Tailgate Charlie's
 

Hey everyone, I was browsing the Downtown threads, and was looking at Google Maps and the 3D sat views of the development locations downtown, and then I remembered going to a place many nights in my youth that was between City Hall and the Century 21 building. That place was Tailgate Charlies, or more specifically, the part that was in the basement, back in the days when Energy 108 existed, and Big D. did live to air from that bar, kinda Chris Sheppard Style, before they relocated that show to NRG or somewhere off Harvester Rd in Burlington.

Does anyone remember the name of the sort of club/bar that was in the lower level/basement of Tailgate Charlies, and did anyone else go there back in the 90's? I think there was something called the "Blue Onion" in the building directly behind it too...

It looks like there might be some sort of cosmetic/aesthetic store in there now based on street view.

where was Liquid Kitty?

The bar downstairs had a couple of names in the 90s. I remember Rockabilly's being one of them, may have been mid-late in the decade?

I always thought it was called Rockabilly's, or something like that. I also remember going to a bar on King William I think. Does The Border, or Texas Border sound familiar? I think it's what is now 77 on King William. Of course, when it was that, or maybe the Dirty Dog Saloon, it was pretty rough...stabbings or other things happened nightly.

Yep, that was the Texas Border on King William (then they opened "South of the Border"... I think it was called that... in the basement as more of a band venue from what I recall).

It wasn't that rough when I was going during the early 1990s, while I was in university. I think it got the bad rep later on, maybe after the name change?

The bar/club in the basement was originally Aztecs but that was pre Tailgates. At that time they had a Chaps upstairs.

The building directly behind Tailgates was the Keg through the 80' and 90's. It closed up in 97 and then became Slante.

Oh ok, so I would have been right about nearly all I was inquiring about...yeah, it would have been around 95-97 I would have gone to those spots, and later I would go to Sammy's Garage in K-W a lot, and then Billy Bob Rays in Brantford, and a couple of pool halls that would become nightclubs after 10pm...

Core Urban kind of announcing next project.... on Instagram


https://www.instagram.com/p/BrYkpyzBTHD/

That's my office building. Does that mean Core Urban is our new landlord? Forge & Foster have been terrible since they bought it from New Horizons.

makes me a bit curious as to whether they packaged up a few adjacent properties -say down to Lordly Jones. That would make an exciting block redevelopment.maybe even get the Oxford project moving

Note they said 7500 square feet of space. That whole building has to be at least 10 times that size, so unless it's a typo, I have a feeling they may just own/rent a portion of the building. We will have to wait and see.

coreurbaninc instagram "7500 square foot restaurant and redeveloped heritage office space coming in 2019".... i think it is the whole building. I see New Horizons' instagram also noting they are moving out to Burlington. Probably just the building, but there is certainly a cluster of forgotten buildings to the north. Wonder if they will intensify this one like The Alley / 10 James N

absolutely love this building....will be nice to refresh that restaurant space too. This whole area along John, Jackson, Bowen, Augusta has tons of potential for a several block area with restaurants, patios, cafes, shops all utilizing these current heritage builds, and new builds on all the empty parking lots. Jackson could be a great street from John-Ferguson. Literally any entire new community of residents with ground floor retail can be built on all the empty lots. Cobblestone Bowen, Jackson and Augusta....and get the infill happening. Bowen should be car-free IMO. And encourage the buildings facing John to consider separating their ground floor retail units into 2 units - the large ones facing John, small ones facing the alley/Bowen. Cobble, no cars, decorative lighting, ample space for patios....would be a dynamite little street.

New Horizons sold the building years ago. Forge and Foster was the most recent owner unless they've now sold it to Core Urban. Again, I'm a tenant in the building so I'll let you know if/when I hear anything more concrete.

It's been a few years since I was Tailgates, so I didn't even know they were closed.
Free food Fridays was always a treat.

Is there a thread for this building rather than the former restaurant? Took a quick look, didn't find one. If there is please move this post. Perhaps this should be converted if there isn't one.

Anyways, here's a picture from earlier today. They replaced the windows with terrible faded green mullions with new ones with black mullions. Also note the new sign on the south facade.

Small change makes the building look a lot classier.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/31...=w1010-h758-no

Really nice building. :tup:

Does anyone know why the lower half of the concerete of the Century 21 building looks so much worse than the upper half? you can see it in that shot.

great building. good thread