10/05/09

Sports bar? Try football only, on weekends, bar

by yareunot

Went to watch my home team play their opening game at this local sports bar. I asked if they could put on a hockey game and they responded that they could only use the over abundance of screens for Football on weekends. I looked around and was nonplussed with their inefficient use of these screens. I counted at least a dozen screens and they were all tuned to one of two games.

They couldn't even be bothered to show multiple Football games? I'm not a football fan, so I can't say if there were only two college games on. None the less, it was pretty ridiculous that a SPORTS bar would refuse to put on a Major League Hockey game, taking a single screen out of many, that were showing the same college football game. No Wings, Pens, Caps, Canucks.... nothing. Two college games though. HOG HEAVEN if you liked one of those four teams. I would bet that at nearly any location in that place, one could see at least two screens at a time, if not 3 or 4.

Fox Sports Bar.... Change your name. Or at least post a big sign on the weekends, every fall, to warn people off so they DON'T WASTE THEIR TIME WITH YOU.

• Pros: might be close...
• Cons: no selection on Fall weekends

07/07/09

BAD Sports

by stevebody

Fox Sports Grill is eerily identical in tone and attitude to everything else Rupert Murdoch has his finger in: cold, soul-less, pretentious, and superficial. It feels the same as Fox News/Fox Sports in that way; like there's an undercurrent of something that, at its heart, really doesn't care at all for you and me or anything much but The Agenda...which, in the case of the Grills, would be to separate you from your money.

I was dragged to the Seattle location by people at my GF's company who wanted a roomy place nearby for an impromptu birthday gathering. I found the food to be pretentious, overcooked, bland, and rather clumsy; like a less-experienced kitchen staff attempting techniques that they don't have a good handle on. None of it was wretched and inedible but every single item that we tried produced the very dictionary definition of that eloquent little term that you get on internet forums: meh. I've worked at Wolfgang Puck's Cafes, Planet Hollywood, and Et Cetera jazz bar in DC, so I know that informal food can have style and flair and great flavor. This was Meh-ville. The entire menu reeked of Just Getting By. Sliders, Bacon-Wrapped Shrimp, Crispy Calamari, Bleu Cheese Chips, Ribs, Baseball Cut Filet, Grilled Salomn with lemon juice and garlic aioli...Dear God, did they just cut 'n' paste menus from eighteen other sports bars? It screams of Lifestyle Button-Pushing, NOT thoughtful, exciting menu choices. And the chili was, hands-down, the WORST bowl of anything masquerading under that name I have EVER tasted in Seattle.

The staff, to be fair, was helpful, friendly, and personable to a fault. Of course, these are just nice young Seattleites working to make ends meet, so both times we tipped a bit more than everything else deserved. But the atmosphere was gratingly Fox-like; all dark wood, TVs, steel, too-bright mood lighting, and one of the oddest and least welcoming layouts in the history of restaurants. There is not a molecule of intimacy to be had at Fox. It looked and felt kinda like having happy hour in the display windows of Macy's. And the ubiquitous TVs, which I would have been interested in, seeing as they all had games on, were muted to inaudibility, unlike most sports bars, where they remember that having the word "sports" in the name means you actually pay some attention to SPORTS.

In the 60s, there was a quaint, generic term for things, places, and people who were thought of as fake and contrived: Plastic. That's Fox Sports Grill Seattle. Somehow, I suspect the folks who run the chain would probably take that term as a compliment.

• Pros: Pleasant staff
• Cons: Food, atmosphere, lighting, attitudes

10/10/08

Bar...Fox!

by chachalala

Use to love this place....but learning from what goes on behind the scenes(corporate)....will do my best to try to promote this place as should go where it belong's. I feel bad for the people that work there..and should probably look for somewhere else to work. It had potentiel, but when you need to cut costs every which way, you are only going to lose. It is sorta sad. Can you imagine if the server's will need to clean the toilets, and serve you food? Those are the things I am talking about. Yes, the economy is bad, but this is beyond. Ask to see the owner....I am sure management haven't seen him either.

• Pros: The Bartender's
• Cons: Corporate