Flavour of the month: three new spots that change the game on sports bars
Sports bars in Toronto used to mean soggy nachos, face-painted guys named Big Mickey and eau de bleach mixed with stale cigarettes. Thankfully, a new era of communal fandom has arrived, with the help of three luxe lounges where discerning diehards can enjoy good food, microbrews and giant HD TVs. Here, the best places to catch the game
The Suburban Stadium
WEGZ, 2601 Rutherford Rd., Vaughan, 905-303-9349
The 23,000-square-foot room is like Chuck E. Cheese for grown-ups. With an arcade, two virtual golf simulators, Xbox booths, off-track betting, a digital tickertape spewing sports news, and a soundtrack of classic rock, no sense is left unstimulated. On game nights, groups of hockey fans pound pitchers of Labatt alongside suits stopping in for a cinq à sept on the way home. Goals are blasted over a megaphone and accompanied by a medley of horns and sirens that would make Don Cherry proud.
The unofficial house sport: horse racing, hockey and UFC.
The screen situation: more than 100 TVs.
The beer: the Brewtender is an 80-ounce pitcher for $22.
The food: classic pub grub jacked up on steroids. Nearly 200 towers of greasy-good nachos and 366 pounds of plump chicken wings fly out of the kitchen on a busy night.
I’m Italian, and there are a lot of Italians in the neighbourhood, so there are plenty of hecklers during soccer games. Actually, I’m a heckler.
— Michael Manias, Project Manager
I meet up with my old high school buddies at WEGZ (it’s our unofficial hangout).
— Jason Pittelli, Student Teacher
I’m a huge sports fan, so I’m here five to seven days a week. At the Super Bowl party this year, there were 100 guys on the dance floor with the Bud girls. I’ve never seen anything like it.
— Dean Speranza, Salesman
Interactive Fun House
The Ballroom, 145 John St., 416-597-2695
Suck it, suburbia! Ten-pin finally comes to the downtown core, along with ping-pong, foosball, video gaming and just about every other frat boy pursuit that doesn’t involve MDMA. The multiple opportunities to engage in sport (and simultaneously watch it on TV) make this new clubland fixture less a bar and more a boozy, athletic amusement park full of pie-eyed finance dudes bowling off steam after a tough day on the TSX.
The unofficial house sport: UFC.
The screen situation: 60 TVs covering all available wall space, including giant projection screens over the lanes.
The beer: a respectable if not exciting brew selection (this is a bottle service kind of place).
The food: “deep-fry or die” might well be the menu’s motto. Battered pickles, Pogo sticks and onion rings all taste good
in that everything-fried-in-fat-is-yummy way.
I used to bowl in my youth, 25 years ago. It was the one sport I could play without hurting myself.
— Peter Traynor, Canadian National Stock Exchange business developer
I won the first round of bowling, but then my arm got tired. Those balls are heavy. I’m going to watch golf instead. It’s calming.
— Joelle Woodruff, Marketing Manager
I’m not the kind of guy who would paint my face blue or anything, unless, of course, the Leafs made it to the playoffs.
— Chris Lucifero, Web Developer
The Hockey Haven
Real Sports Bar and Grill, 15 York St., 416-815-7325
MLSE’s 1,000-seat clubhouse is dedicated to the Leafs (albeit unofficially). The sleek decor is more Ocean’s Eleven than Varsity Blues, leaving jersey-wearing fans to inject the appropriate dose of blue and white. The crowd is about 50:50 slick Bay Street boys to classic “I Am Canadian” types, and 90:10 male to female, including the runway-ready servers in shrink-wrapped black unis. Hearing yourself speak is challenging; when the Leafs score, the cheering is so loud, the glasses behind the bar shake.
The unofficial house sport: hockey obviously dominates, but basketball and soccer attract out-the-door lineups, too.
The screen situation: 199, including the Times Square–sized high-def screen above the bar.
The beer: 36 kinds of draft, including six beer blends, like the Darth Maple, which mixes Canadian and Murphy’s Stout.
The food: gussied-up ballpark fare like bacon-wrapped hot dogs and spectacular Thai sweet chili chicken wings.
