COLUMBUS, Ohio — At many bars, you need to be 21 in order to get in, but at one establishment in central Ohio, there are certain hours where even people in their 20s are too young.

What You Need To Know

  • A Columbus bar is banning people under 30 on Friday and Saturday nights 

  • The policy was posted on Donerick's Pub Groveport's Facebook page

  • In the Facebook comments, the bar replied saying it was for safety purposes 

For the last two months, Donerick’s Pub in the outskirts of Columbus has only allowed customers 30 and older into its bar on Friday and Saturday nights.

While restaurant management is declining our request for an interview, they’ve posted on Facebook that the move was made for safety reasons and is in response to the number of customers they’ve had on the weekends.

Brian Hipsher is a professor of marketing at The Ohio State University.

He said the pub’s policy could have been driven from complaints by their regular customers. 

“They’re probably trying to appeal to who they see as their target market. If they have customers who have expressed concern about the environment possibly,” Hipsher said.

Hipsher said he has seen other bars and restaurants establish similar rules. 

“In the hotel and resort space, adults’ only types of experiences are pretty popular for older folks and there are some restaurants who have done this across the country, and it’s a way to generate some buzz. If they’re able to stick to it, it can actually become pretty popular,” Hipsher said.

We reached out to the Ohio Restaurant and Hospitality Alliance for its take on the move.

“It is up to an individual owner to decide the best operational model for their business to ensure a quality experience for their guests. We will continue to monitor the prevalence of these business practices and will learn more, if necessary, to best serve Ohio’s restaurant and hospitality community,” said the Ohio Restaurant and Hospitality Alliance, in a statement.

Professor of management at Case Western Reserve University, Jim Gilmore, said the pub could have created its 30 and up policy as a response to the kind of establishment they want to be. 

“Today’s consumption reflects how individuals perceive themselves and how establishments serve as a reflection of their own identity. What have we done to induce that?” Gilmore said.

“My guess is it’s primarily profit driven and trying to understand how can we make our customers happy. How can we give them the experience that they want, and to differentiate yourself to say you know hey here’s a place that you can come where the experience will be a way that you might prefer,” Hipsher said.