Catching the game with some good eats as football season heats up

This week, 14850 Dining is heading out to catch a football game at one of the Ithaca area’s full-time or part-time sports bars, as the NFL season hits week three and both Ithaca College and Cornell football seasons are under way.

Those full-time sports bars are spots like the iconic Uncle Joe’s, which has TVs anywhere you look around the room, and enough of them are far enough apart that they can have the sound up on multiple games at once. They’ve got excellent wings and tater tots, and serious burgers and wraps.

Boneless wings and tater tots at Uncle Joe’s. 14850 file photo.

Longshots Sports Bar & Grill, just a year and a half old at Triphammer Marketplace, has loads of TVs, burger night for Monday Night Football, and wing night for Thursday Night Football with what we’d say are the best wings in Ithaca. They routinely put Big Red and Bombers games on the TVs, not to mention baseball, soccer, WNBA, and more.

Newfield’s Seabring Inn, one of the few spots you can reliably find NFL Sunday Ticket, has an excellent pizza and wings special on Sundays, and wing night coinciding with Monday Night Football.

Wings and pizza special at the Seabring on Sundays. Don’t forget the fried pickle chips!

There are part-time sports bars, too, where you’ll find a couple of TVs that may or may not have enough seats with a line of sight, and probably won’t have the sound turned up. (You can always ask.) Monks on the Commons will sometimes put the game on, or the BoatYard Grill. The Fall Creek House, aka “the Creeker,”  usually has a game on, and wing night on Thursday. The Glenwood Pines will have games on when they’re open.

The Ithaca Ale House has game-night specials when the Bills are playing, but only if you’re sitting in their bar area, which is really the only part of the restaurant where you can see the TVs anyway.

Make sure before you settle in that you’ll be allowed to stay until the game’s over! Some of these eateries don’t have late-night hours, even if the game runs long. Same with chain restaurants like Texas Roadhouse, Applebee’s, and Chili’s.

One newcomer to the list is Brookton’s Market out in Brooktondale, joining Longshots as an official Bills Backers Bar! They’re offering free popcorn and draft beer specials, as well as deli sandwiches and salads, and they’ll stay open late on game nights.

Lots of beers on tap at Brookton’s Market, plus cider and wine. 14850 file photo by Mark H. Anbinder.

Let us know if you’ve got a favorite spot to watch the game we missed, and tell these eateries you heard about them here.

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