Knockback Nats

Cincinnati, Ohio

Field Note

Cincinnati’s Central Business District can be a bit hit-or-miss when it comes to finding an affordable beer in an authentic spot. Knockback Nats offers that potent combination in one of the city’s great sports bar atmospheres, supported by its proximity to almost all of the city’s professional sporting events. With great beer & wing power comes great notoriety, making an open seat at Knockback Nats a rarity during major sporting events.

At first glance, Knockback Nats may look like a run-of-the-mill sports bar with a heavy crowd packed in and huddled around a handful of televisions. And while that can certainly be true, the food menu elevates the experience into something else entirely. The marquee attraction here (no offense to the free popcorn offered to all) is the house-smoked combo of wings and brisket, found as standalone items and incorporated into other concoctions (like the bar’s brisket nachos).

The wings in particular generate a fair share of Knockback Nats headlines, jumbo smoked wings available with a dry rub or sauced. The pairing of wings and sports isn’t necessarily a novel combination, but Knockback Nats is unique in its hole-in-the-wall authenticity. Grabbing a beer and a bowl of wings at a local spot is no doubt more satisfying than a nearby chain option, especially when that local spot happens to offer a range of beers on tap and a menu that also includes hanky panks (a Midwestern delicacy).

Owner Natalie Lay purchased the current Knockback Nats location in 2008, ultimately capitalizing on the bar’s popularity by expanding into an adjoining storefront in 2015. Doubling the Cincinnati dive bar’s size at that time was a welcome change thanks to almost perpetually crowded confines in the original floorplan’s slim footprint. The expansion also unlocked the opportunity to expand the beer selection and add a shuffleboard into the mix.

When weather allows, a small patio along the front of Knockback Nats’ green-painted corner location expands capacity. Under the bar’s simple sign, the front door opens into the original Knockback Nats space, a slim corridor that includes a bar on one side and bench seating along the opposite wall. A small area near the rear of Knockback Nats expands out into a somewhat larger space, but these are snug confines during Cincinnati-themed sporting events so plan accordingly.

The area behind the bar here is more a collection of well-structured shelves than it is a true bar counter, a necessarily component to serving a deep beer and liquor selection with space at a premium. Television of course surround the drinking on all sides, as do framed photographs related to Cincinnati sports history. The best seats in the house are no doubt the bench seats just behind the halfway point of the bar’s main room offering an elevated view of the bar’s televisions and a small table that can be used as a buffer between you and the assembled crowd.