Generally speaking, sports bar food ranks a slight notch above fast-food on the food quality scale, and about 20 notches below fast-food on the “bang-for-your-buck” value scale. You’re looking at mediocre philly cheesesteaks, average wings, frozen-then-nuked burgers, etc.
Therefore, in comparison to most sports bar fare, Taco Mac, with 25ish locations in Georgia and a couple of neighboring states, has a more diverse menu and better tastes. Given Taco Mac’s Mexican roots, there are tex-mex options as good as anything at any other chain Mexican joint. Their Queso Poblano, a cheese dip with peppers, jalepenos, cilantro, chorizo, and pico de gallo is well worth the $6.99. The burgers and sandwiches (especially the Hollywood Chicken sandwich) are comparable if not favorable to anything you would find at an Applebees, Chili’s, TGI Fridays, or anything else of that ilk.
(Disclosure: I’m not a connoisseur of buffalo wings. They all taste the same to me, and I’m kinda a pussy when it comes to uber-spicy foods. That said, by all accounts, Taco Mac’s are excellent.)
So given their above-average menu, tons of TVs and the 300+ beer choices, Taco Mac would seem like the ultimate destination to eat, watch a game or get drunk in a relaxed setting. This is true…as long as you go in with the expectation that it’s very possible that you will pay what you would at a 5-star steakhouse (assuming you like to drink at a sports bar).
Their cheapest beer is currently an aluminum bottle of Miller or Coors Light at $3.50. Their cheapest pitcher is PBR, usually $9. Domestic light beer pitchers run around $14. Every bottle of beer is at least $4-5, with many of the higher gravity varieties running anywhere from $6-8. Liqour prices are about what you can expect to pay at most any overpriced pub, but if you order liquor at Taco Mac you lose anyways.
What the marketing wizards at Taco Mac have done is create a fake club (“Brewniversity”) to help justify you paying for their expensive beer. After hitting certain benchmarks for trying amounts of different beers, you are “rewarded” with various knickknacks that make Chuck E. Cheese or arcade prizes seem like lottery winnings.
Let’s say, for argument’s sake, the average beer at Taco Mac, especially once you move to the non-light domestic beer options, is $6. Using this benchmark and this chart, these are the prizes received for money spent (yes, I realize this makes me look like a cheap bastard):
$78 – T-Shirt
$450 - $10 you can spend at Taco Mac!
$750 – T-Shirt and Mug, name on a plaque at Taco Mac
$1050 - $20 you can spend at Taco Mac!
$1350 – An embroidered polo shirt you will never wear in public, name on another plaque
$1650 - $30 you can spend at Taco Mac!
$1950 – An embroidered jacket that would look great if you were a strip club DJ, name on another plaque
$2250 - $50 you can spend at Taco Mac!
$3450 – An embroidered pullover that a homeless person needs more than you
$4500 – A Tankard. Actual value: Approximately $15
$6000 - $100 you can spend at Taco Mac, name on another plaque
So for spending $6000 on beer at Taco Mac, you acquire two T-Shirts that won’t fit you after you’ve spent the requisite amount of time required to spend $6k at Taco Mac, $210 in Taco Mac money, three tacky clothes items, 2 pieces of drinkware, and your name on some plaques that are sure to get you laid. WHERE CAN I SIGN UP?
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