Huskies and Ted’s will both represent the University of Connecticut in the fifth Annual LineLeap Bar Tab Battle. Voting began on Thursday, and a final winner will be crowned at the beginning of March. Each bar will post weekly on Thursdays at 3 p.m. and the amount of user interaction their posts receive will decide which bars move up in the competition.
The competition pits 64 bars from across the country against each other to win the ultimate prize of a $5,000 bar tab and DJ event.
“It would be pretty cool to have a bar tab,” Kevin Mitchell, Huskies’ daytime manager said. “We’ve had liquor distributors and liquor companies like Sun Cruiser do sponsored bar tabs in the past and it’s always a big show out.”
Last year, Crooked Floor Tavern from South Carolina’s Coastal Carolina University won it all with 222,959 likes and comments. Riley’s from California’s Chico State University was the runner-up with a final count of 220,869. They received a $3,000 bar tab as a consolation prize.
According to the LineLeap schedule, voting for the Round of 64 began on Thursday. LineLeap will announce the Round of 32 on Feb. 15 and the Round of 16 on Feb. 19. The Elite Eight round will be on Feb. 22 followed by a Final Four on Feb. 26 and ending with the Championship faceoff on Mar. 1.
In an Instagram post,, LineLeap posted the initial bracket and the competition rules. For their vote to count, people must be following @lineleap, @drinkhappythursday and the bar they’re voting for. To support Huskies and/or Ted’s, simply like their posts and mention a friend in the comments. LineLeap clarifies that voters can comment as much as they like, but engagement from fake accounts will not count towards the final tally.
Ted’s bartender Lucia Ferreira says she can see Ted’s advancing far into the bracket because of its loyal following.
“We’ve been around since the 1970s, so we’re very well known,” Ferreira said. “And I’m very confident that because we’re so well-known, and because people love this place – it’s been around forever – that we’ll getpretty far.”