Friday, May 1, 2009

Tyber celebrates 10 years (win tickets!)

From the Observer vault: Tommy Timmins works behind the bar at Tyber Creek circa 2001.

Local bar owner Tommy Timmins is a rare success story in the fickle nightlife market of Charlotte. As flashy new bars and clubs come and go, his neighborhood pubs, in good times and in bad, continue to draw a steady crowd of regulars.

Tommy's first Charlotte venture, Tyber Creek Pub, is celebrating a milestone this weekend -- 10 years in SouthEnd in a location where four other places had previously failed.

Now Tyber is thriving, and with the subsequent openings of Connolly's, Madison's and The Attic, Tommy and his partners have become the kings of Fifth Street.

He credits Tyber's success to its neighborhood-pub theme. 

"We pride ourselves on having a good solid foundation and just being something for everybody," he says. "It's not always going to be the trendiest, it's not always going to be new and shiny, but you always know what you're going to get."

Fans of Tyber Creek can celebrate with Tommy tomorrow starting at noon with live music, cornhole and great drink specials. The Jerry Garcia Band will close out the night. I have a bunch of tickets to give away to lucky readers. Five pairs will go to the first five people to e-mail me the story behind how Tommy and his partners came up with the name Tyber Creek. Get 'em in by 4:30 today.

Update: Tickets gone. The correct answer: One of Tommy's original partners used to work as a police officer in the Irish community of Washington, D.C., known as Tiber Creek. Tommy and his partners (all New York-area natives) wanted to get away from the traditional Irish pub-sounding names so prevalent in their hometowns.

You can read my full profile of Tommy and Tyber in tomorrow's Observer.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Unless this is 1994, the Jerry Garcia Band will not be playing anything at Tyber Creek.

Anonymous said...

I love Tyber Creek....

chris said...

Yeah.... what's up with the Jerry Garcia Band? How can they do that?

Anonymous said...

Neighborhood pubs typically do well here. Why does she think this is such an amazing success story?

Anonymous said...

Its "Melvin Seals & the JGB Band". Original members w/out one very key ingredient. Still good though.

Unknown said...

As the 2nd paragraph indicated same location four previous business...all bar/restaurants...out of business...Tyber Creek in biz for 10 years...I would say that's news worthy for 'Paid to Party. I think one of the reasons is the $3.00 Guinness Imperial pints...20 oz's of clean, fresh brew.

It's sure not the quiet conversations to be had with the music blasting in the down stairs pub.

Those of us thaat have been in the CLT will recall that late 70's when it used to be The Olde Quarter...Bill Hannah, Dixie Dreggs & Spectrum.

Anonymous said...

I wish someone would inform the owner that they need to do something about the absolute disgusting food at Tyber Creek..the worst example is when they served me wings that were raw in the middle..raw..all pink..nasty nasty nasty! I'll drink there, but I will never EVER eat there again..