Champion Billiards and Bar Stools

Good food but crappy drinks and absolutely terrible service!! And being forced to pay the 5.00 cover when you are only there for dinner is ridiculous

A late-night visit on a Thursday found this local mostly empty save for a few people around the bar and in the back room...and the DJ.   I'm not sure if the DJ was aware of his audience but he seemed to be playing music that he liked and quite loudly.  Perhaps he should visit an audiologist soon and have his hearing checked.  Our ears were certainly ringing after we left.  

+ Service:  Server was friendly and fairly prompt.
+ Food:  the chicken wings were actually darned good with the Old Bay seasoning on them.  I'd order them again.
+ Adult beverages:  plentiful and priced on par with other places.
- Music:  Pre-teen Michael Jackson?  Vanilla Ice?  Seriously?  Move on.

I miss the old days when it Champ's was on the west end and was just a pool hall with a goatsh!t load of tables with a bar. I do not particularly care for the new sports bar mentality with the pool table and darts as an afterthought. Well, on my last visit I had to pay a cover at least they had a decent Ska bank playing, but on another occasion it was a louzy cover band that sucked ass.

While not an old man, and still clinging to the saying if it's too loud, you're too old, I have to admit, most of my company of fifteen people, ages 21-40 constantly left during the live because it was just too loud for such a confined area on nearly every occasion we have gone here.

Personally, if I'm going to end up in a bar room browl, I'd rather it be seedy than trendy. Nothing is sadder than seeing drunk yuppies trying to get down. While not a bad venue, Champains feels as it gave up it's sole a dank dive of a pool hall for the trendy upscale sports bar venues that are all the rage right now.

There were the usual drunk grratters there too, the one that was drunk enough to mess with the designated sober (me, the DD) was quickly dealt with by a large crew, but I can see why FCSP spend Friday nights there. Pre-closing to keep the riffraff in check, and post last call to bust all the drunks on the road.

And that brings me to another point. A half hour before closing and lst cal , the staff gets pretty antsy about pre-ejecting people from the place so they can start closing up. IDK what sort of bottom line they have have but when closing is 2am on a weekend, and they are vocal on kicking everyone out as early as 130 so they can start cleaning up,m then maybe they should consider revisiting their signage of posted hours.

I think it is pretty rude to sell someone a tower of bear at 125 then start telling people to finish up and get out at 135. Telling people to polish off 12 glasses of beer in ten minuets is not very responsible considering they post their hours of being till 200 in the morning. This brings me to my last point.

As designated, I pay a five dollar cover and find myself treated very poorly by the bar maids who look barely old enough to drink yet alone serve them. I also have noticed people who are clearly over intoxicated get continuously served and allowed to walk out the door. I know it's not their fault if they get behind the wheel and drive someone but when there are few designated i the join I do not think treating them like shite is good for one's image.

So in the end, this place gets two stars as it has fallen from grace from a roadhouse pool hall in exchange to becoming a sellout plaster cutout sports bar. The only thing that keeps them from one star is the fact they don't use metal detectors yet like Green Turtle.