Shamrock's Sports Bar

Friday afternoon, 5:30 PM, downtown South Bend. Jen and I are at Shamrock's Sports Bar for another GastroMob Share a Table meal, doing what GastroMob does best. Getting out, trying a local establishment, eating some food, and seeing what the place is all about. Besides us and the staff, there are five other people in the joint. Five and that's about what I'd expect at 5:30 on a Friday downtown. South Bend doesn't really start waking up until after dark. Right now, people are getting off work, fighting traffic, heading home, and trying to put the workweek behind them. Five people apparently decided a little nip before dealing with whatever life has in store was a better idea. I don't blame 'em one damn bit. Shamrock's is a sharp-looking place. Modern, spacious, clean, and well appointed. A gigantic L-shaped bar runs practically the length of the room, and there are televisions everywhere. Horse racing, men's tennis, women's tennis, golf, volleyball, soccer, football. If somebody somewhere is keeping score, there's probably a television showing it. There's also a pool table, electronic darts, basketball hoops, beer pong, and a claw machine. Enough to keep you entertained between games or give you something to do when your team starts playing like a bunch of drunken squirrels. Being the Friday before Halloween, they've got the obligatory spooky decorations. Skeletons, giant hairy spiders, cobwebs, the whole shebang. There's even a skeleton in the window wearing a South Bend jersey, looking like he's been waiting for someone to buy him a beer since 87. It's a good setup for hanging out with friends, which, coincidentally, is exactly the kind of thing GastroMob's Share a Table is meant to encourage. Enough sightseeing. I came here for a burger. Specifically, the Blue Sox Burger. I'd seen this thing online and decided it needed investigating. A smash burger with bacon, blueberry jam, and Brie cheese. Sweet, salty, savory, creamy. It sounded just unusual enough to get my attention. After Wednesday night's GastroMob Share a Table adventure at Pinellia, where I voluntarily ate an entire meal made out of plants, I figured I owed myself a little beef and bacon. At Shamrock's, you order food at the Concession Stand. I thought that was a clever touch. It's counter service, but calling it a concession stand fits the sports bar atmosphere. You order your grub, grab a number, and go about your business. I ordered the Blue Sox Burger with fries. Extra crispy, please. They got it right on both counts. The fries were nicely crisped, and the burger was good. The Brie and blueberry jam worked with the bacon and beef, giving it a little sweet-and-salty personality without turning the whole thing into dessert. Ehile I was staring at the menu, something else caught my attention. Pickle Bombs. I stared at them. They stared back. I looked away. They kept staring. Pickles and cream cheese, breaded and deep-fried. I says to myself, I says, "Self, what could possibly go wrong?" Naturally, I ordered those sons of bitches too. Little golden-brown nuggets of crunchy, creamy, tangy goodness. Somebody decided pickles and cream cheese needed to be introduced to a deep fryer, and I'm not going to argue. They came with a dipping sauce, and they were exactly the sort of ridiculous, satisfying little things you want to eat while watching a game. Jen ordered fried oyster mushrooms and chicken tenders. Chicken tenders. After all that talk about trying new foods and expanding our culinary horizons, the woman ordered chicken tenders. I love her anyway. The oyster mushrooms were nicely breaded and fried, and the tenders were exactly what you'd expect. Everything came out looking good, tasting good, and doing its job. To get drinks, you head over to that enormous bar. They've got about every variety of hooch I could think of and several I hadn't even considered. A friendly, attentive bartender handled our drinks and made sure our food found its way to us. Pleasant, helpful, and on top of things without hovering. Now here's where I have to be fair about the food. Everything was good. It was fine. It was bar food. I didn't have a bad bite, but I didn't have anything that made me want to stand on the table and preach the gospel of fried pickles either. Would I come back strictly for the food? Probably not. Would I come back to watch a game, have a drink, shoot some pool, or hang out with friends? Yea. Would I order the hr pickles again? Also yea. I think that's an important distinction. Shamrock's isn't trying to be a fine dining establishment with a few televisions hanging around. It's a sports bar. A good-looking, comfortable sports bar with a lot of televisions, games, a well-stocked bar, and food to keep you from drinking on an empty stomach. It knows what it is. In retrospect, I probably should have ordered wings and a beer. The beauty of these GastroMob Share a Table meals is we're not always looking for the greatest meal of our lives. Sometimes we're checking out a place we've never been, trying something new, supporting a local business, and making an ordinary meal into an opportunity to get out of the house and connect with other people. Sometimes the food is the star. Sometimes it's the people. Sometimes it's the place itself. Sometimes it's just a good excuse to get out on a Friday afternoon and eat a burger with blueberry jam on it. Shamrock's is exactly the kind of place where I could see a group of GastroMob folks getting together for a game, a few laughs, and some food. With the pool table, darts, hoops, and all those televisions, there's plenty to keep the conversation going. The food did its job, the bartender took good care of us, and the place looks like it could be a whole lot of fun when the evening crowd rolls in. Another GastroMob Share a Table meal in the books. www.gastromob.com Let's go eat!