Big Run Kava Bar recently opened as the first non-alcoholic social establishment on Court Street.
The newest addition to the Athens bar scene aims to provide alternative nightlife activities for underage students and sober community members while keeping Ohio University’s party-school reputation alive.
The self-proclaimed ‘sober bar’ is located 72 N Court Street and is open Tuesdays through Saturdays 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. as well as 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sunday.
According to the National Institute of Health’s Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, kava is a plant native to the western Pacific islands and a member of the Piper methysticum, or pepper, family. Historically, kava has been used by Pacific Islanders as medicine and for ritualistic purposes.
While there is significant research on the present-day uses of kava, such as treating anxiety and insomnia, it is primarily used by various cultures as a way to build community.
Southeast Ohio native from Marietta, Ohio, and Big Run Kava Bar owner Brandon Tucker, for example, met his wife and bar co-owner Shaylee Tucker over kava in Southwest Florida.
According to Shaylee, the uplifting experience she and her husband have had with the kava industry over the past eight years inspired their entrepreneurial venture in Athens.
“It's one of my dreams, and (my husband's) dreams, to be able to have (a kava bar) of our own,” Tucker said. “Athens County has never experienced anything like this before…so we just decided to take a chance with it. We knew we were very passionate and loved it, so we just decided to give it a chance.”
According to Shaylee, she and her husband have made an effort to price their menu accessibly, offer discounts, provide rewards, host community events and cultivate a welcoming environment to meet the Athens market.
Drinks at Big Run Kava Bar range from $3 espresso shots to $12 specialty mocktails compared to the $5 to $15 drink price range of typical college bars.
Each drink can be made with or without kava, but those with will mimic the effects of the three main CBD strains, according to Shaylee. She prefers to compare kava’s effects to cannabis as opposed to alcohol to help customers better understand the potential benefits and side effects.
“You can still feel something off of a drink, but you wouldn't walk out intoxicated, impaired, regretting any decisions,” Tucker said. “It came very close to our hearts very quickly, not only with the amount of people that we met, (but also) how you could network with people, just establish friendships and relationships.”
Tucker is also careful, however, to highlight the differences between kava and cannabis, noting that while the effects may be comparable to the CBD spectrum, kava does not contain any psychoactive properties.
The addition of the Tuckers’ sober bar follows a trend among Generation Z college students which shows an increase in college students who are abstaining from drinking. According to a study by the Cleveland Clinic, alcohol abstinence rose from just 20% in 2002 to 28% in 2018.
“Younger adults are drinking less alcohol - and it has been moving in that direction for two decades,” Cleveland Clinic Addiction Psychiatrist Akhil Anand said.
While the exact cause of the societal shift is unknown, Anand argues increased mental health awareness, healthier lifestyle choices and recreational cannabis use all contribute to the trend.
Lauren Kast, a graduate student studying hearing, speech and language sciences, said the addition of Big Run Kava Bar was something new to her experience in Athens.
“I hope that people that are under the legal drinking age or that prefer not to drink, give it a try,” Kast said. “There is a place out there for (people) to go where they don't have to drink but can still socialize and get out there and meet people.”
Kast added that she appreciated the bar had a time and space for everyone.
“I looked at (the bar) almost as a coffee shop, and somewhere to go sit and do homework, but I could see how they wanted to make it more of a bar setting,” Kast said. “It was set up with bar seats instead of a walk up counter like Starbucks.”
Tucker said she will be using the duality of the space to continue catering to customers. While the bar is only three months old, it has hosted a variety of events and continue to seek feedback about what the community would like to see in the future.
“We have a monthly open stage night that, I hope, will consistently bring the community in. That's going to be every third Saturday of the month,” Tucker said. “We do have Mario Kart tournaments every last Saturday of the month…We have a ‘Crochet Your Own Pumpkin’ class coming up next week…We have a Beetlejuice movie tomorrow night…so we're going to be doing little things like that to…bring people in.”
