The Mickey’s Bar building perched along primary Grandview Heights thoroughfare Fifth Avenue is fairly nondescript, a small building renovated over the past few years, relocating the Columbus dive bar’s original sign to the side of the structure. Out front, a new patio and permanent overhang adds a little more visual distinction to what was once simply Columbus sidewalk usually filled with karaoke singers on smoke breaks between songs. Adjacent to a strip mall parking lot, the only decoration of note is a large mural on the west side of the building, a cartoon depiction of karaoke reminiscent of the Little Caesar’s character, an ode to a pizza joint gone and since replaced.
The Mickey’s Bar floorplan is simple, a rectangle with floating bar in the middle of the space, everything oriented around the karaoke “zone” in the window-covered front corner. The furniture features a series of large round tables, a handful of high tops and a pretty unwieldy elevated table that is as immovable as it is inconvenient, a bottleneck in what can become a pretty backed Mickey’s Bar. The bar is set toward the east side of the building, leaving a sliver of space for seating on one side, creating a nightly drunken traffic jam as the night progresses.
The karaoke magic happens up front, large glass windows serving as stage ambiance, fogging quickly during cold weather months as the assembled crowd generates significant heat. The karaoke stand lives here, complemented by a free standing lyrics screen always in danger of being toppled over. A mounted television near the bar offers additional support. A small, elevated stage provides some refuge to the no-doubt embattled emcee often thrust into action on slow nights.
