Jillian's is one of those places that is tough to categorize. Although it's a sports bar with a full menu and a number of great beers and mixed drinks to choose from, it's also a destination for fun and play mainly geared for adults ages 25 and older.
We were in Indianapolis a few days ago with our friends, Scott and Marcia Schroeder; and Dave and Pat Heusmann. It was a Saturday night and the St. Louis Cardinals were playing the New York Mets in the National League Championship Series and Scott wanted to go somewhere that had food, beer and a lot of TV's. Dave, on the other hand, doesn't care for baseball, but wanted to watch college football that night. Me, who likes both college football and baseball, had to come up with a place that was appealing not only for the guys, but for our wives, as well.
I had a lot of options for sports bars in downtown Indianapolis we I settled on the Jillian's near Conseco Fieldhouse.
Jillian's motto of "Eat! Drink! Play!" has been in effect since the first one was built in 1988 in Boston during the height of the billiards craze that was beginning to sweep the nation. Nearly each Jillian's features a full menu restaurant, sports bar, private party rooms, a specialty restaurant, a dance club, a bowling alley, a billiard area, and all kinds of amazing video simulation games and old favorites that are geared to an adult crowd. Here's a map of the three floors of the Indianapolis location.
After 8 p.m., most Jillian's game rooms and bowling alleys are only open to patrons 21 and over, keeping the rug rats out of the way when you're trying to impress your wife or girlfriend at how well you're able to blast alien warships out of the sky. It's nice to not have some little 12-year-old smart-ass show you up by getting 100,000 points after you'd just got your all-time high score of 7200 points.
Jillian's is a lot like Dave and Buster's, a similar chain of adult-themed restaurant and gaming areas based out of Texas with over 40 locations across America. In fact, nine of the Jillian's were acquired by Dave and Buster's, Inc. through auction when Jillian's parent company - JBC Entertainment - filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection over two years ago. Dave and Buster's also acquired the rights to Jillian's name and the "Eat! Drink! Play!" motto.
The Indianapolis location, as well as 17 other locations, are owned by Jillian's Billiard's, Inc., of Louisville, KY. Dave and Buster's, Inc. has rolled all but three of the acquired Jillian's locations into Dave and Buster's. The remaining three - outside of Atlanta, in Houston and in Phoenix - will become Dave and Buster's shortly.
But for the meantime, the one in Indy was going strong. We had to wait about 45 minutes for a table in Jillian's Video cafe, the restaurant was that busy. But that was OK - the girls sat at the bar drinking and talking, while the guys stood and watched a variety of college football games and the baseball game.
When we finally sat, we were still able to catch the sports action on the 40" television sets they have throughout the restaurant. The guys were happy campers and the girls were just happy to be getting something to eat.
The menu at Jillian's Video Cafe is standard sports bar fare - nothing outstanding, but nothing bad. I went with the Buffalo chicken tenders - small cuts of chicken breasts cooked in hot and spicy buffalo wing sauce. Cindy and Marcia went with the grilled lemon chicken over fettuccine. Pat had the chicken breast with a side of garlic mashed potatoes, Dave had the Philly cheese steak sandwich and Scott had the peppercorn encrusted blue cheese burger.
My dinner was OK, they gave me a lot of spicy chicken tenders. (A tip - get the hot sauce and not the extra hot on the chicken tenders. I like hot but those were bordering inedible.) But they were a little cold as they probably sat under the warming lamps waiting for everyone else's dinners to come up.
Cindy and Marcia really liked their meal, as did Pat. Dave devoured his Philly cheese steak and said it was great. Scott sort of picked at his burger, but when I looked up after I tried to finish all of my chicken tenders and he was just finishing off his burger. He said it was good, as well.
After dinner, I took everyone up to the arcade on the second floor and Scott and Marcia watched the rest of the baseball game, while the rest of us watched Dave play some of the machines. It was kind of nice not having a lot of little kids running around in the place, but at the same time it was rather busy with all the activities going on.
I took Dave, Pat and Cindy up to the bowling alley on the third floor and they were having "glow-bowling" - bowling with fluorescent balls and pins under black lights. One of the neat things about the bowling alleys is that they have four 80" projection televisions on the wall above the pin boxes so you can watch the game while bowling at the same time.
Jillian's is a neat place, but I like Dave and Buster's better for both the food and the entertainment. There's a Dave and Buster's near where I stay at in the Chicago area and I'll have to go in and have dinner there sometime soon and report back on that.
(Update January 2012 - Jillian's in Indianapolis filed for bankruptcy in 2011 and closed in October of that year. There is now a Tilted Kilt in Jillian's old location. I don't know if they still are using the arcade and the bowling alleys on the upper floors.)
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