Meet the bartenders of Cowley Road

Term is well underway and the typically quiet bars of Cowley Road are now packed out with students.

You’re never too far away from a drunken fight, a sports team chanting at the top of their lungs and girls falling over their heels on the cobbled streets.

The Tab hit the streets and chatted to our favourite bartenders to see if they are as happy as us to be back.

“I love all my customers here, business is going really well.

“Sometimes the students act like dicks, sometimes they come in and they’re out of their heads. When people are drunk they just lose it.

“Our regulars are really well behaved, they’re super friendly.

“We love all of our societies that come for socials, the Latino and tennis society come every week but we have lots more now.

“The computer science society are now regulars too which is cool, but everyone is a favourite in Cafe Baba.”

Cafe Baba is open seven days a week and has a cosy shisha/smoking area at the back.

Bar Aroma

“Students are crazy. Crazy in a positive way!

“They play drinking games. The other day they came in all bound together with tape and brought in loads of eggs for the game, kind of funny.

It’s really nice when students come in because it’s like a hurricane for us”

The Bullingdon

“We had a student strip on a table here.

But it really depends what bunch of students you get in here. If they’re on a pub crawl then obviously they go crazy.

It also depends where they’re from. Brookes are better”

The Bully on a Wednesday night is the place to be.

Cafe Tarifa

“Our student customers are really nice, but you can definitely tell the difference between Oxford and Brookes. You don’t have to speak and I already know where you guys are from.

“The only bad thing about students is they can’t pronounce the beer – people call it meow or moam, It’s really annoying.”

Happy hour at Cafe Tarifa is 5-8pm every week day.

Kasbar

“We’re getting really busy now, the students here are all lovely.

“Anyone is welcome anytime.”

House cocktails at the Spanish bar are only £4.50.

The City Arms

“We’ve had trouble with the girls before. Football girls trash our Christmas decorations and harass the police officers.

“We caught two girls having intercourse in our toilets before, that was crazy but this is Cowley Road.

“This year, our highlights were the refurb we went through and before that it was the Football World Cup Final and we love it when we have German customers.

“It’s a lot more boring when the students aren’t here, no one is strawpedo-ing in the beer garden. They are always good for a party”.

The City Arms have a posh new food menu including lunch and breakfast.