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There's a New Dog in Town... "There's a battle outside and it is ragin'. It'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls, for the times they are a-changin." -- Bob Dylan In these trying days, the new game is about survival. Almost every restaurant in America is involved in the process of adjusting to everything from the brutal economy; health insurance; flash mobs; the weather; and everything else that is haunting the restaurants of America these days. The new game is also about making changes, and almost everyone is busy doing what needs to be done, and some are being even more aggressive than anyone could have imagined. While many are optimistically looking for a recovery and better days ahead, there are so many owners who clearly don't see it that way. Taylor Mills is hardly a rookie, and with some forty years of experience, he clearly sees the better days ahead, but only if he makes some radical moves. This former waiter from the classic Latin Casino in Cherry Hill, New Jersey graduated from waiting on tables to owning a bar; to becoming a major force in the South Jersey restaurant community. His five & a half-acre property on Route 70 is the home of Taylor's Bar & Grill which is adjacent to the former Garden State Racetrack.
The Racetrack burned down and the new tenants include everything from the Cheesecake Factory, Houlihan's and the Brio Tuscan Grille to a grocery store called Wegmans that dresses their employees in chef attire and basically makes it easy and affordable to feed the masses in South Jersey. There's a new Season's 52 right up the street (along with many others), and let's just say the competition is formidable and the economy is devastating. Taylor Mills had to reinvent himself. It became time to do something dramatic to merely survive and his "yet to be determined" direction is at the very least, extremely interesting. Talk about changes; take a look at this one – Cheap Eats and a Rockin Good Time! Taylor's current menu features a 20 oz. T-bone steak for $19.95 and a pound and a half lobster for the same price. It sounded great but the 2010 rendition of $19.95 wasn't getting it done. The Happy Hours were great, but not great enough. He is also one of those owners who believe that the current economic mess is not going to get better anytime soon. Taylor decided to go all the way, and his new menu is dramatically different. It's Hot Chick on a stick ($2.99); Steak on a Stick ($2.99); Pork on a Stick ($1.99); French Fries (99 cents); Red Hot Dog (99 cents); Shrimp (29 cents each); a 1/2 pound Burger (99 cents and $1.49 with cheese) and Homemade Bratwurst (99 cents). Ice-cold beer starts at two dollars and his mixed drinks are priced starting at $3.75. By the way, the new name of his restaurant is "Top Dog" and his new concept is Happy Hour Every Minute and Every Hour of Every Day.
Top Dog will be an adult place (you must be 21, and no kids are allowed). There will be an open kitchen where you put in your order and you get a number. You wait until your number is called and you pick-up your food. The waitresses are for beverages only, and it's the beverages that will drive the hopeful success of this concept. The music in question is Rock & Roll Classics, and a host of local bands are involved. It's live music five nights a week and on Saturday and Sunday afternoons with a state-of-the-arts sound system so the bands won't overpower the room. I'm guessing that Daniel Boulud, Mario Batali or even Wolfgang Puck will not look to replicate Taylor's model, nor should they. The bottom line is that every owner must find something that works and the victory is in surviving to fight yet another day. The Grand Opening for Top Dog is April 15th. We'll let you know what happens.
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