Will the real Taylor’s please stand up?
The Taylor Brothers have reclaimed the comer of 13th Avenue and Kincaid Street to open Old Taylor's. Nathan Bartholomew is now down Kincaid Street with Rennie's Landing.
Old Taylor’s and Rennie’s vie for a history
tea
I’ll meet you at Taylor's” used to
be a fairly unambiguous statement
around the University. For many years
such a typical proposal would prompt a
person to go, without hesitation, to the
corner of 13th Avenue and Kincaid
Street for their rendez-vous avec la
biere.
Last month, however, an evolutionary
change occurred in this simple scheme
of things. With the advent of Rennie's
Landing and Old Taylor’s, offering the
idea of "meeting at Taylor’s” usually
prompts the reply “which one?" Now
there are two Taylor’s — or so many
people seem to think.
Who, or what, is actually Taylor’s
these days is somewhat of a subjective
question for almost everyone but Todd
Taylor and Nathan Bartholemew. Todd
and his brothers K.C. and Cam have
assumed command of what used to be
Taylor’s on 13th and Kincaid; Nathan,
the manager of the former Taylor’s, has
moved his operations over to Rennie’s
Landing, just one block away on the
corner of 12th Avenue and Kincaid
Street. Both places, it seems, have
claims to the Taylor’s fame. t
Way back in 1930 Fred Taylor bought
the building on the the corner of 13th
Avenue and Kincaid Street and opened
an ice cream parlor. Fred handed the
operation to his son Hershle, who ran
things until his death in 1954, when Rod
Taylor took over. Rod ran the business
until his retirement, and then he leased
the building to people outside the
family.
“That’s where the mix-up comes
from,” says Todd. “My father retired,
and my brothers and I were way too
young to enter the business. So for
eight years the students didn’t have our
family on the corner.”
Those “eight years” were from 1972
until last month — the reign of the
Taylor’s most of us came to know and,
in our own way, love. Todd and his
brothers came of age, and their father
leased the building to them when the
previous lease expired, thus
re-establishing the Taylor family in the
old business.
"Even though we’re new’ in the
sense of taking over the business,”
Todd says, “we’ve really been in this
line of work for a long time — we all
worked here as kids. We bused tables
here when the area around the campus
was 'dry.' ”
Nathan Bartholemew wasn’t exactly
tickled when Rod Taylor told him he ha<
to move out. “We moved out of
Taylor’s," Nathan says, "but not out of
choice. We wanted to stay there.”
Reluctant though they were to leave
their home of eight years, Nathan feels
he and his associates are now glad the;
moved. "When we moved we wanted to
find the closest possible place we coulc
We wanted to stay in the same general
area because of our clientele."
They didn’t have to look far. They
found the house John Rennie had built
(back in the 1920's) only a block away,
and after completely rebuilding the
interior the house became Rennie’s
Landing. And Nathan couldn't be
happier.
"Other than the fact that it’s not on
13th street," he says, “I don’t think we
could ask for a better spot."
Although, Nathan and his associates
had incorporated the name of the
business — Taylor’s Coffee Shop — and
they decided against selling it to the
Taylor brothers when they moved out.
The Taylors, of course, wanted to
keep their name in the business, and so
the name Old Taylor's became etched
on their front door. "It’s the only way we
could get around the legal thing and still
use our name," Todd says.
At Old Taylor's the emphasis is on an
improved food service. Though they
have kept pretty much the same menu
j as the previous Taylor’s, Todd says all
of the items are being prepared “much
more professionally, thanks to Bob, our
ace-in-the-hole cook." Todd also plans
to extend the breakfast menu. “If you
can come in here and dream up an
, omelette, I want to be able to cook it for
you,” he says.
I. Nathan says the new facilities at
Rennie’s allows his food service to be
"a lot faster and more efficient. And the
addition of a char-broiler makes our
burgers taste a lot better."
Further emphasis at Rennie’s is on
attracting their old clientele, as well as
bringing new customers in — "people
who might have felt intimidated about
coming to Taylor's," Nathan says.
"We’re keeping the same types of
business ideas that we’ve always had,
and that’s what will make Rennie’s have
the atmosphere that people like.”
Both Todd and Nathan hope the
confusion between the two taverns will
soon die down. Todd recalls that during
the period when they were refinishing
the interior of Taylor’s his wife was
approached by a couple of people who
asked of the whereabouts of the “real”
Taylor’s. His wife pointed to Todd and
his brothers. “Those guys there are the
real Taylors," she said. "Oh bullshit,”
they replied. "You guys aren’t Taylors.”
"That hurts,” Todd says, “because
we grew up right here. This is our home
There shouldn’t be this confusion on
who the Taylors really are. Taylor’s is on
the corner of 13th and Kincaid — right
where we belong "
"We want to be known as Rennie’s
Landing," Nathan says. “We’re the
same people from the Taylor's of old —
we’ve just moved our business down the
street."
By Kirk Knighton
Photos by Dennis Tachibana