My girlfriends and I come here when we want to go out and have fun but we don’t feel like getting totally dolled up.
— Sherrie Rains, Model
Montreal is my team, so I stay home when they’re playing the Leafs—I don’t like to mingle with the enemy—but I come here for soccer.
— Mike Ryan, Writer
I was here for the Masters. Mike Weir is my favourite.
— Tom Brodi, Chef
I’m wearing a Leafs jersey now, but I’m really a Red Wings girl. If Detroit is playing, I’ll wear my red jersey. I get harassed by the crazy Toronto fans, but I don’t care.
— Kandace Hill, Student
.
— Jason Pittelli, Student Teacher
I’m a huge sports fan, so I’m here five to seven days a week. At the Super Bowl party this year, there were 100 guys on the dance floor with the Bud girls. I’ve never seen anything like it.
— Dean Speranza, Salesman
Interactive Fun House
The Ballroom, 145 John St., 416-597-2695
Suck it, suburbia! Ten-pin finally comes to the downtown core, along with ping-pong, foosball, video gaming and just about every other frat boy pursuit that doesn’t involve MDMA. The multiple opportunities to engage in sport (and simultaneously watch it on TV) make this new clubland fixture less a bar and more a boozy, athletic amusement park full of pie-eyed finance dudes bowling off steam after a tough day on the TSX.
The unofficial house sport: UFC.
The screen situation: 60 TVs covering all available wall space, including giant projection screens over the lanes.
The beer: a respectable if not exciting brew selection (this is a bottle service kind of place).
The food: “deep-fry or die” might well be the menu’s motto. Battered pickles, Pogo sticks and onion rings all taste good
in that everything-fried-in-fat-is-yummy way.
I used to bowl in my youth, 25 years ago. It was the one sport I could play without hurting myself.
— Peter Traynor, Canadian National Stock Exchange business developer
I won the first round of bowling, but then my arm got tired. Those balls are heavy. I’m going to watch golf instead. It’s calming.
— Joelle Woodruff, Marketing Manager
I’m not the kind of guy who would paint my face blue or anything, unless, of course, the Leafs made it to the playoffs.
— Chris Lucifero, Web Developer
The Hockey Haven
Real Sports Bar and Grill, 15 York St., 416-815-7325
MLSE’s 1,000-seat clubhouse is dedicated to the Leafs (albeit unofficially). The sleek decor is more Ocean’s Eleven than Varsity Blues, leaving jersey-wearing fans to inject the appropriate dose of blue and white. The crowd is about 50:50 slick Bay Street boys to classic “I Am Canadian” types, and 90:10 male to female, including the runway-ready servers in shrink-wrapped black unis. Hearing yourself speak is challenging; when the Leafs score, the cheering is so loud, the glasses behind the bar shake.
The unofficial house sport: hockey obviously dominates, but basketball and soccer attract out-the-door lineups, too.
The screen situation: 199, including the Times Square–sized high-def screen above the bar.
The beer: 36 kinds of draft, including six beer blends, like the Darth Maple, which mixes Canadian and Murphy’s Stout.
The food: gussied-up ballpark fare like bacon-wrapped hot dogs and spectacular Thai sweet chili chicken wings.
My girlfriends and I come here when we want to go out and have fun but we don’t feel like getting totally dolled up.
— Sherrie Rains, Model
Montreal is my team, so I stay home when they’re playing the Leafs—I don’t like to mingle with the enemy—but I come here for soccer.
— Mike Ryan, Writer
I was here for the Masters. Mike Weir is my favourite.
— Tom Brodi, Chef
I’m wearing a Leafs jersey now, but I’m really a Red Wings girl. If Detroit is playing, I’ll wear my red jersey. I get harassed by the crazy Toronto fans, but I don’t care.
— Kandace Hill, Student ){kind=link}
ball room is full of coked up jocks, worst place ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! bad food, you can never bowl unless you wait two hours!!!!
