SEPTEMBER 15, 2000
They not only have mustard, they have Grey Poupon at Players Sports Bar and Grill on South Washington Street. But I found out Sunday afternoon you have to ask for it. To me, any self-respecting hamburger or hot dog needs mustard. And I found the hamburger at Players to be respectable. It was good meat. It was moderately sized. The bun was tasty. The coleslaw was at least a B, but the portion was modest. The hamburger and slaw was $5.29, the Diet Pepsi, with free refills, $1.49.
In two visits to Players this past week, I sat in the lounge. Often for lunch at Players, I sit in the lighter and brighter dining room at the south end of the place. There still are tables for dining there, but some of the space has been taken over with a pool table, air hockey, Internet jukebox and a golf game.
Players has in recent years built up a good following for breakfast. There are groups that gather regularly for coffee or the $1.99 Skyscraper Breakfast. That’s two eggs, two strips of bacon and all the pancakes you can eat.
Owner-managers Rod and Tammy Oas keep a close watch over their business. When something works, they do it. As he sat in the busy lounge Sunday afternoon, Rod Oas said, “NFL Sunday is huge. Without the screens showing seven football games, you and I might be sitting alone in here.”
All around me, people were eating potato skins or burgers and drinking Mountain Dew or lemonade. There were some eating salads served on mammoth platters. And since children eat free on Sundays, there were families seated here and there.
I arrived at Players just after 2 P.M., too late for the Sunday breakfast buffet served from 10 A.M. to 2 P.M. for $5.99. At least 100 people had been there in time for the buffet, though.
Monday Night Football and all-you-can-eat chicken wings brings customers in each week. The wings are served with bleu cheese, dressing and celery. And on a decent Monday night, they go through 300 pounds of wings. Two-for-one burgers are a big draw Tuesday evenings.
There are attractive plaid valances on the windows and on the brass railings that serve as dividers for semi-privacy. Walls are dark green with contrasting light wood wainscoting and parquet floors. Mirrors on posts add an illusion of space.
All of these observations were made with the help of Marge Leigh (ML) when she and Jim Leigh (JL) and I stopped at Players for the baked potato bar before the Potato Bowl football game. We found the potatoes exceptionally good, although they were russets rather than reds. We found the small paper plates inadequate. We needed two or three to hold our potatoes and toppings.
The building that housed Players was found to be not code-compliant, and was razed in the mid-2000s.