Shoeless Joes on King Street is a local hot spot for Toronto FC games. A wide open space to enjoy the game among fans.
By DAN HEYMAN
With the arrival of the Real Sports Bar and Grill in Toronto, with its 199 screens (plus one enormous high def number that is the largest indoor screen in North America), 100 beer taps and 20-plus chicken wing varieties, the sports bar is undergoing a transformation of sorts.
Talk to most sports fans who have followed their favourite squads through thick and thin and you would be hard-pressed to come across one that doesn’t have fond memories of their favourite haunts.
Conrad Gracie is a server at a Jack Astor’s bar and grill on Yonge Street in Toronto. Besides working in a bar that often features multiple screens displaying multiple sports contests, he is also an avid sports watcher.
You can catch him most Sundays at a bar located just below where he lives on The Danforth at Rails N’ Ales. It is not an overly flashy place, in fact Gracie himself says it’s not really a “sports bar”. But they have a TV, they play NFL games on Sunday and that’s good enough for him and a group of friends.
“I like the routine of seeing the same people or the trash-talking, you know, when you have your game on and they have theirs,” he said. “The best thing is just being able to walk in…and everybody usually has their regular seat. Just the common feel.”
Like Real Sports, Pat Penman’s bar, The Football Factory (located on Bathurst Street, a
quick streetcar ride from the MLSE’s watering hole) has TVs as well. There may be no two-storey behemoth (the biggest screen you’ll find at The Football Factory is a two-foot projection screen) but each booth has its own set that can be tuned to whatever channel patrons want—hockey, UFC and of course soccer fans will find something to make them happy.
Meanwhile, they can enjoy the confines of The Football Factory’s cozy booths, soft lighting and old-school atmosphere. And, while Real Sports hired a gourmet chef when they opened, Penman, 35, answers with food cooked using only local ingredients.
“A sports bar is a community place,” he says, “where you can go and debate and discuss the occurrences in professional sports with an educated staff.”
Gracie, 26, says he likes being able to walk in to his favourite haunts and grab his usual seat. Show up to Real Sports without a reservation and you may find it hard to get past the doorman, let alone find a seat.
If that’s the case, how can a patron of Real Sports sit down at the bar and have a conversation with the bartender as Penman suggests? That bartender may very well be an educated sports fan but when he or she is dealing with four credit card tabs and 10 cash customers, he cannot be blamed for not being able to sit and shoot the breeze with patrons.
“Our customers have come together, all with a common love of sport, and because the atmosphere is so warm here…we have groups of 20 friends (that) never knew each other two years ago (when they first met at The Football Factory),” says Penman.
“They’re building friendships and community with the one common bond of sporting.”
According to some visitors, the Real Sports experience, on the other hand, can be an exercise in frustration.
“The first thing I noticed (when I arrived) was the huge line-up,” said Michael Gibbons, 23, who recently visited the bar for a Maple Leafs game with family. “We waited about…an hour and a half to actually get a seat.”
It’s hard to imagine a person like Gracie, who says that he watched most sports at the bar with friends “for the camaraderie”, choosing a place with a scope the size of Real Sports to watch everyday games.
But that’s not to say he would never take the time to visit Real Sports to catch a big NFL game or UFC fight.
“It depends on the event,” he says. “If it’s a big game, Real Sports Bar is a place that will thrive because of the large atmosphere—there’s a lot going on, everybody’s on the same page.”
“But at the same time, it’s kind of impersonal because it’s so…huge.”
Ah, there’s the rub.
Upon visiting the place, there’s little question that one might often feel a little unsure of what they had just experienced. Is it a “Chuck E. Cheese’s for adults” as Penman’s wife, Chrissy, so eloquently put it? If so, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, according to Gibbons.
“That’s what people like—right now–is the huge ‘wow’ factor about this place,” he said. “I mean, you walk in there, it’s pretty impressive.” Not to mention his sighting of celebrity sports analyst and former Maple Leaf, Nick Kypreos.
While there may be no definite answer to the evolution of the sports bar question, at this point there at least appears to something for fans of all types. If star gazing and adventure is your bag, places like Real Sports have plenty to offer. But, if a familiar table with your best buddies is what you’re gunning for, then you’ve got that with The Football Factory and a host of others.
FAN Magazine 