NIGHT LIFE

Andrew Glazer

Finding the best sports bar to watch Monday Night Football is kind of

like looking for a place to lay your towel on an empty beach.

A lot of it depends on your mood. Do you feel like being in a crowd, or

alone? Near the ocean, or closer to where you can pick up a beer and some

Doritos?

After diving into six sports bars in Costa Mesa and Newport Beach during

last week’s lousy Jets-Jaguars game, I came up with an important set of

criteria:

A good, straight-ahead, non-neck-craning view of a television. A sizable

selection of cheap beers and attentive bartenders or waiters to serve

them. A place to sit down. And a good selection of grub. Not food. Grub.

I began my odyssey at Mutt Lynch’s -- a basic beachside sports bar on the

Balboa Peninsula. Football fans can sit at the long bar, just inches away

from the 22 beers on tap.

And on Monday nights, friendly bartender Shane Kral serves the beer in $6

pitchers and $4.25 schooners, which look like the bowls in which Siamese

fighting fish are displayed in pet stores.

Patrons -- which are locals of all ages -- also can sit at one of the

tables in the front of the wide glass windows and stuff themselves for

$3.75 on all-you-can-eat spaghetti and garlic bread.

Nearby is D.P.’s, also on the Balboa Peninsula, with a similar but

slightly louder crowd. They have 30 beers on tap, 25 TVs and a

less-than-enthusiastic server. On Monday nights, pints of domestic beer

are $3.50. The food special, a 14-ounce T-bone steak, goes for

$12.95.Garf’s is a bit dirtier, a bit darker and maybe a bit drunker than

the other two bars. Pleather booths, many shedding their synthetic skin,

wrap around the perimeter of the bar. There are 28 beers on tap.

Lenny Garofalo, the glassy-eyed, suitably gutted owner, personifies the

place.

“We have great food, friendly waitresses ...” he said, pausing as a

highly exposed waitress walked by, pint glass in hand. “And lots of TVs.”

The bar is full on most Monday nights. The crowd is made up of men with

their ties loosened after work, many staying in one of the nearby motels.

After each touchdown, Garofalo, or Garf, raffles off a T-shirt or

baseball hat.

On Monday night, Garf offers a baked macaroni and cheese special for

$3.95.

My favorite of the six bars was Shooters in Costa Mesa. With eight pool

tables, an adequate 17 televisions and a “complimentary” buffet, this

place had it all.

Sure, there weren’t 30 TVs. And maybe the Shooters buffet wasn’t quite

complimentary after all (hot dogs and tacos cost 50 cents apiece). And

it’s not the warmest or lightest place in Orange County. But it had

flavor.

In fact, the recently reformed Browns Backers have taken residence at

Shooters. When the Cleveland Browns are playing, 60 to 70 hard-core fans

show up there, said manager Mike Baird.

And for the handful of smokers left in Orange County, there is a

semi-enclosed smoking lounge, complete with its own television -- with

audio!Baird knows almost all of his regular customers and like Bill

Bradley on a college campus, walks around the room to greet them all.

“I’m very fast,” he said. “I get around.”Trophy’s in Newport Beach and

Legends in Costa Mesa are polar opposites of Shooters. Both are

self-described as upscale. To me, an upscale sports bar is like pouring

malt liquor into a champaign flute. Some things are just meant to be

downscale.

Both have large-screen televisions facing every conceivable direction.

Both have a fairly even ratio of men to women, a welcome change from the

other spots. But they also had a slick, pickup-scene feel that didn’t

seem to jibe with Monday Night Football.

“We don’t provide specials on Monday night, per se,” said Michael Chun,

Legends manager. “We provide good service and ambience. Most of our

clients are white collar and would be embarrassed to buy the special.”

Legends and Trophy’s -- which had a trophy case displaying memorabilia,

including a football signed by Joe Montana -- have long menus. But they

offer the same pizzas, buffalo wings, fries and salads as all the other

places at nearly three times the price.

And while the design of both sports bars had charm -- Trophy’s with a

country club dining room feel and Legends with a warehouse aesthetic --

neither seemed to capture the gritty requisite for watching football on a

Monday night.

Perhaps Chun said it best: “Everyone has their shirts tucked in and

buttoned up. They’re not a bunch of beer-bellied shlubs.”

Hey bartender, bring me the shlubs!

FYI

* SHOOTERS is at 725 Baker Street in Costa Mesa, near the intersection

with Bristol Street. For more information, call (714) 540-5061.

* For information about MUTT LYNCH’S, call (949) 675-1556.

* Others: D.P.’s, (949) 723-0293; GARF’S, (714) 435-4070; TROPHY’S, (949)

756-8800; LEGENDS, (714) 966-5338.