Once an enterprising shoeshine boy, Buddy Taylor now owns his own business.
LEWISTON – Buddy Taylor learned a lot of things shining shoes in Lisbon Street bars during the ’70s.
How to read a crowd.
The importance of friends.
The value of a buck.
“I’ve never been afraid of hard work,” said Taylor, whose modest upbringing on Knox Street set the stage for his entrepreneurial drive. “Some nights I’d make $50 to $100 shining shoes.”
The money was a big help at home, where his parents were raising six kids on his dad’s salary from Hillcrest chicken factory. Despite a birth defect that shortened his right arm to just below the elbow, Taylor started shining shoes when he was 8 years old and didn’t stop until he was 17, when he was hired as a cook by The Cage owner Jake Pearce.
Now 41, Taylor expects that work ethic will serve him well as he pursues his dream of owning his own bar.
“Pretty much I’ve been working in bars my whole life,” said Taylor, who logged 23 years at The Cage and nine at Spare-Time Rec. “I love this business so much. I’m a people person, and I love being self-employed.”
Buddy T’s opened Nov. 4 in the Marketplace Mall on Main Street. Taylor sunk $80,000 in buying the business, formerly Chances Pub, and then thousands more upgrading it.
Everything sparkles – from the lamps over the pool table to the polyurethane tabletops. Taylor said he had four pages of regulations to comply with before the city would issue him a license. Family and friends joined him in 14- to 15-hour days getting the place ready. It passed its health inspection with a score of 99 (a couple of cracked tiles in the bathroom kept it from a perfect 100).
Taylor gave his menu just as much attention. It features classic pub fare – burgers, pasta entrees, chicken dishes, salads, a full line of appetizers – that runs $4 to $6 for lunch and $8 to $11 for dinner entrees. The average price for beer runs between $2.75 and $3.25, with drinks starting at $3.75 and up.
Taylor said he wants to encourage families to eat there. In fact, he was interviewing a woman for a waitress position and told her if she wanted to work at Buddy T’s, she’d have to cover up the cleavage.
“It’s all about making people comfortable,” he said.
Taylor learned how to cater to a crowd as a kid. He’d bring his shoeshine box to one end of Lisbon Street and start working the bars, one after another. Then he’d hit the bars on Lincoln Street before taking a break at The Cage.
“I used to try and get in at The Holly to shoeshine, but they wouldn’t let me in,” joked Taylor of the infamous strip joint.
Taylor said Pierce always looked out for him, offering him a bite to eat and a warm seat for a couple of hours while the young businessman waited for the bar crowds to turn over. Then he’d head to Lisbon Street and hit the 25 or so taverns on his route all over again.
His industriousness made an impression.
“When I was a rookie cop, I’d send him home before the fights started,” said Charles Walton, a retired police officer who walked a downtown beat in the early ’70s. “He’d be hanging around the rough end of town. He had to be a survivor, especially with that arm.”
Taylor said a few of the customers at Buddy T’s have said they remember him from those days. Many more recognize him from his longtime association with The Cage.
Taylor is grateful to have learned the business from Pierce, who died a couple of years ago. He’s thankful, too, for the support of his family, who helped him realize this dream. Whenever he speaks of his two children, his eyes fill with tears.
“My kids are my life,” he said. “I’m just so blessed with family and friends.”
And – he hopes – success.
“This has been my dream for 15 years,” he said surveying the bar. “I hope I make it.”
Send questions/comments to the editors.
