A little more than a week ago the Grandview area welcomed the newest in the Winking Lizard chain to the busy corner of Fifth and Grandview. The Bedford Heights-based chain’s sports bar atmosphere of wings and reptizers (ugh) will likely thrive among casual beer fans, avid sports fans and masochistic World Tour of Beer fans.
This new Winking Lizard is described as a Bar and Grill as opposed to a Tavern. Me trying to make the distinction between the two is a lot like Homer Simpson’s description of a muppet. “Well, it’s not quite a mop, and it’s not quite a puppet, but maaaan! (maniacal laughter) So to your answer your question, I don’t know.” I guess it has something to do with this being a smaller warehouse of beer compared to other locations with a slightly smaller draft list that’s augmented by a pretty decent whiskey list. So maaaan, I don’t know.
Winking Lizard Bar and Grill took over the large red barn that was once Hoggy’s to become a slightly larger orange barn. The interior has been redone nicely and now features two large bars, one in its heated patio room. The patio room offers plenty of natural light with huge garage doors that open onto a sizeable patio, which will likely become very popular in the coming months. Walls throughout are decorated with old OSU memorabilia as well as a great framed Hoster’s newspaper ad from the early 20th century among other fun pieces of history, so they’ve done a great job of adapting to the neighborhood. From a seat inside the main bar area you can see at least 14 televisions, all on sports, so it would likely be a great place for March Madness or to remedy a dangerously under-stimulated evening.
Because I’m a glutton for punishment I braved the crowd at Winking Lizard during its first week in action three times to make sure I gave it a fair shake. Each time the place was packed to the lungs (lizards don’t have gills) with little to no space to be found anywhere. The host was always quick to greet, and we managed to find a seat pretty quickly each time.
For those new to the neon green and impressive walls of sports that are the Winking Lizard, the placemat menus seem to be built to cater to regulars. Each time I’ve tried to decipher the menu I felt like I was struggling through a harder-than-normal pizza maze during a monthly Book It! trip. During my third visit I believe I finally got the hang of it: The taps are numbered seemingly sporadically to correspond with the Winking Lizard’s popular World Tour of Beer. They seem to have a rotating list of drafts wherein they try to stick with one brewery. (e.g. The Stone Handle, the Southern Tier handle, etc.) During my first two visits bartenders apologetically let me know that three of the four beers I requested were no longer on tap. My guess is that they never made it and that the hatchling Lizard was experiencing some growing pains at the new location. During my third visit when I had my “Ah-ha!” moment with the menu, the server asked if she could take it away for someone else.
The service was attentive during my three visits, and I had a chance to sit at a table, the inside bar and the patio bar to compare—this is one of the few chains (albeit in my very small sample) where the server at the table exceeded the bartenders in both knowledge and service. For the most part everyone seems pretty nice and somewhat knowledgeable on beers, and it seems as if they’ve got a decent army of staff available to serve the thirsty throngs of Lizard fans.
The Winking Lizard’s beer list is pretty OK. They’ve got a good range of beers, but for true beer geeks it may be a bit disappointing depending upon what’s on draft and in the coolers. Each time we went we had a specific beer that excited us after our eyes adjusted to the confusing menus, and we were disappointed to find out that it wasn’t being offered. During this first week the draft list was very heavy on IPAs, and I would have loved a Doppelbock to go with their Lent food menu, but it was one of the beers that never made it/blew within the first several hours of the location being open. (Assumption on former, bartender told me latter.)
For what the Winking Lizard may have lacked in beers that I wanted during my three visits they certainly made up for in ginormity of drafts. Many of the beers are available in 22-ounce glasses for just a slight upcharge, and some are available in 32-ounce glasses for little more. A year ago I’m sure plenty of Ohioans were clamoring for a near-liter of Yuengling, and I’d guess many still are. I enjoyed a 22-ounce Stone Cali-Belgique for a very fair $6.
The food menu is huge and features pretty much any type of bar food you could dream of. Appetizers (I can only bring myself to be reptized once in this review), salads, pizzas, soups, wings, sandwiches, burgers, wraps…it’s a long list of food. Our wings were decent, our steak fries were fantastic and my wrap was edible. Nothing great, but nothing disappointing either. Perhaps I would have been more appreciative of my wrap had it been a Bar and Grille instead of a Bar and Grill. Semantics.
I’m not a total menu design snob or a total beer snob, but I’ve got enough of both in me to be a bit over/underwhelmed by a few pieces of the Lizard puzzle. The Winking Lizard Bar and Grill in Grandview is perfect for sports, great for people trying to get to know beers a bit better or a nice place to stop in for one to meet an old friend.
