Editor’s note: This story is the first in a series titled ‘Last call’ profiling local bars and night spots
— and the people at them.
When the night falls and students of legal age long to see and be seen without straying far from campus, two choices await: Taylor’s Bar and Grill and Rennie’s Landing, both located at the bustling intersection of Kincaid Street and 13th Avenue. While Taylor’s is marked by its large, loud mobs and bump-and-grind dance floor, bartenders at Rennie’s vouch that in comparison their bar has more of the “chill” factor built in, thanks to its many tables and chairs, as well as its spaciousness.
“Because of all the seating, it’s more of a place to hang out with friends,” bartender Dan Hart said. “It’s low-key and more comfortable.”
But the bar still attracts Taylor’s-sized crowds; on its busiest nights, Thursdays through Saturdays, long lines often form out the door, causing the interior of Rennie’s to turn into a traffic jam.
“It’s so busy in here at night, it’s like a New York subway,” bartender Heather Higgins said. “We call it the ‘Rennie’s shuffle.’”
The tradition of students flocking to Rennie’s to eat, drink and kick back has sustained itself for years. The restaurant and bar was named for late salesman John Rennie, who built the house in the early 1920s. Rennie’s Landing first opened on Valentine’s Day in 1981. University graduate and former Rennie’s bartender Jeff Crose said he remembers post-class afternoons in 1995, when he and friends would go to beer gardens, which at the time were set up around the EMU, and then head to Rennie’s. He said Rennie’s convenient location attracts business.
“Rennie’s doesn’t need magic to get people to come here,” Crose said. “It’s right on campus, so people come here no matter what.”
These days, as Rennie’s customers gather at the bar during late hours, bartenders are often faced with rowdiness and attitude. Bartender Traci Acireno particularly remembers one night when a group of “loud and obnoxious” males approached the bar she was tending. One of the males began to drop a dollar bill in the tip jar for her, then crumpled it up in his hand, she said. Feeling bad that he had decided against tipping her, he offered her a can of beer he had brought, although Rennie’s forbids outside beer in the bar.
“That is the world’s biggest idiot,” Acireno said. “He offered me a beer that he couldn’t bring in.”
Night manager Pete Engdall said once a year he encounters an underage partygoer trying to get inside Rennie’s by telling him that he or she knows a staff member, named “Pete,” who would let the minor in. Unfortunately, the aspiring bar hopper doesn’t realize he or she is talking to Pete himself.
“They’ll ask, ‘Do you know
a Pete?’ and I just say I don’t know
him or he doesn’t work here,”
Engdall said.
Despite some unwelcome behavior, customers have brought memorable moments to Rennie’s. Engdall remembers when a local celebrity enhanced an evening at the bar.
“One night someone was sitting in a chair outside blocking the front door,” he said. “I went outside and saw it was Joey Harrington, and he said, ‘I’m the official greeter.’ So of course we let him do that.”
Rennie’s begins food service at 7:30 a.m. for breakfast, then moves on to lunch and dinner, both of which are offered until 11 p.m.; a late-night menu is available from 11 p.m. until close at 2 a.m. After-hours choices include fish and chips, sandwiches, soups, salads and burgers. Prices are budget-friendly; all menu items are less than $10.
Hart said the bar’s most popular drink is Rennie’s Lemonade, a
blend of wildberry and orange
vodka, lemonade and raspberry liqueur, which sells for $5.75. Cheaper favorites, Hart said, are pitchers (each containing three pints of beer) of Budweiser and Bud Light. Pitchers cost $4.75 during happy hours (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday through Friday and 10 p.m. to midnight Sunday through Thursday) and $6.75 during regular hours. Rennie’s also serves up creatively concocted shots, such as the Slippery Nipple, a mixture of Buttershots and
Irish Cream.
Higgins said while Rennie’s maintains a different atmosphere from Taylor’s, no animosity occurs between the two bars’ staff members.
“It’s classy here,” she said. “We don’t have a DJ, so it’s a different social scene. But we’re friends with the Taylor’s bartenders — we all work together.”

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