This year, try something different. Head out into the streets of Chicago and chow down ethnic food, toss your own passes in virtual reality football or sing your praises with a gospel choir before kickoff (the game is on a Sunday, after all). We've cut through the baffling number of choices to help you have a truly memorable game.
We start our tour with a deceptively obvious choice, Grizzly's Lodge. Grizzly's is by its very definition a "big game" restaurant - specializing in venison, ostrich and buffalo burgers, as well as wild boar and even a blackened alligator appetizer. Grizzly's also boasts one of the most unusual atmospheres in town, with a giant - what else? - grizzly bear carved out a tree, mounted animal heads on the walls, a giant canoe hanging from the ceiling and a faux bear cave with extra seating in the back. The main restaurant area has two big-screen TVs, ten twenty-seven-inch screens and even five tables with their own personal sets. The unusual menu is affordable, ranging from $10.95 to $26.95 for entrŽes, with sandwiches and salads from $4.95-$8.95.
If you're trying to show some class, head over to a palace: Jaipur Palace. While an Indian restaurant might be the last place you'd expect to see the Super Bowl, the management is indeed planning to show the game on a couple of large screens - enabling diners to enjoy one of the biggest games in the Western world with some of the most exotic recipes from the Far East. The chef's favorite dish is the chicken tikka marsala, chicken marinated in yogurt and spices for twenty-four hours before being baked in a clay oven. That's gotta beat another round of Super Nachos.
For food from a country that really knows how to party, head for Irish treats at the Abbey Pub. The Irish have been noted for their ability to down a pint or two, and Super Bowl Sunday will be your chance to learn drinking from the masters, thanks to the Abbey's $25 open bar. The fifteen-foot projection screen normally shows soccer and rugby matches, but with a menu loaded with shepherd's pie, Irish meat pies and Irish sausage, you can still imagine you're watching that other type of football. If your team wins, feel free to dance a victory jig when the house band plays after the game. If you're in the mood for real brats to go with that beer, however, steer yourself to the grandaddy of all German restaurants in the city, Zum Deutschen Eck. With three lots of free parking, room for seventy people in the bar and up to 160 more in the dining rooms, there's plenty of room to watch the game on one projection screen and two twenty-six-inch TVs. Don't stop with the brats, though; the adventurous can nosh on smoked thueringer, weinerschnitzel and Bavarian pizza loaded with bratwurst, knockwurst, onion, green peppers and mushrooms (which serves two for $6.95). An oompah band normally plays on Sundays, but you'll have to dance elsewhere after the game, 'cause the band's taking a breather for the Super Bowl.
Our final ethnic stop is the Parthenon, which hosts a free Greek buffet to go with a cash bar, a forty-six-inch big screen in the main restaurant and three twenty-seven-inch TVs between the two side bars. Try the roast piglet for a unique way of getting into the pigskin spirit, or dig into such delicacies as roast goat, taramousalata (whipped caviar), eggplant dips and chicken shish kebab. Opa!
If you want to play a few games yourself, post-game or at half-time, video and virtual reality game palace Dave & Busters is offering a Mexican buffet and the chance to watch the game on a seventy-inch screen for a $10 cover. There's no excuse for watching the often-lame second half when you can quarterback your own video team to victory on one of the football-related games upstairs. However, you'll have to wait another day for the chance to embarrass yourself at their legendary karaoke nights.
Finally, offer up your money and your prayers at the House of Blues, where you can enjoy the final Sunday Gospel Brunch of the day at 2:30pm, before sticking around to enjoy the game while getting loaded on hot Cajun food and cold beer. Brunch prices range from $29-$35 and includes an all-you-can-eat Southern buffet of such funky food as chicken jambalaya, barbecue chicken, and spicy made-to-order omelets. Super Bowl Sunday features the choir Endowed, and what better place to pray for your team to be endowed with long passes and a quick rush?
- Grizzly's Lodge, 3832 North Lincoln, (773)281-5112
Jaipur Palace, 22 East Hubbard, (312)595-0911
Abbey Pub,, 3420 West Grace, (773)478-4408
Zum Deutschen Eck, 2924 North Southport, (773)525-8121
Parthenon, 314 South Halsted, (312)726-2407
Dave & Busters, 1024 North Clark, (312)943-5151
House of Blues, 329 North Dearborn, (312)527-2583
(Carl Kozlowski)
copyright 1999 New City Communications, Inc.