More than somewhere to watch the game

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/12/2016 (3189 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Weeks after its opening, Underdogs (2609 Portage Ave.) has yet to see a slow day.

The St. James sports bar and games room has found a home at the former St. James Tap and Table, a massive location that Underdogs’ six owners have put to full use.

Kyle Matheson, one of the owners who is also a co-owner of Nuburger, said that while a burger place and a sports bar have their differences, the key to success is the same.

“What Nuburger taught me is that if you focus on quality and set your standards high and hold onto them and have that consistency, people will respond well,” Matheson said.

Underdogs features areas for dining, 30 beers on tap, an arcade section, several party areas and 40 screens throughout for watching the game. Sharing plates and game specials are meant to bring the table—and the restaurant—together.

“We were like, ‘How can we get people to come together as a community inside the bar,’ so we came up with the idea of the scoreboard,” Matheson said. On Sundays and Tuesdays they pick a game, designate the underdogs and invite diners to pick their team. The winners get a deal on beer, and the losers, a deal on shots.

“As much as we don’t want to think of it, we have small town values,” Matheson said. “I feel like we’re community-oriented and everybody knows everybody, and this is a way to know people you might not know.”

Beyond that, executive chef Alex Wong has taken pub food to the next level, Matheson says.
“Our food I describe as elevated pub food or comfort food with a twist,” he said. “We have perogy nachos, and these things called pickle poppers where we fill pickles with Bothwell cheddar cheese and bread and fry them… we have a lot of sharing food, we want you to come with your friends.”

Everything is made in-house, another lesson taken from Nuburger.

“There are always hiccups when you open a new restaurant, especially a brand-new concept, but everybody seems to be really happy and they’re glad we’ve come to the neighbourhood,” Matheson said. “Silver Heights has been a staple for the longest time and that shows that the neighbourhood likes to embrace (its) bars, if (they’re deemed) good enough.

“We wanted to have something that people kind of rallied behind, and the name was kind of created out of that. Everyone loves the underdog.”