COLUMBUS, A new documentary about Summit Station, widely recognized as Ohio’s first and longest-running lesbian bar, sold out both of its premiere screenings this weekend at the Wexner Center for the Arts on North High Street.
The 77-minute film, called “Free Beer Tomorrow,” screened Friday and Saturday at the Wexner Center at 1871 N. High St. in Columbus’s University District. Both 7 p.m. showings filled to capacity. Organizers said some tickets may still be available through the venue’s standby line.
The Bar Behind the Film
Summit Station stood for nearly four decades at 2210 Summit St. in the SoHud neighborhood near Ohio State University. The building today houses Summit Music Hall.
The bar opened in 1971 under different names, including Jack’s A Go Go and Logan’s Off Broadway. In 1980, musician Petie Brown bought the business, renamed it Summit Station, and turned it into a lesbian-owned and lesbian-operated space. It closed in 2007 or 2008, according to the Ohio History Connection.
For the people who went there, it was more than a bar. Summit Station served as a gathering place for LGBTQ organizing and community support during decades when safe spaces were hard to find. Organizations supporting women in Columbus, including the recovery program Amethyst Inc. trace parts of their early development to connections made at the bar. Brown also hosted annual Christmas benefit shows that raised money for the Family AIDS Clinic and Education Services program at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
Who Made the Film
The documentary was directed by Julia Applegate, a senior lecturer at Ohio State and a former Summit Station patron, along with Columbus performer and community organizer LuSter Singleton. The two also led the campaign that got an official Ohio History Connection historical marker installed at the Summit Station site in 2023, one of only a small number of the organization’s more than 1,800 markers recognizing LGBTQ-related sites. That marker was later damaged and is expected to be repaired.
To make the film, Applegate and Singleton conducted more than 50 interviews across 13 states. People interviewed include Petie Brown, LGBTQ rights attorney Rhonda R. Rivera, performers, athletes, and activists connected to the bar.
The project also includes a companion podcast series and a public health research study on the role of lesbian bars as community infrastructure.
The title comes from a neon sign that used to hang above the bar, a running joke about free beer that would always arrive “tomorrow.”
The preservation of local history through film comes at a time of significant change for the city’s landscape as KeyBank Tower for Sale.
See It Next
“Free Beer Tomorrow” is scheduled to screen at the Cleveland International Film Festival on April 15. Organizers also hope to bring it back to Columbus for a Pride Month screening in June at Studio 35 Cinema and Drafthouse on Indianola Avenue. The filmmaking team has also been holding screenings at churches, community centers, and retirement homes across central Ohio.
This article is based on information from the Wexner Center for the Arts and the Ohio History Connection.
Published: March 14, 2026 | ColumbusFrontline.com