Turn 1 Sports Bar is a Simpsonville spot whose name tells you the theme before you're through the door: it leans into racing, a small identity that sets it apart from the usual run of Upstate sports bars. The draw here is the straightforward one, a game on and a drink in hand among an easygoing crowd. It plays more as an evening-and-weekend hangout than a lunch stop, the low-key sort of neighborhood bar you settle into when there's something worth watching and friends to watch it with.

Partners Morgan Holzman and Heather Taylor run Bullwinkle's Tavern, and the first surprise is the building itself. It sits in a Five Forks warehouse space off Woodruff Road that gives away almost nothing from the parking lot, then opens up inside into a genuine sports tavern: walls covered in a collection worth wandering past, TVs going for whatever game is on, dart boards and a claw machine, and a patio with outdoor games when the weather cooperates. The kitchen keeps its focus on what it does well, an American menu built around hand-formed personal pizzas, build-your-own pies and calzones, wings, garlic knots, and baked meatballs in marinara. The bar is where the place earns its name, though. There is a craft beer list with rotating taps posted on the wall, and a bourbon selection that catches a lot of first-timers off guard, plus bourbon slushies for anyone after the easygoing version. It plays family-friendly in the daytime and turns into a livelier end-of-night spot later, with live music some evenings. That range makes it an easy call for catching a game with friends, a casual dinner with the kids, or a night out that lands somewhere in between.