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Watching the Big Game: Richmond Sports Bars

Food & Drink | 11.16.09 | by Matt Harrington

It is a fall tradition for me – watching football with fellow fans at a local sports bar, cheering on my team to (usually) a devastating loss. In the Richmond Region, there are a handful of sports bars that cater to specific teams and offer big-screen action, serving up traditional sports-bar fare and specially priced suds.

I am a Buffalo Bills fan. Yes, yes. We all know they have been terrible for the better part of a decade and I’m not about to listen to any of your wide-right jokes, either. The point of this post isn’t to talk sports, but rather to highlight some of the most popular Sunday afternoon hangouts for football fans of any team, terrible or otherwise.

My sports bar of choice is Mulligans in the Fan. Why? Because it is the official home of the Buffalo Bills Backers of Richmond. Our crew is given a large, non-smoking room with a big-screen HDTV to watch our boys get crushed week after week. We usually manage to fill the room with disgusted, yet hopeful, fans every Sunday. As a rule, my game time food of choice is chicken fingers or chicken wings (with extra bleu cheese, of course). Mulligans normally has a very large contingent of Steelers, Cowboys, Dolphins and (of course) Redskins fans, and enough room to spread out either on their back deck or upstairs patio to watch whichever game you choose.

T-Miller’s in the downtown Marriott is one of the newest arrivals to the Richmond sports bar scene. The bar boasts 27 flat screen HDTVs, so you know that you’ll be able to see whichever team you’re following, or you’ll be able to keep up with your fantasy team by watching multiple games at once. T-Miller’s offers a menu of favorite casual food and has a huge variety of fancy-schmancy beer on tap.

The Home Team Grill has two Richmond-area locations, in the Fan and in the West End. Lots of flat-screen TVs are placed throughout the bar and dining rooms, so you can be sure to catch all the big plays. Home Team Grill in the fan is also a regular gathering spot for those who participate in the Richmond Sports and Social League. They come in droves after their dodge ball or flag football games to relax and fulfill the “social” part of their league with a beer and a burger and NFL games.

Stool Pigeons in Shockoe Bottom is another popular location for Richmond football fans. They sport a 60ft. long bar, 26 TVs and 20 speakers. During the workweek, Stool Pigeons is a popular business-casual happy hour spot. On Sundays, NFL football takes over and patrons chow down on wings, quesadillas and nachos while watching their favorite teams duke it out on the gridiron.

There are many other popular sports bars in the Richmond Region like Buffalo Wild Wings, Bailey’s, The Playing Field, The Triple, Big Al’s… the list goes on and on. Let us know what team you root for and where you watch the big games by posting your favorites here on Richmond Inside Out.