A Complete Guide to Bars in Marion County, Ohio

Chip Gregory
Feb 4
3 min read

If you’re looking for a drink in Marion County, Ohio, the options go well beyond a single street or a single type of bar. From downtown Marion to villages like Caledonia and Waldo, the county is home to a wide range of bars, taverns, and restaurant-bars that serve as gathering places for locals year-round.

From live entertainment and high-energy events to food that regularly surprises people, these bars are more than just places to grab a drink.

We’ve got axe throwing. Axe throwing. In a Scottish bar that also hosts live entertainment — KIN & KILT. We’ve got a hip, speakeasy-style cocktail bar downtown — Shovel City Drinkery — where drinks are literally set on fire. On fire. And somehow, that’s just normal here.

We’ve got a 90-year-old Irish pub in La Rue — Coonies Place Restaurant, Tavern, & Catering — that knows how to throw a St. Patrick’s Day party the way it’s supposed to be done. It’s been doing this for nearly a century, and it shows.. In Caledonia, Bowstring Bar & Grill pulls off the rare combination of bar, restaurant, live music venue, and event space, serving high-end pub food, serious steaks, and concerts that pack the room.

Then there’s OK Café Marion on East Center Street — more than 80 years of pizza, subs, cold beer, bike nights, outdoor concerts, karaoke, trivia, and live music wrapped into one unmistakably Marion institution. It’s the kind of place where doctors, bikers, and blue-collar regulars end up at the same table, the beer is cold, the pizza is hot, and half the room has a story that starts with, “Back when I was a kid at the OK…”

And of course, there’s G & R Tavern. A hometown legend that somehow became an international stop. What started as a local hangout turned into a place people build road trips around — some from well outside the U.S. National TV segments and major write-ups helped put it on the map, but the real story is how it stayed there.

Blend of Seven Winery

146 W Center St, Marion, OH 43302

website: blendofsevenwinery.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/blendofsevenwinery

Bowstring Bar & Grill

109 S Main St, Caledonia, OH 43314

website: bowstringbarandgrill.godaddysites.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bowstringbarandgrill

Cooper’s Bowl (Odeas Pub)

191 Barks Rd W, Marion, OH 43302

website: partyatcoopers.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/coopersbowling