I have a buddy who travels to Minneapolis a few times a year and he was telling me of a sports bar in Bloomington that he liked to go to when he was there. He said it was a good mix of locals and travelers, and he always felt welcome at the place. I was in Bloomington earlier this year and I wanted to watch some of the NCAA men's basketball tournament one night and I took his advice and went to the Sports Page Bar and Grill.
Located in a strip mall on S. Lyndale Ave. at W. 90th St. in Bloomington, The Sports Page has been around for over 35 years. (see map) It's one of those neighborhood places where families and friends have been heading to for burgers, sandwiches, pizza and appetizers. It's a place that's hosted parties - both celebration, work and sports watch parties - and has weekly trivia contests and karaoke every Thursday night. (Note to self - stay out of the place after 9 p.m. on Thursdays.)
But it was a Thursday evening when I was there. I had just gotten back from St. Cloud and wanted to go to the Sports Page to watch some basketball. When I got there just before 6 p.m., the place was packed. But it turned out that there are two parts to The Sports Page. I had walked into a small bar area. It was a nice little room with a full bar and a number of high top tables. It was packed and there was no place to sit in there.
I just happened to look toward the back of the bar area and saw a couple of glass doors that appeared to go into another room. This area was much larger with some booths and low-top tables. There was a small bar in the back and this room was also packed. There were a lot of people who appeared to be socializing, while there were some tables that were filled with families with younger kids. It turns out that it was opening day for the Minnesota Twins that day and a few of the people were in there after going the game.
I was lucky enough to snag a booth along the wall from a couple guys who were getting up to leave. I sat there for a few moments waiting for one of the servers to at least acknowledge me. It was well past 6 p.m. by now and the first of two NCAA basketball games had started, but most of the TV's were still on the local Fox Sports North channel from the earlier Twins game that was showing some fishing show instead of NCAA basketball.
Finally, a lady server whizzed by me and said, "I'll be right with you, hon!" The beer list was on the table and I was studying it when she finally came back. She said her name was Chantelle as she dropped off a food menu and asked me what I wanted to drink. They had the Surly Furious IPA on tap and I signed up for one of those.
It's mainly bar food at The Sports Page with appetizers, sandwiches, burgers, and wraps on the menu. As I said earlier, they also had 10" pizzas on the menu and it appeared that they were probably pre-made as they only offered cheese, pepperoni, sausage, or a sausage and pepperoni combo. They also had soups and salads available for lighter fare.
Most of the sandwiches on the menu were pretty uninspiring - about the most exotic sandwich on the menu was a club sandwich - so, I focused on the burgers. And it's not to say that the burgers were any works of art, either. It was basically a choice between a single patty or double patty, and from there you could get cheese on the burger (American, Swiss, or Pepperjack). They had bacon, mushrooms and jalapeños available on the burgers as well.
I figured out what I was going to get, but Chantelle was busy. She was hurrying back and forth from the kitchen to tables and back again. By this time, they still hadn't turned on any basketball and I was getting a little annoyed that a sports bar wouldn't have the focus to figure out that they're missing out on a huge viewing opportunity for their patrons. But then I noticed later on when they finally did get the first game on some of the TV's that I was probably the only one that was interested in watching the games. As I said, most of the people were socializing. I thought to myself, "This is most un-sports sports bar I've ever been to." And it took forever, it seemed, for them to realize that a second NCAA basketball game was underway at the same time before they finally changed the channel on another group of televisions.
Chantelle finally did show up and I ordered up a double Swiss cheese, mushroom and bacon burger. It came with a side of crispy fries and was served open faced with a light spongy bun. The burger patties were flat grilled and it was hot and juicy when she brought it out to me.
They didn't skimp on the toppings on the burger. The Swiss cheese was thick and gooey on top of the burger patties. The mushrooms appeared to be canned, but they were lightly sautéed in butter, and two thick pieces of bacon criss-crossed across the top of the burger. The bun, as I said, was light and airy, but it held together rather well considering how messy this burger was. It was a multi-napkin burger. It wasn't anything fancy, but it was still a pretty fine burger.
The fries were classic bar-food fries - skinny, crisp and flaky on the inside. The double Swiss cheese burger with the sautéed mushrooms and bacon was more than a meal in itself. But I did have a couple handfuls of fries and they were good.
For what it was, I thought The Sports Page Bar & Grill was OK. It's nothing fancy, it's more of a neighborhood hangout joint that just happens to have a lot of televisions on the walls, but they don't seem to emphasize the watching of sporting events probably other than the local teams. My server was hurried and seemed to be overworked as the place was packed, but I wasn't in much of a hurry to leave as I stayed around to watch both basketball games that were on. And as time went on, the place had pretty much emptied out by 7:30 p.m. I don't know if The Sports Page would be my first choice to go watch a game that I wanted to see, but the burger was pretty good and that might bring me back in at some point.
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