Complex Magazine — a guide to arts, style, culture and city life — recently ranked Rennie’s Landing as one of the nation’s top 50 college bars in America. Number 43, to be exact.
Located on Kincaid Street in the historic John Rennie house, Rennie’s Landing has served the campus area for 32 years. The establishment’s success derives from its welcoming atmosphere. Rennie’s is closed to minors after 3 p.m.
“It’s pretty awesome to be the bar that people want to go to,” said senior bartender Nick Coats. “It’s making it a destination instead of a hidden secret.”
General Manager Annette Lee says the wide array of age groups that come through Rennie’s is what makes it a special place for the campus community.
“We have a variety of people that come here, anywhere from professors to college kids to people that come in here reminiscing from when they were in college and bring their kids in here,” Lee said.
Lee has worked at Rennie’s Landing for 17 years.
When Coats says “it’s like family here,” he isn’t kidding. Lee is not only Coats’ manager — she’s his mother.
“I brought him in when he was a little kid and he started bartending for me about a couple months after he turned 21,” said Lee.
Coats described his experience with Rennie’s Landing as an awkward version of the 1980s American sitcom television series “Cheers,” a show set in a Boston bar called Cheers, where a group of locals meet to drink, relax, chat and have fun.
Edwin Coleman was an English professor at the University of Oregon for 40 years and retired full time in 1999. He has been coming to Rennie’s Landing for the past 20 years. Coleman says the pub has become the hub of his lunches, sometimes coming in five days a week. He also brings his wife to Rennie’s for dinner.
“Overall Rennie’s is a place that I tell people where everyone knows your name,” Coleman said. “This is my Cheers.”
Coleman says not only the food, but the overall atmosphere, is what makes him enjoy coming to Rennie’s again and again.
“It’s a great place to eat, and it’s good place to bring friends” Coleman said.