Tag Archives: Direct TV

Lavaca Street Bar Was A Skee Ball

It’s been awhile since I had to get up for the early college football game.  Last Saturday was the reprise and I’m thankful that the Lavaca Street Bar had a bloody mary bar to kick things off.  There was alot of talk about Midwestern sensibilities in the last week and I was surprised at how the Lavaca catered to that.  Speaking of the Midwest, it was Sunflower Showdown weekend and I had a front row seat, without actually being there.  Did Lavaca Street Bar handle spectating well, or did I leave sucking on some cheese curds?  Let’s find out.

Walking in, you wouldn’t suspect that Lavaca Street Bar was a big sports bar.  It’s another in a long line of sports bar that look tiny up front but huge in the back.  All around the bar, televisions lined the place.  In the back room there is a huge projector screen television as well.  The Direct TV made sure I was able to watch my team up on there.  The wireless internet is free but they had some kind of weird sign up page that made things hard to login.

The best part of Lavaca Street Bar has to be the games.  They have all the games that you need.  They have Big Buck Safari, Golden Tee, a hard punch game, Pop-A-Shot, Skee Ball, and what I think could be a pool table.  I see cue sticks but no table and I think it’s because of the bloody mary bar.  At any rate, back to the Skee Ball.  It’s a rare sight to see Skee Ball in any bar, let alone a sports bar.  If you want to set yourself from the back, get a game like that in your bar.

The service was rather sparse.  There was essentially two bartenders for the whole joint.  The female one was rather cute and the guy, well, was a guy.  We had to get up from the back a couple of times to order food and drinks.  They did come out here and there though.  The guy was nice enough to setup the whole back room for my games so I can’t dog them too much.  He also turned the light on for me when I was getting my bloody mary because the place is real dark.  Like go to sleep dark.

Now on to the beer pairing.  Lavaca touted some Midwestern specials like cheese curds and brats.  Guess what I got.  The cheese curds were good but not northern Iowa good.  I think the ones I make are better.  I chose to have Wastach Brewery’s Pumpkin Seasonal Ale with the bratwurst.  I wanted to do an Oktoberfest type ale but that was the closest thing they had on tap.  I’m so glad I chose it.  It has to be the best tasting pumpkin beer I’ve ever had.  The brat itself was tasty but everything around it was average.  The mustard, bun, sauerkraut, and even the basket was very low rent.  But hey, that’s part of the appeal.

The Sunflower Showdown was the main event for the weekend for me.  For some reason I was real scared about Kansas.  Boy was I ever wrong.  Kansas quarterback Jordan Webb has the 2nd highest passer rating in the Big 12.  He did a good job, but the rest of the team was terrible.  Meanwhile, on the other side, Kansas State’s Collin Klein put up all star numbers.  He ran for 4 touchdowns and actually threw the ball pretty well.  It helps when you are playing one of the worst defenses in FBS.  Methinks Turner Gill’s job is in serious trouble right now.

The other games were a little more competitive.  I got to watch was Missouri and Oklahoma State duke it out in Columbia.  Seeing as Missouri no longer thinks they are Midwest material, it was nice that the Cowboys beat them down.  Well, it wasn’t a beat down so to say, the Tigers kept it nice and close.  I missed out on LSU vs Auburn because I was busy Halloween shopping.  I also missed out on most of the action in the evening because I went and watched White Denim at Stubb’s.  So the first big Hail Mary of the year that put Michigan State over Wisconsin was not to be had for me.  Thanks to a lightning delay, however I watched the end of Texas Tech upsetting Oklahoma.

It has begun.  The undefeated teams are starting to drop like flies.  I still don’t know what to think about the weekend.  I certainly didn’t expect Oklahoma being the team with losses going into this weekend’s game against Kansas State. Lavaca Street Bar had a super sweet setup, even though it was too dark and you had to try real hard to get service.  The food is almost food truck level, which can be real tasty but lacking on the presentation side.  I’d recommend this place to just about anyone if they want to duck in and see some great football.  They have reserved areas for alumni groups like LSU and Wisconsin so be careful when you go.

