Naperville sports bar scores with brews, burgers and big screens
Putting the word "sports" in the name of your bar doesn't leave much to the imagination for potential customers. We all know what to expect from a sports bar by now. But Total Sports Bar and Grill of Naperville still has a few surprises up its sleeve.
Motif: A friend of mine best described Total Sports as a "smaller version of The Foundry." If you've never been to The Foundry in Aurora, let me break it down for you: It's huge, and there are a lot of large projector screens. Total Sports, on the other hand, is moderately huge with a lot of big-screen TVs and a large projection screen that hangs over the bar. The high-ceilinged open room's walls are covered with cutouts of athletes. A large bar is in the center of the room with seats around it, and there are tables around the room and booths near the back wall. An adjoining room offers sit-down restaurant service. Also noteworthy is a private room that is attached to the main room in the back.
Crowd: On the Sunday night I visited, the crowd at Total Sports was your roundup of typical sports fans who also enjoy going to bars. Wait, no it wasn't. For some reason, I was attending Total Sports on "Bring Your Baby to the Bar Night." I'm not sure how they got past the bouncer, but there they were, a few babies being held by a few dudes as they drank, talked and watched sports.
Service: Our food was good but our waitress seemed a little distracted by the baby table next to us. Note to self: Borrow cute baby for next visit to Total Sports.
Liquid consumption: Total Sports' beer menu includes Guinness, Bass, Smithwicks, Fat Tire, 312, Newcastle, Stella, Hacker Pschorr, Dos Equis, Miller Lite and Blue Moon on tap. What I was not expecting was the inexpensive fruity drinks on Sunday nights. Since it had been a long weekend, I decided to go for a margarita, and it was tasty. Go ahead, judge away.
Food: The menu includes plenty of choices, such as spicy wings, fried calamari and baked goat cheese appetizers, wood-roasted BBQ chicken and ribs, and gourmet pizza like the Pacific, with shrimp, and the Acapulco, with grilled chicken, green chilis and cilantro. A few members of my group went for Total Sports' unique selection of burgers, including the Tuscan burger with raw onions and grilled tomatoes and the Texas burger with grilled ham, Swiss cheese and BBQ sauce. And yes, there's a kids menu.
Sounds: As you'd expect from a sports bar, the sounds you hear over the loudspeakers at Total Sports are from the games that are showing on their televisions. But here's where I was thrown off: Once the main game hit a commercial, the bar started blasting Lady Gaga.
Parking: Total Sports has its own free parking lot.
Overall: Like sports? Enjoy alcoholic beverages? Interested in an assortment of burgers and pizzas? Well, then, what's stopping you from high-tailing it on over to Total Sports?
Total Sports Bar
523 Fairway Drive, Naperville
(630) 983-5400
Hours: 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. Sunday-Thursday, 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday