Westside Sports Bar & Lounge — Restaurant in West Melbourne

Westside Sports Bar & Lounge- West Melbourne, FL 4.5 Stars

“Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what's for lunch.” – Orson Welles

Glancing down at my name generator, I couldn't help but chuckle a bit. I was headed to West Melbourne to check out Westside Sports Bar & Lunge. I was chuckling as in my mind it's still the 80s and West Melbourne is a wasteland, not the teeming metropolis it is today. Shaking my head, I headed OTB.

I love my sleepy little island community, but even I had to admit that the Melbourne Metropolitan Area has grown leaps and bounds and I like it. More businesses are moving in and that means, yep, you guessed it, more eating establishments. To that end, I pulled into the lot of Westside Sports Bar & Lounge, parked and went about the business of providing the working public with unsullied food reviews.

I was greeted warmly upon entering a lovely lady who introduced herself as Mandy. Mandy is my bartender, waitress and cook today and she has to be the most non-oleaginous person I have met wearing all of these hats In fact, she was quite the opposite exuding the patina of a bar warrior. I asked Mandy for a single malt, neat, one Cheeseburger (medium-rare), one order of 6 Wings (medium heat) and a Philly Cheesesteak.

As Mandy turned to get to work on my grub, I took a moment to take in the joint. I love coming to bars early, you can smell the stale alcohol and fun from the night before. Mandy returned with my Scotch and I must say, it looked like a good 3 oz pour...very generous. As I am 163 days sober, I won't be tasting it, but what a bang for your buck. The place is loaded with fun games and had a classic inviting bar atmosphere (think local watering hole).

Mandy soon returned with my standard bar fare and I turned my attention to the job at hand. While the food may have been the standard found in Sports Bars across this great land of ours, this was far from ordinary. The Cheeseburger was cooked to a perfect rare and served on a grilled bun (my favorite kind of bun). The onions, lettuce and tomato were all garden fresh and generously applied with just the right amount of mayo. The wings were cooked to perfection and the sauce had just the right amount of “oomph” to know you had a bit of heat in your mouth. There was a complex mix of sweet, tangy and heat that made my taste buds do a little shimmy. Moving on to the Philly Cheesesteak I paused to take in the perfect symmetry the sandwich presented. The meat was perfectly cooked, the bun seasoned and grilled and the whole thing was flawlessly executed.

The Big Boy says, “If you're looking for a place to hang your hat for a bit, hunker down with some good grub and drinks with friends, look no further than Westside Sports Bar & Lounge.”...

For someone who doesn't want politically motivated vandalism, I would suggest not putting up framed pictures of Authoritarian Jr on your wall. Far be it from me to tell you what to hang or not hang from your walls, but not all of your customers share your love/obsession with the little guy. I know I would feel differently had he not purged our school libraries of decent books, or not allowed the soccer mom cult hate group members to infiltrate our school boards, or tried to sexualize perfomers at hamburger joints just so he could legislate them out of existence, and maybe had he not used our states government to punish his political enemies or pay favor to his buddies, maybe I might feel bad that your hard earned property got broken...but for now all I can say is that for every action is a reaction and unless you have proof this guy broke it, all we have is your word against his, and I need a bit more than that personally. All this excitement and it's not even election Year yet...I might just come back and try your wings...

The owners treat you like family. I recently moved mainland from beachside and the first time I walked in, I knew this was going to be my favorite place. The ventalation system is so good, I thought it was smoke free. TV's everywhere and sports tickets so I can watch any game at any time. The bartenders know their drinks. Happy hours, industry nights, amazing sound system and events every night. Definitely not a hole in the wall, this is...