Bowling, that guy doesn’t know what he is talking about…..talking about coked up. Anyways great place, great people, great food. I have meet some many people their. Such as Chuck Liddel, Showdown Joe, Curtis Joseph, Todd Shapiro and many more. Plus I saw a great discount package on captainsave.com this morning. Trust me you have to check this place out.
let’s be honest here. this place is in Vaughn. crowd is not for everyone. just a sports bar and on your friday and saturday nights it is a jock fest if that’s what they still call themselves. lol. foods not bad but just your regular pub style. if you’re open minded and just looking for a place to hang this should do you fine.
Ballroom is NOT a Sports Bar. I’m sorry. I went there a week ago and it was the 4th quarter of a very close playoff basketball game. They switch it to a hockey game where it was entering 2nd intermission and score is 4-1. I
It’s not a sports bar, it’s meant to cater to the party crowd. No respectable sports fan will be going here. I can see why it’s not that busy on a Friday evening in prime hockey and playoff season.
If I want to watch sports, I’ll do it at home thank-you very much. In my house the beer costs about $2, I get a comfy chair and don’t get harassed by douchebags who yell and clap at TV’s that can’t HEAR them!
The amount of sportsbars that are springing up are completely unsustainable. The typical ‘go to a bar and watch UFC’ crowd are assholes and by catering to them you turn normal people like me off.
what constitutes new? wegz is 3 years old, realsports has been open more than 6 months and the ballroom? seriously thats a sports bar?
how about the new shoeless on king at duncan? wow this website is getting more and more useless.
When will Toronto Life realize that Vaughan is not in Toronto and never will be? As for the others – over priced and over hyped.
Since when is a another …same old same old restaurant that calls itself a sports bar because it has a lot of TVs and worst – located in the suburbs (Vaughan) – the flavor of the month for the city of TORONTO. I believe the magazine is called “Toronto Life” – last I checked!
I love the haters, detractors and bottom feeders, coming at this article trying to rip things to shreds.
1) If this was 20 years ago when the population of York Region was sub 400,000 and you didn’t have the bedroom communities of Newmarket, Aurora and the like, coming INTO the city to work…you may have a point, that yes, why are you covering a ‘sports bar’ in York Region.
2) To all the sacrosanct, holier-then-thou uber socialites that slight the magazine for putting an article out there which brings in the flavor of the 905/289, get off your bloody soap box and pull your noses out the sky. With over 1 MILLION residents, we live, eat and socialize in this area much like our counterparts within the 416/647. We are a viable, powerful and economic force which if neglected by media, is done at their own peril.
3) To all of those flaming that ‘WEGZ is not for you’, that’s fine. OLG and Woodbine which own the property aren’t catering to everyone. But if you are any kind of sports fan, like to bet on the horses (BTW WEGZ is one of the only places you can do off track betting in Ontario) and *gasp* can string two coherent sentences together but ALSO like UFC, then it’s a viable alternative.
4) And get off the ‘it’s Vaughan’ comment. Is that supposed to mean the clientele is a bunch of poorly educated, Jersey Shore copy-cats, tooling around like it’s a casting call for Fast Five? The paintbrush you people are using is so wide, the ease at which you paint yourself into a figurative corner is epic. That’s like me stereotyping all of the ‘flamers’ on this comment as stuck up, 416 nook dwellers who think downtown is the sh*t and detest any whiff of suburbia and corporate overtones.
5) It’s proximity to various sports facilities and leagues (indoor and outdoor soccer, hockey, beach volleyball and a skate park) lends it to being a sponsor for a lot of those locations/teams, and being a sports bar, you are going to get said teams to that location to enjoy time after the games.
I guess pretentious people can’t understand an unpretentious location; it’s not something they can comprehend.
I must agree with the gist of the above post. While I live in the city, I too get tired of the uppity tone of some commenters on this site and others. Their disdain for anyone/thing outside of the downtown core makes me suspect that they themselves are former inhabitants of suburbia and are desperate to shed their old skins. Kinda pathetic.
The Ballroom is terrible. enough said. I cant see it staying around for long.
Although i do like parts of the City, I’m really sick of those who have 416itis.
Definition: 416itis: individuals with low self esteem that believe the fact they have a 416 area code makes them special.