Measuring 518 feet long with 17 stations and 202 seats, the bar at the recently opened Humble Baron, a bar, restaurant and entertainment venue situated on the property of Nearest Green Distillery in Shelbyville, TN, is the current record holder of the longest permanent continuous bar in the world by Guinness World Records. Templated and installed by Celtic Marble & Granite of Murfreesboro, TN, the bar – made of quartz from Daltile – beat an almost 25-year-old record title by more than 100 feet.
Joe Upshaw, general manager of Celtic Marble & Granite, explained that the owners of Humble Baron approached Celtic about the project, clearly explaining their intention of having the world’s longest bar. "I told them I needed to see some drawings first to see what we were getting into," said Upshaw. "I looked at it and thought it would be fun. It seemed like a challenge."
While several different materials were considered, the final decision was to use Liberty Black quartz from Daltile. "Besides the dramatic marble design and classic black-and-white color combination, Liberty Black quartz provides durability, hygienic benefits and consistency required for an application such as this," said Roy Viana, Dal-Tile Corp. director natural stone & slab.
"The biggest thing after we figured it out and got the material selected was templating," said Upshaw. "We went out there and looked at the bar a couple of different times to see how to approach templating and what we needed to bring with us."
In the end, the templating was completed in five days. The job would not have been easy to do without LPI’s LT-2D3D digital templator with Raptor software, according to Upshaw, explaining the company recently went digital. Blackbird Manufacturing of Owensboro, KY, completed the fabrication work. "We supplied them with the material and templates, and they supplied us with the finished parts to install," said Upshaw. "They were definitely a good partner to have by our side."
Overall, there were 42 slabs and roughly 30 to 40 seams. "It was challenging getting everything lined up and leveled out and flat so everything worked together," explained Upshaw. "We had to make sure the pass-throughs were lined up."
Work on the Humble Baron bar top began in October 2022 and wrapped up in time for Christmas. "The install was the most challenging," said Upshaw. "The quartz was the showpiece. Everyone loved it when it was done.
"The Humble Baron Bar was a very special project to get to be a part of," Upshaw went on to say. "If it wasn’t for our good partnership with Daltile Nashville -- Corey Napper and Jon Evans played a huge part in making this happen -- I don’t know that this would have all happened as quickly as it did. They stayed on top of it and made sure the material was ready for us as soon as we let them know."
