Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name, and they’re always glad you came.
But is a “Cheers” fantasy even possible in the post-pandemic age?
Jamie Black seems to think so, given that she turned her status as a bar regular at the Overlook Lodge into a job.
“I had recently moved out on my own after a relationship ended, and a lot of my friends had moved out of Cincinnati. I asked one of my friends, ‘Well, how do you make friends as an adult? It’s kind of hard.’ So I just started hanging out at Overlook because that was close to me, and made friends with the bartenders,” she said.
“At the end of the night, I’d help them put the chairs up, help them wipe down the bar. Not everyone has to do that, but then when I was looking for some extra money outside of my nine to five, I picked up shifts there.”
Now a full-time service industry professional, she recognizes the power a bar can hold as a community hub or a third space.
“It’s hard to find places where you can just sit and chill and decompress for a little bit. And I think the bar is a place for that,” she said.
“I think bartenders shape their communities by giving people a safe space to be themselves and share their lives. You see them mourn things. You see them celebrate. Even if they’re just sitting in silence, just having a place to go to is what a lot of people are looking for, especially post-COVID.”
One of those people is Brandon Coutts, a local law professional.
While he’s been living in Cincinnati since 2010, he didn’t really explore the city much until he moved to Over-the-Rhine a year and a half ago.
One day, he made his way to local dive bar Uncle Leo’s after hearing of their famed Monday-only red beans & rice — and kept on coming back.
“Eventually I started to realize I knew all the bartenders’ names, and when they worked, and they’d have my drink ready for me as soon as I walked in, and I’d see a lot of the same people who would ask me how my trip was or what I’d been up to that day, because everyone is really kind and nice,” he said.
“And you’ll see those same people at other places in the neighborhood, too, and you’ll become friends with them just because of it … I never had a sense of community when I lived in Oakley, so it’s nice to have it here.”
The easiest way to become a regular is obvious: keep showing up.
Beyond that, don’t misbehave, be friendly, help clean up if possible and always tip the bar staff. You’ll find yourself on every bartender’s good side if you follow those principles.
But don’t ever assume that just because you’re a frequent customer means you’ll get special treatment.
“Some people feel that because they’ve been around a lot, they can just start demanding things. It’s almost like it’s an expectation,” said Geovanny Morales-Santos, lead bartender at the cocktail bar Afterlife.
“These are always the people who I see every weekend but I have no idea who they are. And they always feel they’re entitled to a certain level of service above everyone else. You’ll hear ‘Oh, I know the manager. Oh, I know the owner. I want a free drink.’
“When you start getting into the territory of expectation, it gets really messy and uncomfortable for everyone.”
When searching out a potential “home base,” Coutts stressed that picking somewhere that fits your style and your energy is most important, if you’re looking to find similar people.
Skip the tourist traps; neighborhood spots are the way to go.
“There’s other bars I’ve been to where people are there with their own friends or parties, and it’s kind of them just conversing with themselves. Or people are just sitting there on their phones, not saying anything,” he said.
“And I realized some people’s regular spots might not be for me. That’s fine, to each their own. But the places I go, people aren’t very rude or dismissive. It feels like people genuinely care and want to have a real conversation. That’s the kind of place that helps me.”
For a lot of bartenders, having regulars is just as fulfilling to them as it is to their customers.
“When they come in, it’s like picking up a friendship with someone after you haven’t seen them in years. That familiarity, that comfort is really nice to have, especially when the bar gets really hectic, or the bar is dead and someone you’ve established a relationship with comes in, your whole day lights up,” Morales-Santos said.
“A lot of the job is performative and can be like ‘let me pretend to be interested in you,’ which is fair. But I don’t feel like that with my regulars. It just feels natural … That’s my favorite thing about my regulars, is that I don’t have to pretend to be someone.”
This article appears in Annual Manual 2026.
