The dining and happy hour favorite of the four hip and fun Columbus gay bars (all with the same ownership) along High Street in the trendy and artsy Short North neighborhood, Union Bar + Food (782 N. High St., 614-421-2233) is a lively and stylish spot that draws an eclectic crowd. Up front there's a large covered patio facing High Street, and here you'll always find a big crowd of this collegiate city's see-and-be-seen types on warm evenings sipping cocktails and checking each other out. Inside, there's a long narrow space (it can get mighty crowded in here late on weekend evenings) that has table seating and food service (light and quite tasty American pub fare with some creative twists).
The other gay bars owned by the same group, and all within walking distance, are Axis (the sizable gay dance club across the street), Havana (a cozy-ish little cruise bar just up high street a 100 feet or so), and EV, short for East Village (this is the site of the former Union Station, a few blocks south, which grew into the present-day Union - EV attracts more of a lesbian crowd, although it's fairly mixed, as all these places are). The owners also run Union Station/Bounce in Cleveland's Ohio City neighborhood, and Union Station gay video bar in Cincinnati.