From flammable cognac lounge to Aarhus’ top craft beer hangout
Hidden beneath Stakladen lies the Student Bar. This atmospheric venue with its yellow brick walls is filled with stories and quirky details from Aarhus University’s history – and perhaps your own student days? The bar is still open to all.
The student bar. The university bar. The hole.
A beloved place goes by many names – and the university’s oldest bar, tucked beneath Stakladen, is no exception. The bar’s history dates back to 1965, when it was a cognac lounge with an open fireplace. When the wind turned, glowing embers would whirl back into the room.
Many of Aarhus’ cultural personalities were involved in the bar at the time, including jazz musician Bent J, who was an economics student and founder of Aarhus Studenterjazz, which organised concerts in Stakladen. Bent J later got his very own ‘Bent J’ pub in Nørregade – today it is part of Den Gamle By.
Young Lovers’ Room and Hells Angels
In 1969, the students celebrated the Students Association’s 41st anniversary by setting up a Young Lovers’ Room in the Student Bar – intended, as Sjællandsposten reported, to “let all passions run free”. There were mattresses on the floor, mood lighting, scented incense, intimate music – and the freedom for guests to shed their clothes, which, reportedly, many did.
In the 1970s, bartenders at the Student Bar were paid on commission, and the oldest bartenders were allowed to choose their shift first. Newer bar workers often ended up with the quietest shifts, and one story goes that one of them was paid entirely by his girlfriend, who sat alone ordering drinks.
The bar got livelier – perhaps a little too lively – in the 1980s, when the Hells Angels bikers were regulars for a time.
Colourful characters and tobacco fog
In the 1990s and 2000s, the Student Bar attracted a large, loyal crowd of regulars – not just staff and students (including the affectionately nicknamed ‘eternal students’), but also locals and colourful characters. One of the most notable regulars at the bar was philosophy graduate Jon Rostgaard Boiesen, who died far too young in 2019. His funeral ceremony was held at Stakladen, with around 500 people in attendance, and his wake was held at the Student Bar.
The bar has changed hands many times over the years. In 1992, Studenterhusfonden took over the bar and leased it to the bartender Peter Bech, who hung his motorbike on the wall. He took it with him when he retired in 2003, at which point Niels Overgaard, who is the main source for this article, became the operations manager.
For most of its history, the Student Bar has been shrouded in a thick cloud of tobacco smoke – except for a small side room, which to this day is still called ‘the non-smoker’s’. Today, like the rest of campus, the bar is entirely smoke-free, but the venue’s colourful history still hangs in the air, and if you find yourself there in the early hours, you’re bound to hear a tall tale or two.
Today the Student Bar offers Aarhus’ largest selection of craft beers, pub quizzes, food, beer-tasting events, and an impressive selection of board games – now stored in the old fireplace.
Alums are more than welcome to stop by.