The Venue Bar and Grill

Conway's Sports Bar now...told Yelp this weeks ago but those lazy asses don't seem to do much work. That said, the "ffod" was cooked incorrectly (TWICE) and I don't expect anyone to be going there soon anyway for the non-booze options. Yuck.

This place is now called Conway's; not sure if it's an ownership change or just a name change, but there it is.

Despite having been around for years, I had never had the occasion to visit until a friend's band was playing there (Mapleshade, check 'em out if you like 60s-70s and some early 80s music). The interior is clean and fairly well laid out, except some of the tables are really too close together for comfort. The tables and chairs are very solid, comfortable and seem to be in good repair, far from guaranteed at many bars.

Our Zeigenbock draft beers were served cold and in proper glassware, and refills were tended to perfectly by our waitperson. We also tried some food; here's the rundown:

Chips and salsa: Crispy, fresh chips with a salsa that has some chipotle in it; very nice.

Fried mozzarella: Medium size sticks (easier to handle IMO) fried nicely in fresh oil, served with a basic marinara.  Good flavor and a crisp-but-not-too-crispy exterior

Patty melt: Substantial burger patty with melted cheese on a not-too-strong rye bread, grilled very nicely. A very good burger. Accompanying sweet potato fries were awesome, cooked to perfection and none of that sugary crap on top

To top it all off, the band was great, people were dancing and there was even a Buzztime trivia screen for those that wanted to do that. All in all, we had a great visit, and I'll definitely come back some time.

We went Sunday evening.  We sat at 4 tables before we got one that didn't wobble.  We got the Queso French Fries and they were excellent, a good start.  My husband got the pork sliders with fries.  The pork  tasted like it had been in the frig for a few weeks.  But the fries were good.  I got the Chicken with a Mushroom Demi-glace sauce, mashed potatoes, and the onion rings.  The chicken was excellent, very flavorful demi glace, the onion rings were good, but the mashed potatoes tasted old.
     I understand the risk you take sometimes eating out on Sunday evening, I'm a chef so I get it.  But after reading the reviews I was pretty excited, they thought of finding a hidden gem and all.  
 The service was good and the prices are really good.  I first only clicked 2 stars and wanted to give 2.5 stars but not an option, so 3 it is.  I usually don't give a review until I have visited a place at least 3 times but old tasting food was too disappointing.  And with Dodie's Place (a sports bar and grill) less than a mile and a half away, I don't see any reason to try it again.
    Also there were only 6 other people in the bar and they were all at the bar and they were extremely loud.  They seemed like regulars and were just having a good time.  Maybe it was, we were the only people sitting and eating, so no other bodies to absorb the noise level.