Supper Club has managed to last 70 years and not only last, but it’s practically a land mark in this small college town.
Students wait for the day they turn 21 to finally get to experience Supper Club and alumni continue to flock back years after graduation.
John Brandt is the owner of Supper Club. He has been with the bar for about 27 years. He was originally partnered with Hank Gilmer.
“Supper Club is different from most bars because it avoids the cliques,” Brandt said. “Where most bars are all about the fraternities and cliques, Supper Club is welcome to everyone. You’ve got college students and alumni who are fifty and sixty years old.”
“Kids can have good time and everyone is welcome,” Brandt said.
During the 50s and 60s, Supper Club was the first pizza place in Auburn.
It was more about the food than a place where people could come and have a beer.
In 1977, when Gilmer took over, he had a different vision for the bar. They kept the food going for a while and even included wings, but eventually the bar just became about the music.
The “drunk bus” was started in 1984 by Gilmer.
In that time there weren’t many businesses open that far down College Street and the ones that were there weren’t open late at night.
It was easy for police to catch drivers coming from South College. Customers were becoming an easy target for D.U.I.’s so Gilmer went out and bought a school bus.
He painted it orange and blue so as not to leave out the school spirit.
The original “drunk bus” is now sitting behind the bar with the deck built around it and has evolved into the shot bus at Supper Club.
The drunk bus is just one of the many traditions students keep alive.
Supper Club is famous not only infamous in Auburn, but the bar has been written up in magazine and multiple newspapers. Playboy included Supper Club in its Top 100 College Bars and the bar has also been mentioned in magazines such as Chris Fowler’s write up in ESPN magazine.
Lindsey Miler is bartender at the bar. She has been serving for a little more than three years.
Miller is a Auburn alumna and is currently enrolled in the nursing program at Auburn University Montgomery.
“It’s good music and good bartending,” Miller said.
Miller says customers love that they’re open late and they have great bands. Maybe this is what keeps the alum so faithful.
“The shot bus, waffle house afterward and taking the drunk bus home are all great traditions,” Miller said.
Sara Burson, an August graduate in logistics, likes that there aren’t many fights or commotions at Supper Club.
“I like that the bar tenders and the bouncers are so great,” Burson said.
In many of the other bars the occasional drunken fight isn’t that uncommon.
“You don’t have to put up with a lot of crap there. You don’t ever seen any fights because the bouncers are so on it, that they’ll throw people out before that happens,” Burson said.
Supper Club has been a great tradition for many students on the Plains and no bar has been in Auburn for the amount of time Supper Club has been around.
