Last Saturday, I had planned to take on another restaurant review for Buckeye Hotspots, The BBC’s quest to find the best place to watch an Ohio State game in the area. After a disastrous night at Buffalo Wild Wings, I was just hoping not to get physically assaulted by anybody at my next location.
The choice for the Purdue game was Munson’s. At least that was the plan.
When I arrived at Munson’s, 15 minutes before the game, there were six cars in the parking lot. A quick look inside showed that four of the cars must have belonged to employees. I assessed the situation and decided to change locations. Munson’s has been open long enough that if it was cultivating an actaul sports bar, then people would be attending it during Buckeye games. But I made the decision to leave because if nobody was there to watch the game, then clearly everybody else knows something that I didn’t.
I’ve been to Munson’s on a few Saturday nights and it’s a good nightclub environment. I hope they continue that atmosphere, but I also hope they make a push to turn the place into a more popular place to watch a game.
I quickly made my way to Quaker Steak And Lube, and arrived just as Michigan was lining up to miss a final-second field goal, losing to Toledo 13-10 at the Big House. No, that wasn’t a necessary point to the story, but I just looooove writing it.
The place was almost full and it looked like I had found the right place. Let’s go through the review a little faster now, shall we?
Food – Oh, you know the answer to this one. Quaker Steak puts it all out there with their slogan, “There’s no secret, it’s the sauce”. And that’s no lie. The wings were the best I’ve tried. I tried some mild, some medium, and for a kick, I went for the “Buckeye BBQ” sauce (the name alone made it necessary). Simply the best! Yes, they were a bit expensive, but they were HUGE and worth every penny!
I also went for an order of ribs. Having worked in a good rib joint for a while (and still moderatley biased thowards those ribs), I was ready for these. They were incredible. No words I can use would do them justice…just get in there and go for it!
Beer – I’d never had a NewCastle on tap before….but not anymore. The bartender gave me a sample, and I was hooked. They had a small number of berr on tap, but PLENTY of bottled beers to choose from. It was also reasonably priced (which offset the wing cost), so I’ll give a thumbs-up to that.
Game visibility – The building is lined with plasma screens, and there were three screens well within my view. There was no way I could have missed a play unless I was TRYING to miss a play. Hell, they even have a TV buried in the floor of the lobby. And yes, it was playing the game. This was a great location to see the game.
Atmosphere – I give them a grade of a “B”. The only screens that didn’t have the game were showing NTN Trivia (which my daughter happily played when she arrived at halftime to be with daddy). That’s a lot of Buckeye games being played at once. They turned house sound to Ohio State-Purdue, but it wasn’t as loud as we would have liked. Servers and bartenders all wore Buckeye jerseys (except one tall, beautiful woman who wore an Oregon jersey….and she made that god-awful ugly jersey look DAMN GOOD).
I would have liked to see more atmosphere, but I’ll cut them slack. The restaurant was completely full by 5pm and was on a wait at least until I left at 645. They catered to Buckeye fans as far as they could, but their restaurant was booming beyond Buckeye fans, and they respected both sets of people properly.
Would I go back for another game? Yes, absolutely. Maybe a noon game or a 330pm kickoff. It was great for those games….the 8pm game needs a more exciting atmosphere. I’m really happy I went there for the 330 game. It was well worth it, and I’ll be back.
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