Gator Bait Sports Bar & Grill

They have great lunch specials here (Shrimp Po Boy) that are reasonably priced. Definitely a great place to eat around the Earleton, Melrose area.

Maybe the best wings in Melrose.  A little greasy for my taste, but what the heck can you expect in a Melrose sports bar?  I've eaten here twice now and tried four different menu items.  They were all okay.  The place is clean and nice.  Both my visits were for a late lunch, weekday and I guess the professional help had left for the day or maybe until the evening meal.  Service was friendly enough, just bad.  When I asked what was on draft, she recited the beer brands AS SHE WALKED AWAY, coming back 5 minutes later to ask what I wanted.  Then 5 minutes after that, I had to remind the waitress/bar tender that I wanted a beer before I got one.  The tap was less than 6 feet from where she was standing when I ordered my beer.  Atmosphere is pleasant enough although hard to gauge the real feel since there was only 4 other customers besides me.  May hop at night.  I just don't know.

We found this place (thanks Yelp!) while looking for something to do on a Saturday afternoon near Melrose. My wife and I happened to be on day two of camping in Mike Roess Gold Head Branch State Park. The park is about 20 minutes from Melrose and we couldn't find anything closer that 1) had beer and 2) would have the NCAA basketball tournament on.

With that said, please keep in mind that as folks who were looking to get out of the heat for a few hours and had just a tent and a grill to return to - we were not in any hurry and did not expect anything except cold beer and a TV.

However, we were pleasantly surprised upon walking into this sports bar. It looks like it was built yesterday. The place is extremely clean on the inside. I'm talking hard to believe clean. We sat at the bar because that is where the majority of the TVs are located. They had the tourney already on and there were two girls working who were taking turns sharing waitress and bartender roles.

We took our time ordering and it was obvious that while the two employees got along fine, there was no structure or method to how they distributed the work load. Often times one thought the other had gotten refills, taken orders, etc. We laughed it off because again - campers avoiding 88 degree heat and happy to watch our brackets get destroyed (thanks Duke!)

The waitress who was our "main" point of contact was extremely friendly and we talked a lot during our stay. I'd say we were there probably two hours or so. We ended up getting a bowl of chili, nachos, and gator tail. I had the gator tail and it was great, seasoned well and a light batter. Their dipping sauce (similar to a bloomin' onion sauce) was excellent. My wife liked her Nachos and the portion was huge. We were so-so about the chili that they claimed was made in house every day. That's tough to believe unless they struggle with estimation because they ran out after my bowl which was 4 hours before the dinner rush. That last sentence might be a misnomer because the thought of Melrose having anything "rush" is comical.

The CO2 for the kegs went out while we were there and it took them 45 minutes to fix it. Not a huge deal considering we were comfy but we did hear several complaints from customers as the staff took a lot of their time trying to help fix the issue. We saw two people walk out after their drink orders were taken and one person complain at the bar about the lack of service. We sat at the bar which usually guarantees you better service than the tables so I can't say we experienced this firsthand. However, in watching how they operated it would be very difficult to sit through it if you were on any time of a timetable.

Our girl told us they have a DJ on Saturday nights and have dancing on their back patio. I'm sure there aren't a lot of options for things to do on weekends in Melrose so they likely do a good business during those times. We saw the manager/owner walking around a lot but she didn't seem aware of any service delays and was largely focused on fixing the CO2.

I'd recommend this place to anyone who is not a restaurant critic and is not going to use a stop watch to measure every service event. We were in the exact opposite of a hurry and we let it all slide. It was a nice afternoon and we were campers in a new part of the state enjoying new scenery. The food was very good, and the atmosphere great. If for some strange reason we're ever in Melrose again we'll likely stop by to grab a cold one and say hello.