Tailgaters Bar and Grill

We tried this place twice, as we live quite near and want to find a "local".  (In Ireland, folks walk to the "local" and have their pint. We need a local here!)  Going in here twice was about once and a half too many times.  We never did stay long enough to eat.  The atmosphere and soul-numbing noise level drove us out.  I wish somebody would buy this place and make a nice bar and grill out of it.  There are a lot of people living in this area and nothing super close.

My definition of a dive bar: Dark, might be falling apart at the seams if you could see them, graffiti on the walls of the bathroom stalls, crackers and rednecks mixing with wanna be athletes, and a few hipster doofuses thrown in.  Maybe a skank or two thrown in, and the lounge lizards are good for a chuckle.

Tailgaters meets these 'standards' in an older strip mall.  Yes, there are some cool people there, but there are a LOT of people who benefit from the lack of lighting, and that if you saw them on the street, you'd either hold your nose or cover your wallet.  On one visit, a redneck snagglepuss (one tooth) spouted some racist rants very loudly, and the staff did nothing to subdue him....I was offended almost as much by the lack of shutting him down by the staff.  If you are lucky, a server might come to your table, but save yourself some time and head to the bar yourself. I can tip the bartender directly that way as well, and my drink isn't half spilled by the time it gets to me.

A few good points: they have a patio, two pool tables, and make my favorite drink very well.  They have a few TVs, including a big screen.  A jukebox and two pool tables complete the 'atmosphere'.

We went here the other night for the KU/MU game, which was a disappointment all in itself, but the rest of the experience wasn't much different.  

They have two decent size rooms in a strip mall, one with pool tables and a door that leads to a smoking patio.  The other has their bar, some tables, a lounging couch that looked comfortable, and some airliner/movie theater chair in front of a good amount of big screen TVs for the game.  The place seemed to have a good amount of potential, but fell just short of me wanting to give it another chance.

I didn't notice any sewer smell as Travis mentioned, but there was a noticeable dive bar smell consisting of stale beer, body odor, cigarettes, and fried food.  I've been to plenty of dive bars so this didn't necessarily scare me away immediately...you tend to get used to it after awhile if you enjoy cheap drinks and an eclectic crowd.

It took about 10 minutes to get a drink from when we sat down due to the fact that there was only one person working the entire place!  I gave her the benefit of the doubt thinking some of the staff may be out, but her attitude and lack of concern for putting any effort into pleasing the customers quickly turned my thoughts around.

I ended up going to the bar for all my drinks and food orders. Not sure if it was my lack of patience or my kindness to help the bartender out.  After about 30 minutes of waiting for my food order, I went to the food counter that meets the kitchen.  While looking in, I saw a 400 lb sweaty dude manhandling my wings without gloves.  Thank God they fried them in 400 degree oil.  A few minutes later I saw them sitting on the counter so I proceeded to pick them up myself.  

Wings were ok, but it's pretty hard to screw up fried chicken wings slathered in buffalo sauce.  My ladie's potato skins were disappointingly dry with a little bit of cheese, but the crispy bacon bits and side of sour cream saved them.

Oh yeah, and that big, sweaty cook dude I mentioned earlier was puking in the trash can in the pool table room, which could only be from drinking too much or being ill.  I'm glad I was able to eat before seeing that...

They must do a lot of business for Karaoke though, because quite the big crowd came in as they were setting up for it.

Overall, very disappointed since I live up the street.  Was hoping for a new spot to drink/eat for games.