Highlands Tap Room

this place is nice it has an open bar which is fun. depending on the night the bartenders either will serve you with a smile or a frown. Come here with friends in the afternoon I usually get better service. They have a pool table in the back room. On Wednesday nights they play a live band. They play bluegrass music and some light country that's just okay.

This is one of those places I don't mind to stop in on my way to somewhere else - however I don't usually turn this into an all night spot.  I almost always start at a restaurant near here, stop in for a couple shots, then move on.  It could be a little cleaner in my opinion, but that's never anything that would turn me away.  I haven't seen any karaoke in a while and that is what used to keep me around.  The pool table is usually occupied so I tend to get bored and want to go somewhere else.  The atmosphere is usually good, I've never seen any drama or anything like that.  The prices are good and the staff is definitely friendly.

The Taproom was my favourite Highland's bar. When I first moved to Louisville they still had the mug deal where you could spend $10 on a mug and the owner would engrave your name (or really anything you wanted) onto the mug and then you could refill it with any draft for a reduced price.

That special gradually morphed to only some of the drafts and then the mug system was eliminated completely. You could be kinda grandfathered into it if you were a regular, but the mug prices weren't what they used to be. This was a sad turn of events, but the beer prices were still good so it wasn't going to keep me away.

Karaoke kind of took over after a while. At first it was only a couple of nights a week and then that changed to most nights. It was [and probably still is] awful popular so I can't question that as a business decision. However, as a non-karaoke person it could be pretty annoying. This is particularly true seeing as the Taproom likes to "share" the karaoke with those sitting outside via a speaker system so there really was no escaping it by going outside. There still is live music sometimes and there's never cover, which is great. Also, at the time I left, Wednesday nights were open mic night with The Fuck Munkeys.

The outdoor seating used to be better before Kashmir screwed that up by putting a fence between in between the two establishments thus blocking off seating. I'm sure that's their right and all, but it the previous arrangement of sharing seating once Kashmir closed was a nice one and I missed it. The taproom did install a nice awning and wall heating on the side of the bar which is really nice when it's chilly. It's great for smokers as well as for non-smokers who like to hang out with their smoker friend's outside (yeah, that's me).

Sunday's are a great day to go for a Bloody Mary (Tammy makes a great one). The service in general is really good. It's a smaller bar and it gets crowded, but they work really hard back there and things get done. Also, parking is really good. I usually walked, but between the back lot, the free city lot a couple of houses away and the Mid-City Mall parking, there were a lot of options. It's a UK bar, so when UK sports are on it gets a little crazy. I'm not from Kentucky and don't give 2 shits about Kentucky sports, but if you are into UK then you'll like it here at those times. If you don't care and want to be able to converse with your buddies, plan your schedule accordingly.

It's a good place. Check it out.