There’s always the need to watch the hometown sports. I, for one, have a hard time sleeping at night knowing that, somewhere, the Kansas City Chiefs may be playing without my support.

Unfortunately, it’s the same situation as July 4th - rather than having one small, localized community, for which to head - there are hundreds of unbelievably bad knock-off bars (Fridays, etc), with no quality contenders in the bunch.

There are two main competitors in central London. Many of my friends reverently attend the Sports Cafe on Haymarket. Overpriced, loud, always packed, but if you could get a table, you got a private screen, and there was always some sort of beer special to bring things from ‘Exorbiant’ to ‘Justifiable’. It does what it says on the tin, so you can’t complain too much.

I’ve always been more partial to Bodean’s BBQ - now with a second, quasi-suburban Clapham location. The food is phenomenal - I highly recommend lunching there on a Monday or a Wednesday. Also, the wait staff (especially downstairs) is knowledgable about cooked meats and brown alcohols, and very friendly. Unfortunately, they’re currently going through - yet another - menu re-jigging, and the prices have gone up. So lunch is more recommended than dinner.

And for the sport? Not bad. There’s a decent cable package that means they can show a game or two, but - what was once a well-kept secret has been too solidly marketed for their own good. A fairly grumpy junior management type was shuffling people off tables as soon as they had downed their food, in order to maximize the churn of the waiting customers, and the queues wrapping around the restaurant. All in all, a bit distracting, and it gave me the impression of unavoidable growing pains due to new-found popularity.

Still, skip the sport, go midweek, and treat yourself to rack of ribs or some burnt ends. It’s a good restaurant, and the owner, Bryan, is a great guy. Hopefully the growing pains get sorted soon, but in the mean time, I may invest in Sky…

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