Best Spots To Eat, Drink + Watch the Game
Thursday, September 13, 2012
While we hate the end of summer, at least now we can turn our sports focus away from the debacle at Fenway and place it on the Patriots. We set out to find you five cool spots to enjoy the game and came back with these excellent choices...
Snookers, Providence
If you're still under the impression that you need to play pool to enjoy Snookers, we've got some news for you. Snookers is a great place to eat, drink, shoot pool and watch the games. For more than 20 years Snookers has been a good choice for pool. We first found them when they used to have free pool tournaments for college students and we fell in love with the feel and vibe. Fast forward to today and Snookers has moved into a new, larger location with lots of room for all that good food and drink. Snookers features every football game every Sunday and Monday so you will never miss a game that you are looking forward to. For Monday Night Football Snookers offers 50 cent wings and beer specials all night long. They also feature a chance to win Patriots tickets. We love to sit at the bar and enjoy the cheesy beer dip. It is like a bowl of cheese and beer love with warm, soft pretzels for dipping. 53 Ashburton St. 351-pool, www.snookersri.com
Effin's Last Resort, Smithfield
Fans of cool sports bars in the northwestern corner of the state rejoiced when Effin's came to town. This place offered everything one could want in a sports bar: cold beer, good food, lots of televisions and a fun, raucous atmosphere. We originally found this place because a friend's band was playing here. We found a huge complex with lots of space and something going on in every corner. This is like your neighborhood bar on steroids. The crowd runs the gamut from Bryant students to Smithfield locals, all enjoying the fun and sporty atmosphere. The food here is exactly what you would want from a sports bar. The wife is a sucker for southwestern eggrolls and she really enjoyed these. The wasabi ranch dressing was hot and cooling at the same time. We also enjoyed the pizza and will say that we think the grilled is better than the traditional. We enjoyed a pre-season Pats game and followed it up with live music. It made for a terrific night. 325 Farnum Pike, 349-3500, www.effinsri.com
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTSharx Bar and Grill, Cranston
In our never ending quest for out of the way spots for food and sports we ventured to western Cranston and found Sharx. Here is a good equation for good football watching: 22 televisions + 27 kinds of wings = good times. We decided to make this a wings-only mission and we weren't disappointed. We found the staff at Sharx to knowledgeable and friendly and the array of locals made us feel right at home. We settled in and ordered a few baskets of wings to share with the table. We tried the traditional buffalo, the jerk rubbed and the sticky orange and found all to be crisp and well-cooked. We found the buffalo to be on par with some of our other favorites around town. The jerk rubbed were nice and spicy with the dry rub providing a crisp exterior. We didn't enjoy the sticky orange as much as the others but the bank of four televisions full of football made everything alright. 505 Atwood Ave. 464-8877, www.sharxbarandgrill.com
Dave's Bar and Grille, Warwick
Dave's is one of the grand-daddies of sports bars in Rhode Island. It seems like we've been going here forever. We've been watching this place grow from its humble beginnings to its current incarnation. When we were poor college students we used to come here for the cheap grilled cheese and the tasty fries. We ventured back as grown-ups to enjoy some of the over 50 beers on tap and the delicious bar food. For old times sake, we split a grilled cheese to start and it brought back lots of memories. We also split a stuffie that was well executed. We moved on to one of the famous burgers and we built our own brick oven pizza. We chose the Kelly burger to continue our recent love of pastrami on a burger. This burger was awesome and threatens to make our best burger list next year. The pizza was crispy and cheesey--two of our favorite words. Every neighborhood should have this place in it. 2339 Post Rd. 739-7444
Casey's Bar and Grill, Wakefield
With a central location between the URI campus and student housing in Narragansett, Casey's has long been a popular spot for students looking for good, cheap food, plenty of local sports on the televisions and cold beer. We spend our summers in the area and find it a reliable choice for burgers and a Sox game. There are plenty of TVs and the beer is cold and affordable. This isn't a place that makes its living off of tourists that flood South Kingston every year, so the prices aren't out of line for what you would pay elsewhere. We started with their award winning stuffies. They were very good with the spice of the churizo and the salt of the cracker providing a nice flavor to the stuffing. We then split the gigantic Reuben. This was a terrific sandwich. The corned beef was flavorful and nice and tender and the sauerkraut was a nice contrast. Add in football and you have a cool place to enjoy a fall weekend. And just think...no tourists! 191 Old Tower Hill Rd. 789-9714, www.caseysgrill.com
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