My First Time: Taco Mac Sports Grill

When there's a new place--especially a restaurant--opening in Charlotte, if it's being raved about, usually it's not long after it opens that I try out. But occasionally, a first visit eludes me for a while. That was the case with Taco Mac Sports Grill.

I was working with a colleague today on an assignment in University City, and there was a Taco Mac nearby. The only Taco Mac location in Charlotte I was aware of until now was the SouthPark one. But tonight I learned there are three around here, with the other being in Huntersville.

If you don't know the Taco Mac story, it originated as a single restaurant in Atlanta nearly 35 years ago, opened by some Buffalo, New York natives who had the goal of serving great Buffalo wings in the ATL. Over the years, the menu and popularity grew, and today there are 24 locations in the Greater Atlanta area. So for decades, they focused on expanding in ATL, and they opened a lone location in Chattanooga, Tennessee several years ago. Those were the only cities you could find them, until they expanded to Charlotte with the opening of the one in SouthPark in September 2010, University in May 2011, and Huntersville in October 2011.

So back to my experience tonight, before walking into Taco Mac, I told my colleague, who's visiting from New York, that I hadn't dined at Taco Mac before but that I'd heard two main things about it: a lot of TVs and a lot of beers. Sho nuff are.

Taco Mac in University has more than 100 beers on draft, 115 in the bottle, and 70-plus TVs (the numbers vary per location; SouthPark has 140 beers on draft). One of the things I really like is that inserted in the massive beer menu is an informative front-and-back one-sheet. One side is labeled "Today's Beer Update" and it features a list of beers that have just arrived, that they're running out of, and beers that are gone, along with the specials of the day. The other side of the sheet defines the "Beer Styles," explaining the characteristics of the different lagers, ales, IPAs, and such, which is extremely helpful for a beer novice like myself.

With so many beers to choose from, I decided to go with one of the local craft beers, The Olde Mecklenburg Brewery Fruh Bock. I'm not really a beer lover, but I thought it was a pretty good lager. And, of course, there's the food. If I'm at Taco Mac, I may as well try the tacos, right? (Don't let the name mislead you, it's not a Mexican restaurant.) I ordered three of the hard-shell Beef Street Tacos. They were good, but not much different or more exceptional than tacos I've eaten before. Next time I visit, and it won't take me as long to go back as it took me to go for the first time, I'm going to try the Buffalo wings, since that's Taco Mac's signature item.