photo/Jessie Banhazl
Name: Mike Taylor
Age: 46
Hometown: Madison, Maine
Bar of choice: Gritty McDuff’s in the Old Port
Drink of choice: Brown ale and a shot of Hornitos
It’s difficult to imagine, but there was a time when Maine was a state without brewpubs. That changed 37 years ago when Gritty McDuff’s became the first brewpub to open here since the repeal of Prohibition in 1933. The interior of Gritty’s original Old Port location, with its old brick walls, copper bar tops and wood-beamed ceiling, reflects its historical importance, and the club-member mugs hanging over the bar reflect the strong community the brewpub has cultivated over the decades.
Gritty’s bartender Megan Hannah, who’s worked there for 10 years, served us the day we met with one of their most famous mug-club members. “A lot of the regulars here are very laid back. They come in, and you already know what they want to drink,” Hannah remarked. “On the weekends and in summer, more tourists come in, but weekdays, especially in the winter, it’s mostly regulars.”
Let’s meet that regular now: local singer and musician Mike Taylor.
How did you become a regular at Gritty’s?
I had a big group of friends back when I turned twenty-one, and we always used to come in here. We all had mugs. In my late twenties, I stopped coming here, but I started coming back five or six years ago and got a new mug. When I started coming back here, there were only a few people that I recognized who still worked here. I became good friends with Troy, the manager’s father, who’s also a regular here. We used to come in here at one o’clock every day. I owned a medical marijuana grow in Scarborough and would come in here every day for lunch just to shoot the shit with the regulars, then go back and do more work.
How would you describe Gritty’s?
It’s always just been an awesome place for regulars to meet up, watch football, play cribbage. I always see at least five people I know every time I come in here during the week. I’m friends with the brewer, the manager, and the manager’s wife. They’ve been here forever. The people who come here are just regular people. There aren’t any assholes or entitled people. I like that it’s the original brewpub in Maine. They brew their beer right downstairs. I also play music here sometimes.
Tell us more about your music.
I play guitar and sing. I had started off as a drummer, but when I moved here to Portland I started playing guitar on the street, busking, and I met so many musicians that said I needed to be a lead singer. Busking was great here. The whole Old Port was way different back in the late nineties. The whole of Exchange Street was just a lot of artsy, hippie musicians, and we all just hung out together. It wasn’t as touristy. Sometimes I could make forty dollars an hour doing it.
I play over ten different instruments. I played keyboard with Rustic Overtones for ten years. It’s just something I’m good at and love doing. I’ve been on tour a few times, but it’s not my style. I don’t really like it. I do love to play music, but there were a lot of years in my twenties where I just would play five or six shows a week all summer long, and then I had a part-time job and could make enough money in the summer. Then in the winter, you just kind of live with no money. It’s not the easiest thing, but it is really fun to not have a boss and not have to deal with any bullshit.
Now I just work with a contractor and we build houses. So I work fifty hours a week and play music three nights a week. This past summer has been the busiest summer I’ve had musically in twenty years.
Are you in any bands currently?
I’m in two reggae bands called Royal Hammer and Zion Train. I’m also a singer in The Awesome, which is an eighties pop band. I do a couple other projects just to keep busy.
I got into reggae as a kid. I went to KMart when I was twelve and I stole a Bob Marley tape. I don’t know why I stole a Bob Marley tape — I didn’t even know who he was. Then I listened to it, and I was like, “Wow, this is like nothing I’ve ever heard.” I started recording on a four-track tape recorder, and I would just write Calypso style, island style music, when I was thirteen. Everyone’s always like, “How did you get into reggae? You’re from Madison, Maine.” But I just fell in love with it.
Do you have any other hobbies or interests?
I’m a super LEGO fan. I have a two-bedroom apartment, and one bedroom is literally all Legos. I’ll buy two of the same thing, and just open one and leave the other one sealed. I was into it when I was a kid, but then got back into it around 2018. It was great because then COVID happened, and I was like, Now I have all this awesome stuff to do.
Know an interesting bar regular? Send them our way at theregularsmaine@gmail.com.
