small and appears to be a noisy sports bar from the outside. It's also got a horrible location, hidden in a small plaza out of view from the main road (Hamilton) where I assumed the bar would be.

As I walk in I discover that the place is actually huge inside, but also, the space is WAY underused. They are either getting a great deal on rent or are losing money on most nights. The place was empty - maybe 5-8 other patrons when we arrived, all were at the bar. Now, my wife liked that, she prefers a more quiet place, but if a place is that empty it can sometimes make me a little uncomfortable (not to mention usually points to a reason why it's empty, or at minimum means the service will be sketchy since the employees perceive little need to work hard).

The layout begins with a gigantic bar on the right side, running the length of the building. Plenty of spacious seating, and the bar has a ton of depth. It curves a little but at minimum you have a solid two feet of space to spread out your menu/food/beer. Next to the bar is a really open area with bar tables and booths along the back wall. The booths have really tall backs with little couch tables in between. NO ONE was sitting out there. Behind the half wall in the back where the booths were was more seating, pool tables, and some other games it looked like. Again, no one using any of it.

The decor was odd. Someone obviously put a lot of thought and effort into this place, but it really felt like they were trying too hard. It looks sort of upscale, but then there are gaudy and trendy elements that put me off like gold beads hanging all over above the bar and weird lighting and coloring.

There were a ton of TVs at the bar, on the side wall, and in the back above the booths were two massive projectors playing a football game. No one was watching the large projectors because they were behind us as we sat at the bar. Felt like a waste.

The food was decent. The menu is pretty extensive for a bar, which sometimes is bad imo. Places should focus on a few dishes done well rather than offering 20 different sandwiches, 4 specialty pizzas, 12 appetizers, 4 salads, etc, etc... We ordered some boneless wings (which were average but small) and some buffalo fries (basically thick cut fresh potato chips dusted in some sort of buffalo seasoning) - those were pretty good. Pricing on the food was ok for the most part, for the size of the portions I felt that the appetizers were a little overpriced.

As for the beer, they don't lie about the 62 taps. I had been scouting the place for the last month in order to convince my wife to come out with me, and it seems like they either don't rotate taps that often, (or more likely) they don't do enough business to sell their supply in a timely manner. Needless to say I was worried about stale beer, but everything we had tasted ok.

Some highlights: Stone Ruination and SSR on tap, ST Hefeweizen, Pumking, 2xIPA, Founders Breakfast Stout, Brooklyn BCS, Columbus Hop Odyssey, several GLBC offerings (no Christmas Ale until some undetermined time in Dec apparently though).

one of the best aspects for me though - they had correct glassware (for the most part). I was happy to get all of my beers in a snifter.

There was a lot of boring beer offered (some of that craft beer, just nothing that interesting). They still heavily push BMC despite the 62 taps.

Service seemed really slow, there were plenty of employees at the opposite side of the long bar, but when we wanted to order food or a second beer, all seemed uninterested. One was reading a paper, one was on his phone texting or something, and the young girl seemed to be flirting with the other male bartender.

My final impression is more of a pet peeve I guess, but on their website (and on their drink menu) they have happy hour described as 11-8, $1.25 off everything - food and drinks.

We arrived at 5 after 7:00 so I was excited to jump on their happy hour (especially since we left Bodega's happy hour early just so that we could get my wife some ST Pumking). after ordering 4 beers and two appetizers we get a check with nothing discounted at all. I ask, which I hate having to do, about getting the check fixed. I wholly expected a quick, "I'm sorry and a correction." Instead, the girl behind the bar tell us that they changed their happy hour to 11-7pm recently and that she had no idea when or why. Now, this wasn't half-off at Bodega so it was not the end of the world, but still peeved me. We would have saved $7.50 had the place honored their stated happy hour pricing.

We'll probably come back once in a while, it's literally 4 minutes from my house. But overall I wasn't too impressed. Maybe we came on a really off night at an off hour, but from what I saw this place won't survive too long.
Nov 17, 2010
Photo of DoubleSimcoe
Reviewed by DoubleSimcoe from Pennsylvania

3.48/5  rDev -3.6%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 4 | service: 2.5 | selection: 4 | food: 3
I heard about Lounge 62 in Gahanna-Columbus through a fellow BA'er. As soon as I read they had 62 taps, I knew I had to check it out.

I went on the same day they were hosting an event/launch of Great Lakes Nosferatu, which I narrowly missed arriving after 8pm. The bartender did honor the $3.00 tag on Great Lakes beers, though. Nice.

Unfortunately, Lounge 62 has a personality disorder- they bill themselves as "an upscale lounge", but there's not that much class here. It feels more like an industrial club, with bad loud pop music and commercial hip-hop. A totally incongruous atmosphere for a beer-centric bar. Plus, my impression was that most folks were drinking mixed drinks and BMC...

Service is pretty clueless. Pretty young chicks with no bar skills. One was busy reading her magazine while I waited and waited to order food. There are other dude employees behind the bar, but no matter, service is still pretty poor and disorganized.

And what about all the tables and lounge seating scattered around the joint? Good luck seating there and getting service! If you're not at the bar, you won't be served.

Food is not upscale either- just pub grub. Pizzas looked good but weren't exactly great (at least the one we ordered).

Beer selection: pretty amazing, divided in styles, but not as good as it should be. Of those 62 taps, easily 30 are boring lagers, macros and imports. Out of the other handles, there are a bunch of interesting offerings, but not a whole lot.

Weyerbacher Double Simcoe, Stone Sublimely, Founders Breakfast and Red Rye, Lagunitas Sumpin and Wild Sumpin, Brooklyn Chocolate Stout, Troegs Troegenator... these were probably the most outstanding taps, plus the Great Lakes Nosferatu that was just tapped that night.

Prices were OK... under six dollars a pint for all those rare beers. Can't complain. Big pizza for $14, ain't bad.

I'd go back if I lived in Gahanna. But there are so many amazing beer choices around Columbus, I don't see this as a destination, despite the huge tap list. I´ll drive an hour to go to Brews Cafe in Granville, but probably won´t drive 20 minutes to Lounge 62.
Oct 08, 2010
Lounge 62 in Gahanna, OH
Place rating: 3.61 out of 5 with 8 ratings