More sports than you could ever need (Sports Cafe)

Name: gnipping

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Product:	Sports Cafe
Date:	11/05/07 (61 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Comfortable booth seating, indoor basketball court, lots of pool tables, large portions

Disadvantages: Very busy at peak times, music is a bit too middle - of - the - road

The Sports Café is part of a national chain of eight American theme bars. This review deals specifically with the branch situated centrally on Birmingham’s main Strip - Broad Street.

The venue itself changes greatly between day and evening trade, with some facilities that are closed during the evenings.

The ground floor is a vast area with two bars that get very busy at the weekend, certainly not the place you could prop up the bar. But during the day this is a totally different experience. Booths line one of the walls and provide very comfortable and intimate surroundings. In each booth a TV has been mounted in the wall which plays from a selection of channels with different sporting events. Though the bar is in the UK the chain quite clearly originates in the USA and this is reflected in the variety of sports available. From baseball to NASCAR, American Football to Golf, and I’ve even seen powerboat racing and high diving there.

Around the rest of the bar are multiple plasma screens that all display the various events available on the in-house TV network, but when a major event is on (like the football world cup) all of these screens are tuned into the live events, allowing for an easy view from anywhere – unlike some pubs with Sky screens. Towards the rear of the ground floor, past the F1 car that is bolted to the wall like some Spiderman driving accident, you’ll pass the toilets and head out into the back bar which overlooks the spacious dance floor. I shan’t talk too much about the toilets as during off peak times they are acceptable, but on Friday and Saturday nights, it is not uncommon for the gents toilet to become more akin to a paddling pool, hopefully due to overworked plumbing and not terrible aim! If this isn’t your bag then head downstairs to the larger toilets which always seem to be maintained to a higher standard.

Behind the dance floor there is a caged area with a basketball court with ball included so you won’t have to bring your own. During the day this can be a great fun way to work up an appetite for the traditionally huge American portions of frozen/re-heated bar snacks, nachos, burgers, pizzas and coveted curly fries. But at weekends the court can get very sticky from beer spilled by drunken players, and I believe it is now closed on Friday and Saturday nights due to drunken fools dropping and smashing glasses in the court and then falling over and cutting themselves on it.

Downstairs is another much quieter bar, and by far and away the easiest place to get served. It is a large room with dance floor to the rear, VIP section roped off to the right with one of the most comfortable leather arm chairs I have ever sat in, and filling the rest of the room are approximately 15 £1-to-play pool tables. There is no need for a deposit on the cues and plenty of TV’s showing the in house channels so you have something to do while you get hustled at the tables by your best mate.

All in all the venue is designed for daytime sports events where viewers would not normally have access on their satellites to the specialist US fayre. The food is hot, huge portions, but a little greasy. The seats are comfortable and booths make for a nice way to enjoy the shows with your friends, but on weekend nights the popularity of Broad street where it is situated means that it will always fill to the brim with everyone who couldn’t get into the other bars. That said it does well to provide an eclectic mix of dance meets radio 1 music to keep as many people happy as possible. That said, the middle of the road approach does leave almost everyone wishing they had got into Tiger Tiger or the Works.

Summary:
Fast filling food if you’re looking somewhere to eat with free sports on the TV, so if you’re a businessman on a solo trip, it’s a great place to go. But be warned that the evenings get busy and in the weekends you certainly won’t find a seat after 7pm.

Summary: Great for sport lovers in the day and serious drinkers at night