Critic's Review
With the Giants playing on Monday, I had yet-another Sunday afternoon with no game to watch. The Cowboys are on a bye week and the Giants are playing the Eagles, so only the Redskins were of minor interest. I've been to the other Bonefish Mac's down the road in Lighthouse Point, and it's always a zoo, particular during a Steelers game. The owner is a big-time Steelers fan. So I was wary of coming too early. I decided to come at like 3:30 so I'd only have to deal with the Steeler's crowd for 1/2 hour or so.
The place is pretty new so it's not in my navigation system, and I was too lazy to punch in the address, which turned out to be a mistake. You can't see the place from the road; it's a deep shopping center, and there's no sign on the road telling you that it's in here. Luckily I remembered that it was next to a Best Buy, so I didn't miss my turn. It's WAY down W Sample just across from the casino.
The first thing I noticed was that the place wasn't a zoo; in fact you could hardly tell they were open. In Lighthouse Point there are people all over the place. One factor is that their outside space is really inside; an open-air patio that is somewhat hidden within the building. Probably good on a rainy day.
I don't do patios, with the smoking and all, so I stepped inside. Two hostesses just hanging out; I just pointed to the bar. The place was noticeably dead. This picture was taken as I was leaving; when I got there, the front of the bar was occupied and there were a couple of seats on the side; I took one of those.
From my seat, i could only clearly see 1 set, which had the Miami vs Tennessee game on.
The Steelers game was only on 1 set; this is not a Steelers bar by any means. It's kind of an odd space in terms of TV watching. There are some TVs in the back that you could probably see from a couple of the booths.
Nobody wanted to sit in the corner. Just 1 TV to watch over there.
At first I felt ignored. A women with a NY Giants top was behind the bar, and she was bantering with another customer about Jersey and New York. I was able to order a tea and get a menu.
The menu here is huge, so huge that I got tired of posting it so we only have about half of it. I ordered some regular wings: small, medium heat, grilled. Grilled is .50 extra, because it takes a lot of effort to throw the wings on the grill before plating them.
As Denver and Cleveland went into overtime, there was more New York Banter. It turns out the Bartender's husband is from the next town over from where I went to High School. The 2 ladies claimed that it was a small world, but I offered that much of NY and NJ has moved down here for all the same reasons, so it's no coincidence.
Some of the early games were now over, and the bar had cleared. A guy had come in toting a baby and they were sitting next to me; you know that guy who shows up to to show off the baby; I moved over to the center so I could see all of the games.
The Denver game was entertaining, but I was getting kind of ticked about my wings. It had been more than 20 minutes, the place wasn't exactly slammed, and how long does it take to make 10 wings?
The bartender seemed to notice me fidgeting, so she checked on them for me. Another 5 minutes and they emerged. Who knows, maybe they lost the ticket.
A decent portion. I'd tried their jerk wings my first time at the other location and I didn't like them. These were fine, although they didn't seem to get the point of grilling them. There wasn't much searing going on. Blue cheese wasn't great either. 3 stars for these wings.
I didn't really care about any of the late games, so I just cashed out and headed home when I was done.
Conclusion
I asked where all of the Steelers people were and the guy in the Steelers Jersey seemed to think that 8 months wasn't enough time to let people know that you were a Steelers bar. Maybe in 1995 that was the case.
The menu here is ridiculously large, and they give you lots of food. I didn't really care for the layout of their other location, and this one doesn't inspire me either. If I lived in the area I'd probably consider it an option. It's not much different than the other big box Sports Bars.