Bathtub Gin and Spirits: Haunted Arnold’s Bar and Grill

Reviewed by Josh N · Updated August 7, 2026 · How we verify

Talk of a haunted Arnold’s Bar and Grill sits alongside talk of bathtub gin and mob money, and all three legends belong to the same building: the oldest continuously operating bar in Cincinnati, Ohio, and one of the oldest anywhere in the United States. The bar itself does not lean hard on the ghost angle. It does not need to. But the claims exist, staff and customers have made them, and in 2017 the owners let a paranormal group in to test them.

Quick orientation: open since 1838, run by one family for 98 years, a working bar and restaurant today with a courtyard, several street art murals, and a second-floor bathtub with a reputation.

Susan Fawcett’s Establishment and Simon Arnold’s Bar

The building’s first business was not a saloon. According to Cincinnati historian Mike Morgan, the establishment was first opened in 1838 by Susan Fawcett as “a whorehouse.” That is the recorded origin story, and it is worth knowing before anyone starts assigning identities to footsteps overhead.

In 1861 a new owner, Simon Arnold, ran the place as a bar and lived upstairs. Around 1900 his son Hugo took it over, and Hugo, his wife and their six children lived above the business too. Hugo added the building next door, which food historian Polly Campbell notes “allowed for a separate entrance and room for women.” Living quarters directly over a barroom for generation after generation is the kind of detail that tends to keep a building’s stories personal rather than abstract.

The Second-Floor Bathtub and the Prohibition Years

In the 1920s Hugo’s son Elmer took over and, because of Prohibition, started serving food. The bar operated as a speakeasy, and Campbell has said Elmer was also “likely selling homemade gin.” The bathtub cart that fronts the building and appears in local parades points to the second-floor bathtub said to have been used for that gin. Campbell’s explanation is practical rather than romantic: the tub was convenient “because it was easy to pull the plug in case there was a raid.” In 2019 the bar leaned into the story properly, partnering with local distillers Woodstone Creek on Hugo Arnold’s Bathtub Gin, named for the Prohibition-era owner.

From the Arnolds to a Wrestler, a Councilman and the Breedens

The Arnold family ran the bar through three generations and 98 years. In 1959 Elmer sold it to Jim Christakos, a former professional wrestler and mob collector who also lived upstairs, and his brother George Christos. In 1976 Cincinnati City Council member Jim Tarbell bought it and moved in above the bar as well, expanding the place to include the large outdoor courtyard. Longtime Arnold’s server Ronda Breeden bought it in 1998 to run with her son Chris, and in 2019 Chris and Bethany Breeden took over ownership. Six owners in nearly two centuries, most of them sleeping over the taproom.

What People Report, and What Cornerstone Paranormal Documented

The source record here is honest and thin, which is better than the alternative. Some believe the building to be haunted. Staff and patrons have made claims of paranormal activity on the property, and in 2017 Arnold’s allowed the group Cornerstone Paranormal to investigate those claims. Several odd and interesting findings were documented. No named apparition, no death toll, no verified incident attaches to any of it.

Cincinnati Magazine put the bar’s reputation in perspective in its 2021 “Best of the City” issue, writing that “the legends of bathtub gin, paranormal activity, and mob connections are just a small part of why the city’s oldest, and perhaps most beloved, bar still draws a mighty crowd.” That is the fairest summary available: the ghost stories are one thread in a much older rope.

Murals, Movie Crews and a Bar That Keeps Getting Borrowed

Arnold’s exterior has become a small street art gallery. In 2010 Shepard Fairey installed a 15-foot-tall by 20-foot-wide mural titled “Global Warning” on the outside wall, made from wheatpasted screen prints the bar has maintained. In 2013 the artist JR added a wheatpaste mural in the courtyard depicting Arnold’s waitresses from the 1930s, part of his “Unframed” series. Film crews keep coming too: the 2015 Todd Haynes film Carol was partly shot here, and in January 2023 the bar closed for six weeks so The Alto Knights, a gangster film starring Robert De Niro, could film inside.

Going to Arnold’s Yourself

This is a working bar and restaurant in downtown Cincinnati, not a tour site, so a visit means ordering something and paying attention. Thrillist has called it the “most iconic bar in Ohio,” and Ohio Magazine listed it among 30 famous Ohio food spots in 2023, so expect a crowd rather than an empty room in which to listen for anything. Set pieces from the NBC drama Harry’s Law, which built a replica of Arnold’s as a hangout for its characters, are displayed on the second floor. Anyone hoping for atmosphere should treat the ghost stories as bar talk with a long pedigree, and the building itself as the genuine attraction.

Address: Cincinnati, Ohio

Sources

• Arnold's Way
• Thrillist: Cincinnati's oldest bar is Ohio's most iconic
• The Oldest Tavern In Cincinnati Has A Truly Incredible History
• Arnold's Brothels, Bootleggers, and Booze Tours
• Where to Eat and Drink in Cincinnati
• Wikipedia: Arnold's Bar and Grill

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