Searching for the Place to Be on Sunday Afternoons

By Scott Sierzenga and Eric Woodyard
Western Herald

For those who wake up and say “Ahhh its Sunday” and scramble to find the remote only to see the Lions playing and suffer and immense disappointment, finding the right place to watch a game is vital.

There are many factors that go into deciding where to watch the game at on Sunday afternoons and Sunday night.

Up at school many students have the same problem, shallow pockets.

Seating, televisions and T.V. quality, atmosphere, food and drink specials and quality, proximity, number of games on, and service are all things to consider when watching a football game.

Old Burdicks, Wayside West and Buffalo Wild Wings are among the most popular restaurants that people go to for many reasons.

Most sports fans would unanimously agree that nothing complements a good game quite like a plate of steaming hot wings and a cold refreshing drink, preferably filled with a hint of alcohol.

When it comes to satisfying these wants and desires during sports-related events, there may be no other place in the city of Kalamazoo, Mich. that fulfills these cravings better than Buffalo Wild Wings.

Located on 3317 Stadium Dr., the business sits in the perfect spot for college students and residents to eat comfortably.

“We have the three big TVs, we have all the football games and we can get all of the local games,” Five-year Bartender, Casey Terry said. “We usually have the baseball package for all of the baseball games so we have a lot of the games that are on and you can usually get whatever games you want on.”

The decoration of the inside of Buffalo Wild Wings also provides a great atmosphere for sports fans. All of the walls are draped with sports paraphernalia including team banners and plaques of the major Detroit teams like the Lions, Tigers, Pistons and Red Wings.

“It’s a good atmosphere, beverages, lots of screens, good place!” Georgia native, Robert Johnson said. “I’m basically a big football fan but I pay a little attention to basketball and baseball and if I was in Kalamazoo I would come here to watch games.”

Despite all of these great perks, as far as sports are concerned, the food and drink specials are what ultimately keep the customers returning for their services.

Serving over 12 different flavors of wings sauces including Spicy Garlic, Hot, and Caribbean Jerk, BW3’s has a different taste for everyone. They also serve sandwiches, ribs, beefy burgers, tenders, and wraps for supporters who may not be into all of their different wings.

With traditional wings priced at a mere $0.45 a piece on Tuesdays and $0.60 for boneless wings on Thursdays, customers can’t help but to come in to take full advantage of these along with the drink specials.

“Our beer prices, our draft prices are very well compared to other places,” Casey Terry said. “We have happy hour everyday between three and nine and on Mondays and Wednesdays it’s all day. Happy hours are all $1 off except for the High Life which is $2 everyday all day.”

After broadcasting so many sports games through the years, Buffalo Wild Wings has also served as the host to some very memorable sports moments that some customers would rather forget.

“I watched the (Detroit) Red Wings lost 8-0 here, I will always remember that,” Western Michigan University grad, Eddie Spiker said.
“It was like a Saturday night and it was pretty slow and not a lot of people were watching the hockey game and I’ve been here for other big football games where it’s been pretty packed.”

If fans are looking for the perfect place to satisfy their love of sports and wings, Buffalo Wild Wings is the perfect place.

Old Burdick’s:
Burdick’s is a well-established restaurant and bar in downtown Kalamazoo inside of the Radisson hotel, gives it an upscale look.

To coincide with its upscale surroundings Burdick’s has one huge screen which shows many different games at the same time in crystal clear high definition.

While watching the game on this massive screen, on Sundays, it is everything is half-off for students.

A separate half-off menu is brought to the table with very reasonable prices, this also includes alcoholic drinks.

The food is very good and has a solid variety of burgers and sandwiches that go down nice and easy when the game is on.

The atmosphere in the main room with the main bar is excellent with a wide variety of people cheering and jeering for their favorite teams, a popular favorite being the Chicago Bears.

The problem lies with getting into the main bar room, if you’re stuck being shown into the restaurant part of the establishment you could be in for a sore neck and a diminished morale.

They still have widescreen TV’s in the restaurant but unless you’re seated right in front of one the other ones around the room are watchable but it would be very tough to see what is really going on in the games, and that is the purpose of going out to watch the games anyways.

Also, being in the back takes you away from the bar-like atmosphere in front of the big screen at the front of the restaurant.

All in all, if one wants to watch Sunday Night Football I would recommend Old Burdick’s because if you arrive on time or a little before the game there is a good chance of getting a good seat in front of the big screen and a great place to get cheap quality drinks and food while watching the games and a short walk away from Monaco Bay and Wild Bull if you so choose a night around the town after the game.

Wayside West:

Wayside is huge and offers many different options to watch the games on a Sunday.

With over 40 widescreen TVs with different games on, its hard not to find a good seat in the place by the game you want to watch.

After you’ve picked the seat nearest the TV with your favorite team on it its time to look at the menus to find something to eat that is cost efficient.

Wayside has a 3.99 build your own burger on Sundays that run from kitchen open to kitchen close and $12 buckets of beer that can be filled with Budweiser, Bud Light, or Coors Light.

While sucking a few back, they have pool tables and gambling that can keep anyone busy during halftime.

The atmosphere is different because it is easy to find a quiet spot and or find a spot with more chatter because the place is so big. That makes it good and bad.

Wayside’s TVs are nice but don’t compare to the quality of the screen that Burdicks has.

They also tend to be more expensive drink wise than Burdicks may be and also doesn’t have as many options for food to choose from at the same kind of price.

Wayside is also a further drive away from most people coming from campus.

To watch games during the day, I would go Wayside all the way.

The ability to be able to find a seat next a good TV with your game playing on it without having to struggle to see the game is a definite plus, especially for the one o’clock games that feature a wide selection of games to watch.

Official Ruling: Wayside for the day games, Burdicks for Sunday Night Football.

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Posted by heraldstaff on Nov 12 2009. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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