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Belly Up To...

University Tap has voluptuous appeal

9/11/2013

The new University Tap has gone from four handles to 12, mostly featuring craft and/or local brews, such as this wheat beer served by bartender Amanda Welch.

The new University Tap has gone from four handles to 12, mostly featuring craft and/or local brews, such as this wheat beer served by bartender Amanda Welch.

I could start off with the big announcement: The beloved Clive bar T.R.’s has reopened, much to the relief of some lost and wandering loyal patrons in the neighborhood; I could set your mind at ease and assure you that the new owners are keeping much of the old haunt the same as it’s been for years, including the illustrious Monday steak night; I could inform you also that it’s been re-opened as a hockey bar that is cyclist friendly. But I know that, regardless of all the other good news this story has to report, people will care most about the fact that the University Tap has given a home to the Hooter’s girls who were displaced after the restaurant closed earlier this summer, the first of whom was a blonde bombshell named Amanda Welch.

“I can’t get a car loan, so I bought boobs instead,” she chuckled to a blushing older gentleman at the bar. She’s a sweetheart. She treats every person — man or woman — who bellies up to the bar like an old friend. Despite a full bar, somehow no one is kept waiting, and she’s quick to memorize a face with a specific drink.

“Hey, Larry, Coors Light?”

“Chuck, we just got a new bottle of Gentlemen’s Jack in just for you. How’s the wife?”

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“A Crown on the rocks for you, Mike?”

And so the T.R.’s regulars return in droves.

“T.R.’s had a reputation as a good neighborhood bar. We want to get to know your names, get to know your drinks and take care of you,” explained one of the bar’s new owners, Simon Goheen. Like his business partner, Mike McCoy, Goheen is a hockey man, played it in school growing up at Valley and plans to continue participating in the local leagues not only as a fan but as sponsor via University Tap.

“We’ll pretty much always have hockey on TV,” Goheed said. (University Tap has added several flat screens, which are typically set at low volumes.) “We’re also hoping to host pre-games for the Des Moines Buccaneers and the Iowa Wild when the season starts up next month. We’ll cater food for The Lounge and the skyboxes at the Bucs Arena, too.”

University Tap will also show live streaming feeds of the Bucs games on a big screen TV mounted to the wall above a gas fireplace.

An enhanced beer and food menu is enough to satisfy both drinkers and diners alike.

“We’re going to have a lot of fun with food, with breakfast and good bar food,” Goheed said, adding that it will include everything from hash browns to triple-decker burgers to homemade pizza.

And all served by Hooter’s alumni. What’s not to like? CV

 

UNIVERSITY TAP
7500 University Ave. Suite 1, Clive
(515) 255-9985
HOURS: 3 p.m.-close Mon.-Thurs. (11 a.m.-close starting Oct. 1); 8 a.m.-close Fri.-Sun.
HAPPY HOUR: 3-7 p.m. Mon.-Fri.
KITCHEN: 11 a.m.-2 p.m., 4-9 p.m. Mon.-Thurs.; 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Fri.-Sun.
ENTERTAINMENT: Live music to be scheduled in the future.
CAPACITY: 48
 

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