Sports, Beer, no Mexican

The Sports Centre Cafe
49 St. Clair Avenue West, 416.928.9525


Toronto's entry for the best sports bar will surprise you. The Sportscentre Cafe boasts three distinct sections all with their own ways to spend the evening.


The entry to the bar is roughly five steps down from the street in the basement floor of what looks to be an office building. Did I mention the Sports Centre Cafe will suprise you? Well it did me because it took me about 15 minutes in the freezing cold to find the place. The awning shown above (courtesy of blog.to) is the only sign of a social gathering place whatsoever. Kinda reminds of Cheers in that way. Don't be fooled, nobody knows your name here, nor do they intend to learn it. You're actually pretty lucky to see a server within shouting distance if they're not motivated to get you out quickly. At any rate, the front room, which I had originally mistaken for the entire bar -- ironically, the same thing happened to me in Cheers -- has a cozy feel. Approximately eight booths, with private flatscreen TV's, are surrounded by a few island tables. There are a few blindspots in this area which can be overcome if you have a booth with one of those fancy flat-screens. Tables, well you might only want to sit two or three since someone might not be able to see. A walkway from the door to the back divides this section from the bar and a few high chairs and tables near the front window. Not a bad room on it's own, but no place for rowdiness.

If you're crazy enough to venture past the bathrooms, Buckhunter AND Golden Tee then you'll find yourself in what I like to call, the "theatre area." Pretty much just a bunch of tables sitting in front of a huge projection screen. It's touted to be one of the best places to watch a Leafs game and I'd probably agree. So if you're a loser, this is definitely the place to be. There's also a few flat-screen equiped booths along the side in case you're one of those platinum seat types that doesn't want to be slobbered on by the shoutin-mad Leaf Nation after another humiliating loss. Just remember, the Leafs play EEEEVERY Saturday night so don't miss your chance to view one of life's spectacles. Did I mention this back section has it's own bar? The ying and the yang I guess.

Speaking of spectacle, just over the back railing of the "theatre area" is the Sports Centre Cafe's "gaming gym" (also what I like to call it). In a hole about the size of a quarter of a basketball court is the gaming area. I didn't spend any time there, but I recall seeing everything you'd want, pool tables, air hockey, foosball, arcade basketball and God knows what else. I can't imagine the service in this section to be any better than the front, but at least the "theatre area" bar is nearby.

So things don't sound so great for the Sports Centre Cafe. It seems to have all the makings of a great sports bar, but it falls prey to bad food, bad service and a bad team. Maybe someday Sports Centre Cafe, maybe someday.

Rating: On a scale of 1 to 1,000. 1 = Horrible
1,000 = College Inn

Sports Centre Cafe receives .... 6

Not too bad.

Imported Beer

Simpld fact: beer does not travel well. Any beer that does travel is saturated with chemicals to the point that its not worth drinking. Because of this fact, major beer brands are licensed to local brewers to produce. Of course, there's also the transportation and duty savings, but every imported beer I've ever had tasted like shit. In Canada, Bud is brewed by Labatt and visa versa. Before they merged, Coors and Molson had a reciprocal brewing agreement. In the UK, all of the major lagers are brewed in the UK. Carlsburg, Kronembourg, and as every aussie with attest, Fosters. Taste aside, the biggest reason to stay clear of drinking excess imported beer (or cheap, local lager) is the resulting hangover. I've found that chemical preservatives lead to killer hangovers.

India Pale Ales were invented specifically for exporting to India. They used unroasted (or very little) malt which contained a much higher sugar content. When brewed, the extra sugar yealded a much higher alcohol volume. Since alcohol is a natural preservative, it kept the beer from going bad over the long voyage to India. Modern IPAs don't have as much in common with their ancestors. They're typically somewhere between a lager and an ale in taste and rarely contains more than 5.5%.

Growing up, having never left the continent, I didn't understand this important knowledge. I've always thought German beer was vastly inferior to my local Canadian brew. When compared to any of Canada's premium beers, it just didn't stand up. I chalked this up to the fact that, similarly to Canada, they only exported their rubbish and kept the good beer for the locals. Who drinks Molson Golden?

About four years ago, I went on a month long solo trek through Europe. One of my destinations, the fatherland of the pilsner (Czech Republic) was a fantastic introduction to the joys of European beer. It may have been the 50c 1/2L beers, but the Czechs have some fantastic beer. They've got a bunch of national lagers (Starropramen, Pilsner Urquell, Budwiser [the original]), but their local breweries were outstanding. Another stop on my trip was Munich during Oktoberfest. At the time, I didn't think there was any topping the Czech beer, but the Oktoberfest beers took my breath away. They were, by far, the finest beers I've ever had. The Bavians know how to make beer. I'll soon get to relive these amazing beers this September when I return to Oktoberfest.

When I got home from my trip, my mind was wide open to the possibilities of world beer. I found myself craving Czech and German beer. I found some Pilsner Urquell at the beer store and bought a case. I was devistated to find that, not only was it not what I remembered, but it was down right awful. What I learned that day is that beer doesn't travel well. Stick with the local stuff, no matter where you are, and you'll enjoy yourself and the morning after.

Pub Games

It's difficult to find good pub games these days. In the UK, they're mostly long gone. You'll find a few here or there, such as Bar Billiards (see image) which I got to play once in east London, but even the staples are difficult to find. Bar Billards was actually a blast to play and it can be played with a bunch of people. Me and some friends were in the area looking for a place to watch a world cup matchlast summer when we stumbled upon this game. There were some laminated rules for the game, but though the words were english, we had no idea what they said. We played as best we could for a bit until the cook came running out to scold us for doing it wrong. After a brief instruction we got to playing it for real. The game consists of hitting the white ball from the same position each time. You strike one of the other balls and try and get one or more balls into the holes on the table sufrace without knocking over any of the skittles.

I'm sure these sort of games exist more frequently outside of central London, but I rarely get out to the sticks. You won't find pool, darts or even foosball. Your only distraction is the weekly pub quiz that many pubs put on where you and your team mates put your wits against others in the pub. I rarely play since I can rarely answer any of the questions. They're all to do with British pop culture and music which doesn't make its way across the Atlantic very often. I have yet to hear any questions about Fawlty Towers.

The Brits seem to love their trivia, or at least the ones that like trivia, like it a lot. I can't understnd why NTN isn't everywhere here. It seems like it would fit perfectly with the quiz obsession here. Any pub that has a TV has Sky satellite. Sky would make a pretty penny by offering an interactive quiz service. Its a lot of fun when there's a few teams playing NTN around the bar. While you also compete against others around the world, the best competition is between the local patrons. I suppose it takes precious TV space away from whatever football match is on TV. But that's all pubs are becoming these days - a place to gulp down beer and watch football. Bring back the games. Thankfully, traditional pubs have a champion.