Best of OSU: Ugly Tuna Saloona 2’s Ugly Hour provides dependable, affordable fun to campus

Antonia Campbell
Thu, 13 Nov 2025 03:53:50 +0000
Arts & Life, Best of OSU, Instagram Page, News, 2018, 2019, 2025, accessible, affordable, alumni, bar crawl, Bar deal, Bar special, Bartenders, Best bar deal, campus bar, Chittenden ave, consistency, dive bar, Family-like atmosphere, game days, gateway, Grant hegler, Nathan shivak, One dollar drinks, poll, senior crawl, Tradition, tuna, ugly hour, ugly tuna, ugly tuna saloona [and 2 more]

Ugly Hour, Ugly Tuna’s most popular bar deal, is held 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. everyday except Sundays and Ohio State football game days. Credit: Courtesy of Shawn Vilaisack

Colorfully painted fish in vibrant seas cover walls that are tinted blue and green by LED lighting, water-filled solo cups with small rubber ducks bobbing in them are strategically placed on foldable tables, mounted televisions border the tops of every wall as wobbly barstools and high tables face them — Ugly Tuna Saloona 2 provides its own unique experience.

The bar, which is located at 195 Chittenden Ave., opened in April 2019 ahead of Ohio State’s annual senior bar crawl, per prior Lantern reporting. The dawn of Ugly Tuna 2 followed the April 2018 closure of the original Ugly Tuna Saloona, which was located on High St. at the Gateway.

With the relocation and re-opening of the bar, one thing was sure to carry over from Gateway to Chittenden — Ugly Hour.

Ugly Hour was voted best bar deal of 2025 by students for The Lantern’s 2025 Best of OSU special edition, receiving 398 votes. Grant Hegler, one of Ugly Tuna’s managers, said the bar deal has been around for as long as he can recall.?

“That was a special that they ran at the previous Ugly Tuna,” Hegler said. “I don’t know for how long they did it there, but Ugly Hour has been around since day one when we opened here — ever since this place opened its doors, we’ve been running Ugly Hour.”

Ugly Hour is Ugly Tuna’s most popular bar deal. It entails $1 well drinks and $1 bombs, a type of shot. Ugly Hour is held from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. everyday except Sundays, when the bar is closed, and football game days, according to Nathan Shivak, another manager at the bar.

Both Hegler and Shivak have been working at Ugly Tuna since its 2019 opening, where they started as security guards, Shivak said.?

Shivak said the regularity behind Ugly Hour has kept past and present students coming back, establishing a positive reputation for the bar.

“Since day one, we haven’t really changed anything,” Shivak said. “Anyone that comes here currently or in the past, like alumni, knows Ugly Hour is [from] 7 to 10 [p.m.], and it’s just kind of what we’re known for.”

Hegler also said the tradition of Ugly Hour, along with its reliability, have made the deal popular among students.

“I think consistency is a big part of it,” Hegler said. “We’ve been doing it for so long and times are subject to change for game days, of course, but for the most part, we’ve run Ugly Hour 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. for four, five years. When we originally opened, it may have been 8 to 11 [p.m.] or 8 to 10 [p.m.], but for the most part, the deal has remained unchanged for years for several different classes of students.”

Hegler said hosting Ugly Hour is important not only for the bar’s success, but also for providing accessibility and enjoyment to students.

“I think it’s important to run Ugly Hour because these college students may not be in the best financial situation, so it’s important to run these drink specials for people to come here and have fun affordably,” Hegler said. “It benefits us because it gets people out of the house at a time that usually you wouldn’t find people going out already … [Ugly Hour is] a little bit earlier than people are expecting, but it helps us and it helps them at the same time.”

When Ugly Tuna gets hectic during Ugly Hour, Shivak said their bartenders know how to handle it because of their low bartender turnover.

“Ugly Hour is $1 wells, $1 bombs, nothing crazy special,” Shivak said. “But in terms of bartenders … Most staff have been here for a long time, and once you do it, you know, five days a week for a couple months, you get a hang of it.”

Hegler said the bar’s long-term staff and their close-knit dynamic has created a sense of community that sets Ugly Tuna apart.

“As far as what we do differently than other places, we don’t have a lot of turnover here,” Helger said. “A lot of the people you see working here have been working here for two, three plus years. So I think for us as employees, we try to provide a family environment and I think that that sort of trickles down to some of the patrons as well. They see the sort of camaraderie we have here, and they, in turn, build relationships with us.”

Since day one, the bar’s intentions have always remained the same — providing a place to relax with your friends after a long week, Hegler said.

“It’s a campus bar, right?” Hegler said. “It’s a place to come and relax after classes, after the week, you know, the grind at school, a place to come and have fun affordably. I think that’s what a campus bar should provide.”

Winning the title of the best bar deal by students, Shivak said the Ugly Tuna team is grateful for the community’s support.

“We appreciate that people voted for us and we hope that people just continue to keep coming out,” Shivak said.