The library is the country club of the bar scene at Ole Miss. This is both good and bad for business.
This is the bar that everyone I have ever talked to outside of Oxford, who didn’t go to Ole Miss, knows about. It is shooting the gap between being a sports bar and a college bar. If you walk in the entrance across from square pizza the first thing you will notice is all the TVs that engulf the walls. There are very few games that the Library’s TVs cannot pick up. Just ask one of the friendly bartenders to change the channel and make sure you aren’t the only one rooting for a team.
The food there is scarce. Let me explain that. It isn’t bad by any stretch of the imagination. Everything I had was delicious. But it isn’t the main draw, and they know it. Their food is ‘munchies’ seriously on the menu category it says munchies. Chicken tenders, chips and dip, and sandwiches are the name of the game. And don’t forget about the quesadilla. It is all a good compliment to the sports bar atmosphere and drinks.
At the start of this article I said that it is the country club of the bar scene. This is because there is an insane barrier to entry here, and it is extremely nice and laid back on the inside. This bar is a 21 and over bar and I can count on both hands the amount of people who have lost their fakes here. So if you haven’t heard it yet, now you know. Covers fly from extreme on football weekends to nothing. Hats must be worn correctly. And they will call you out on it and ask you to turn it the correct way around. The bartenders are not your college age boys and girls trying to make tips either. So don’t expect to walk in and know somebody behind the bar and get help with service. However this doesn’t mean that the drinks are lacking in any way. Spoiler alert: they’re fantastic. Most of the people in there are Oxford locals who stop in after work for a drink during the week after work and then watch baseball games on the weekends.
But the library is more than the country club scene. It fluctuates from this to the rowdy bar scene most college kids know and love. Mechanical bulls, live bands and DJs, cornhole tournaments, they have golden tee, and a shuffle board, dollar beers and many different space types are the Library’s strengths on getting college students to come drink there. And let me say this. Their liquor drinks are served in big kid cups and I have yet to have a bad one. No seriously. Their liquor cups make the normal liquor drinks look like juice boxes.
The Library is a fantastic place that has something for everyone: Quiet and classy to rowdy and fun. If you’re looking for a drink after work or a rowdy Friday night the Library is the place for you. Its like an F1 race at Monaco, if you had a private place to view it from. Just above the rabble trackside. And all the hype about it is very well placed. The Library’s strength is that it wears quite a few different hats: a sports cap turned the right way, a classy top hat, a rowdy party hat, and a pair of beats by Dre headphones (if you have a better way to describe a concert write it in yourself and then pat yourself on the back). And that is why the Library is one of the top three bars on the square.
