Best Bar Near the Stadium?

[Guest]

IF you want to go "old school" and be on the East Side of town where the stadium is, you could go to Grumpy's. Great cheeseburger w/bacon.

Numnums.....

[Guest]

@MaroonBells said:

@purplefaithful said:
Hit Johnny Randles newer bar/restaurant downtown...It's on Nicollet Ave. 

http://www.johnrandles.com

A lot of the watering holes are on the West Side of town, near the Twins & T Wolves stadiums. Light Rail from the east side of town where USB is.

And Sticky is right, give yourself plenty of time before or after the game to walk the stadium, hit the Vikings shop, see the museum there. 

I walked into Randles without making the connection. Didn't realize it was John Randle's place until I saw the URL on the menu. Nice, big place with a lot of TVs, but Johnny needs to work on his breakfast burrito. 

I've always found it strange that there is no real bar and restaurant scene around the stadium, except for Huberts I guess. The dome area was a ghost town. Thought that would change with USB, but it hasn't. The real scene is up by Target Field. 

It's going to take time for the East Side and it may never have all the action the west side of town does. Probably more residential/biz sprinkled with restaurants vs West Side.

That said, what's happened to-date there is nothing short of amazing and in just 5 years. 

I wanted the Vikings stadium on the West Side, right near the Twins and Twolves stadiums - creating an uber sports, restaurant, entertainment district.

Damn homeless shelters.  Well, we got ourselves a beautiful stadium, SB coming, Dalvin Cook and a future generations of Viking fans will have a team. 

[Guest]

So I was SERIOUSLY bummed out in the second half of that game when Dalvin went down and our O completely went off the rails. I forgot to post in this thread but I'm back now just to let everyone know what we ended up doing.

4 of us (2 guys, 2 girls) went to Hell's Kitchen bloody mary buffet bar/restaurant before the Vikes game and then walked to the stadium. Hell's Kitchen was great-- wall to wall Vikings fans and completely packed. Definitely make a reservation!

Then we walked the few blocks to Vikings Stadium. WWWWOOOOOOOOWWWWW! We were walking down the street and I couldn't see the stadium at all so I'm thinking, damn, how far away is this thing? Then we turn one corner and BOOM, it's right there and it is HUGE. One of the coolest things I've ever seen and I won't forget it.

Got into the stadium pretty quick. Maybe 15 mins waiting in line which beats the Dome times in my experience. Plus we were taking pics and stuff on the ship out front and just soaking it all in.

Concourses were super wide, concessions lines very reasonable and the inside was spectacular! That first half of the Lions game was so much fun. Skol chant is the coolest thing the Vikings have done in probably 20 years and I wanna get a giant drum for my living room now haha.

Shoutout also to the ship that shoots fire during player entrances-- even more epic when you see it in person! Opening play of the game was a sack and I thought the roof was going to blow off the place. Awesome crowd.

Note about seats- we got nosebleed seats around the 30 yard line way up but were shocked at how good they still were. Truly not a bad seat in this barn. Very cool.

All in all, definitely one of the most fun things I have ever done and we now have plans to make it an annual trip.

Even watching one of the most depressing second halves of football that I can remember, I should have been thinking- "I spent all this money for this?". But I didn't. Not at all. What I was actually thinking was- "Wow! If I had season tickets then one loss wouldn't phase me as much because there's 7 more games". The twisted mind of a Vikings fan.

Brett

[Guest]

Yeah but were there dividers a the urinals? 

[Guest]

Great summary Pattersaur.  My wife and I are going to the game this weekend with another couple.  Looking forward to it!

[Guest]

I was also at that game and had a little verklempt moment while entering. It's really cool to walk around outside find our fan clubs heritage brick (I think that's the name) I was also quite shocked at the play for really most of the game but the 2nd half was a turd. We found a bar a few blocks away and was shocked to see far to many Lions fans. Anyway sounds like you had a great time as well.