Toby Keith’s Foxboro Bar At Patriot Place Was Fun But Had Issues

Many folks who achieve celebrity status invest in service sector businesses on the side. Why not? Name recognition is a big draw.

Country music stars seem to have more than their share of side hustles.

Kenny Rogers had a chain of fast-food chicken restaurants. Trisha Yearwood peddles cookbooks. Dolly Parton has Dollywood. And you can't toss a shot glass down Broadway in Nashville without hitting the front door of a bar bearing the name of a country music performer.

Beyond pitching "Red Solo Cup," the late country music legend Toby Keith also had a hand in the hospitality industry.

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Toby Keith Covel was born on July 8, 1961, in Clinton, Oklahoma. He married Tricia Lucas in 1984, and the couple had three children. He died on February 5, 2024, following a battle with stomach cancer. He was 62.

At the height of his career as a country music performer and songwriter, Keith opened the chain, Toby Keith's I Love This Bar & Grill. Keith had 20 locations in cities across America, including Patriot Place in Foxborough, Massachusetts.

Keith's Patriot Place location was huge, with a guitar-shaped bar and multiple stages. It was the place to go before a Kenny Chesney concert or any show next door at Gillette Stadium. Though the culinary offerings weren't much better than average, the restaurant and bar had a great country vibe.

After eight years at Patriot Place, Toby Keith's I Love This Bar & Grill closed suddenly in 2019. The Boston Globe reported management blamed constant rent increases and greedy landlords for the closure. That would be the Kraft Group.

A Boston Globe story dated December 31, 2016, reported that more people arrested for drunk driving in Massachusetts reported having their last drink at Toby Keith's I Love This Bar & Grill than any other venue in the state, a claim repeated in a 2019 Boston Magazine article.

According to a 2019 article in The Sun Chronicle, Keith's Foxborough establishment may have had ties to organized crime via its owner, who had nothing to do with Keith.

Toby Keith performed concerts at Gillette Stadium several times during his career.

Six String Grill and Stage replaced Toby Keith's I Love This Bar & Grill at Patriot Place.