The return of Rambling House Music Bar

In late September, as patrons gathered at Rambling House Music Bar for the Old North venue’s final night in business, two people in attendance harbored a secret hope.

While Columbus bluegrass band the Relentless Mules performed on the intimate room’s stage, Michelle and Tucker Bohm watched the staff and audience members share hugs and tears as they attempted to process the surreal nature of their predicament. 

At the time, the two, who began attending shows together at Rambling House years before they married, were deep in discussions to purchase the business. Not wanting to give anyone false hope only to see the deal collapse in the eleventh hour, however, the couple chose to keep silent.

“I wanted to respect what the previous owners needed, what the employees needed,” said Michelle, who joined Tucker and staff members Adam Himmel and Jordan Garber at Rambling House in early November to discuss the return of the Old North venue, which will have a familiar look and feel when it resumes operations at 310 E. Hudson St. in early December. “And so, I patiently kept my mouth shut and tried to close the deal so that I could tell all of them.”

“We didn’t want to promise anything until we knew we could deliver it,” Tucker said. “Because we know how much this place meant to people.”

In June, former Rambling House co-owner Geoff Wilcox posted to the business’ social media that the venue would be put up for sale, expressing his desire for it to end up in the hands of someone committed to carrying its musical tradition forward. “We’re looking for people who love it as much as we do to invest alongside the Rambling House Music Bar team to buy the property and keep the dream alive,” he wrote.

When Rambling House announced in early September that it would close at the end of the month, it appeared as though this dream had died.

Behind the scenes, however, conversations between the former owners and the Bohms were well under way prior to that final show on Sept. 30, having kickstarted a couple weeks prior when the couple toured the space with a realtor, with the sale finalized in late October. “We were just sad Rambling House was closing, and then it was like, oh, it’s an opportunity to buy not just a building, but to buy Rambling House and reopen it,” Tucker said. “And that changed the game for us in terms of how we looked at this, because an empty building, starting from scratch, we didn’t want to do that. That’s not what we were looking for.”

The Bohm’s interest in purchasing Rambling House further hinged on their ability to bring back as many former staff members as possible, the two describing the workers involved with day-to-day operations as integral to the community that has built up around the venue. “Before even approaching this, the first question was, can we get the employees back?” said Michelle, who added that the two attempted to circumvent the closure, hoping to keep the business operational as it went through the process of changing hands. “By that point, though, I think wheels were in motion that couldn’t be stopped.”

Throughout the course of our interview, the Bohms repeatedly raised the importance of preserving those things that made Rambling House special, from the low-key atmosphere – “This is one of the few places where I’m not in the car like, ‘Ah, I forgot my earplugs,’” Tucker said, and laughed – to the recurring roots-oriented theme nights, with multiple people having already inquired as to the possibility of resuscitating the Cosmic Honky Tonk. And those changes the two have discussed have been relatively subtle, including the potential of extending operating hours to capture the post-work happy hour crowd, expanding on the bar program, and an openness to experimenting with the types of shows hosted within the room.

“I don’t think we envision that the people who have been coming to Rambling House are gonna walk in the door, cringe, and walk away,” said Tucker, who first visited the venue with Michelle during its weekly Sunday night Old Time Jam nearly seven years ago. “We’re not gonna let that happen. … It’s taking what’s been built here and what exists here and helping it grow even more. And if we have any thumbprint, it’s that. It’s not a left turn or a wild change in direction.”

To aid with this continuity, the Bohms brought Garber back as bar manager and Himmel as marketing specialist, with artist bookings now handled by the trio of primary booker Adam Scoppa and Lydia Loveless, along with production/logistics manager Mery Steel.

“And they’re already calling people who have played here before,” said Michelle, who urged any musicians who had post-September Rambling House shows canceled to reach out to the venue via email at booking@ramblinghousemusic.com. “That’s why we liked this place, because it already works. We don’t have to create a whole plan from scratch. We can just come in here, fix it up a little, take care of our people, and continue the traditions that already exist.”