Taylor’s Bar and Grille is the historic hang-out spot for students, offering music, good food and cheap drinks.
Taylor’s Bar and Grille has been in operation since 1922, when Hersch Taylor and his father Fred started the business. In the past 80 years, the bar has changed hands, but the name has endured.
The inside of the bar looks like a classic neighborhood tavern taken over by college students. There is a lot of wood and a decorative theme featuring sports paraphernalia (both contemporary and vintage) and promotional material for alcoholic beverages. The open-air deck outside is the preferred hangout for smokers, while video poker machines just inside the front door indulge yet another unhealthy but entertaining vice. For sports fans, Taylor’s features eight flat screen televisions and one 10- by-13-foot, high-definition projection screen with enough sports packages to make any jock salivate.
At night, the bar offers a variety of special events. On Mondays, Taylor’s has football specials such as $1 beers and half-price food until the first point is scored. Tuesdays are Karaoke nights; Wednesdays the bar features $1 microbrews and Thursdays are both ’80s nights and ladies nights. DJ TekNeek, who spent much of his early musical career spinning at Taylor’s, plays hip-hop and takes requests on Friday nights. Recently, Taylor’s has been booking live music on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Local bands such as Savitri, Rhetoric Tuesday and Eight-Track Liberators can be enjoyed for a cover, usually about $2.
Music has played a big part in the bar’s history. Taylor’s has been a venue for the likes of Stevie Ray Vaughn, Robert Cray, Blues Traveler and B.B. King. After playing on campus sometime in the mid-’90s, the band Widespread Panic performed an impromptu acoustic set at Taylor’s.
By day, the restaurant takes on the persona of a bustling campus lunch spot. It’s location on the corner of 13th and Kincaid, across from the University Bookstore, makes it an ideal place to grab a meal or get a daily dose of vitamin beer between classes.
Taylor’s also serves breakfast from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. and offers items such as bacon sourdough french toast, breakfast pitas and scrambles for $5 to $8.
Tonight Taylor’s will be hosting Bacardi’s Red Hot Road Trip, a nationwide promotional event that pits colleges across the United States against each other in a competition to decide who parties the hardest. The event will feature games, prizes, tiny cars and, of course, scantily clad women. A decibel meter reading will be taken at a predetermined hour, and the college town with the highest reading will be featured in For Him Magazine.
Like the University, Taylor’s has acquired its fair share of history over the years. During the filming of “Animal House,” the bar was frequented by comedian John Belushi, who allegedly was inspired to create “The Blues Brothers” by a late-night Curtis Salgado performance.