Backspin Threw Me Off

I lucked out again with Kansas State not playing at the same time Texas was.  They were actually playing Baylor and on ABC.  The nationally televised match up and the fact that it was not going against Texas led me to think that a remote sports bar south of the city should have that game on.  So Saturday I found myself at the Backspin Texas Sports Bar & Grill.  I’m glad that I picked that place for the game.  Did the tiny nature and remote location lead to a great time?

 

Somehow I managed to get rockstar parking for the Backspin.  When I pulled in, I had a nice view of the patio and a side way look to the joint.  I heard online that it was a small place, but I was hoping it would be wider that what it turned out to be.  Walking inside I instantly felt cramped.  It was room for maybe 3 tables across and a ginormous sports bar.  Okay that’s fine.  Both outside and inside had some sweet looking HD televisions with a huge one in the main dining area.

As for the rest of the Backspin, it filled out as nicely as it could with its real estate.  I was surprised to see a Golden Tee game there and alleviated any worries I had about their effort.  Not only that, but they also had some BuzzTime Trivia, which gave me a chance to try out their app on my new Android based cellphone.  All that internet juice was handled promptly by their free wireless internet.  Connection issues were not a problem mainly because the place is so small.

The service there wasn’t so great.  I got a primo spot in front of the huge big screen for the Kansas State vs Baylor game, but had the chance to watch the end of the exciting Texas A&M vs Arkansas game.  It was about two minutes to go and they somehow accidentally changed the channel.  It was so harried that a patron got up and started jacking with the Direct TV remote.  Seriously, if you have a sports bar, you need to have workers who know how to operate the televisions.  Also, the audio was out of sync for the end of that A&M game.  That, the waitresses were pretty hot and they did a great job of making sure my beers were full.

For this week’s beer pairing, by the way, I had an unexpected mix of food and drink.  I was hoping to get their Reuben but I had to try their Tzatziki dip and fried pickles appetizer.  I’m happy I went that way.  To wash down the lot, I chose some New Castle.  Not only was it on special for $3 but the brown ale helped with the crispness of the fried pickles and the strange combination of yogurt and spices for the Tzatziki dip.  I’ve never had Tzatziki before but it is a nice cool down appetizer to noms on with pita bread.

Now on the to the games.  Non Big 12 wise I caught that big showdown of Wisconsin vs Nebraska as well as the Alabama vs Florida game going on at the same time.  First off, Alabama looks legit and first year Florida head coach Will Muschamp has a little bit more work to do, including keeping his starting quarterback healthy.  Big 10 wise, Nebraska got a great welcome to the conference with a whooping handed to them from the Badgers.  Nebraska isn’t a complete team but it didn’t help them that Wisconsin had the free agent quarterback wonder that is Russell Wilson.

Big 12 wise, I watched a whole heckuva lot of football.  While I was sweating away at the gym, I got watch Kansas go up early on Texas Tech.  Little did I know that the Red Raiders would come back to win on the road in Lawrence.  Both teams are in trouble against Kansas State, more on that later.  So I mentioned Texas A&M and Arkansas.  All I can say that it was awesome to see the Aggies choke again.  They have never won a game against the SEC and will hopefully be competitive against Vanderbilt when they take off next year.  Wow they have no heart.

The big game of the day for me was watching Kansas State host Baylor for their first big test of the year.  Robert Griffin III is the mega stud quarterback for Baylor and he continued putting up great numbers.  The combination between him and Kendall Wright torched the Wildcat defense all day long.  But Kansas State was resilient.  I don’t know how they keep close in these games, but they do.  Everyone will put it on Bill Snyder 2.0 and deservedly so.  Collin Klein kept consistent on the offensive side of the ball and linebacker Arthur Brown broke out and delivered the game saving interception.  These Wildcats are now ranked and they have real good shot of going to a bowl thanks to Texas Tech and Kansas.

So that was my day at the Backspin.  That place is super tiny but for where it is located, I can make some concessions.  It’s by no means perfect.  When you can’t figure out televisions on gameday, you go down big in my book.  The food was decent and I like the beer specials.  If I had an important game that I absolutely had to watch, I wouldn’t do it at the Backspin.  If I wanted to sneak away from the city and hide out in a decent sports bar, the Backspin is where I’ll head.