Toby Keith's Restaurant "I Love This Bar and Grill" - Is It Really a Good Country Music Venue?

I decided to do this review of Toby Keith's "I love this Bar and Grill" after a visit to their location in Mesa, Arizona, on February 13, 2010. For a few weeks before this, the local radio station was advertising for a concert being held there for the country music group "Love and Theft". We decided that it would be a fun night to go out with a couple of friends and see a show.

About 7:30, we arrived at the restaurant, and were seated. We ordered our drinks, $16 for a pitcher of domestic beer, and looked over the menu. We were further shocked to notice that just a basic burger and fries were anywhere between $12 and $16. We decided just to have an appetizer, for only $8. They also had mason jar's full of beer for $8 each. Our waiter, James, was very attentive, and made sure if there was anything that we wanted, it was delivered right away.

That was where the courtesy stopped. Upon deciding to step outside to have a cigarette, we decided that since the bar end of the restaurant was packed so full that you couldn't move, we would try to walk out on the patio on the restaurant end. As soon as we walked out the door, we were greeted very rudely by one of the security people and advised we could not walk out that door to smoke. There was no reason for this at all as the security person was the only person I saw on this patio. We then proceeded to walk to the front door, where we were stopped by another security person, and rudely told if we walked out the front door to smoke, we would not be allowed back into the restaurant, even though we were just taking a short break from our meal. We were forced to go through the bar area just to go to the "smoking patio".

This place was so packed, it took nearly 10 minutes just to make it across the room. It would have been a total disaster had an emergency occurred, as there would have been no way that they could evacuate the restaurant/bar in a short time. Nearly ¾ of the building was packed with people so tightly, that the only way to move around to push through the crowd. This made standing room only seem like a small crowd!

We finally were able to make it out to the patio, and have our cigarette, were again, we were very rudely informed by another of their security people that we were not allowed to lean on the rail as they didn't want drinks to be on the outside of the rail that they have surrounding the smoking patio. This would have been no issue at all, if the security employee would have used any manners whatsoever in making the request.

One of the people that were in our party, is handicapped, and in a wheel chair. There are no provisions at this club to accommodate anyone who is handicapped. They only allow persons in a wheelchair to be in the restaurant area , where there is no way at all they could see the stage.

During the show, they had video from the stage broadcast on several of the High Definition TV monitors around the restaurant. The video was very poor, and cut off nearly half of the stage. The sound system was also very poor, and not able to be heard from the restaurant area. They were successfully able to make a national music act sound like a local garage band, which I guess could be called an achievement.
Overall, It was a very poor experience. Between the rude security people, the poor sound and video system, and the overcrowding of the bar area, it was an experience that I do not wish to repeat, and could not recommend to anyone.