by C.C. Long
The fall is the sports lover’s Mecca with professional and college football starting, professional baseball winding down, the US Open Tennis tournament ending, Professional Golf finishes off the Fed Ex Cup playoffs, Professional and College basketball starts and UEFA Soccer champions league is underway. It’s a sporting smorgasbord and although there are a myriad of good sports bars on the Upper East Side some are too loud, some are too crowded and some just don’t get it.
The Bullpen on First Avenue between 88th and 87th Street gets it big time. Owned by two Staten Island associates Chef Mathew Miluk and Erik Ness with over a decade of restaurant and bar experience has perfected it. With eight flat screen televisions, one very large, and a back outdoor patio that is a perfect place to watch the game with a group or party with friends or just have a lonely cigarette instead of feeling like a leper out on the street. It is a friendly local that offers an intimate but robust atmosphere that most sports bars don’t give you, so you don’t find yourself a thousand miles away from the game you want to watch no matter where you are in the bar.
Having a Chef as a part owner assures you that food isn’t your run of the mill menu. When they moved into the space they renovated the basement digging down to leave clearance of the kitchen and bring it to code. This proves the dedication of the ownership to quality. All the food has a gastronomic twist and runs the gamut of bistro sports fare, wings, hamburgers to more sophisticated platters and of course all the appetizers you desire as you cheer on your favorite teams. Although the bullpen is a place where a pitcher warms up, The Bullpen sports bar doesn’t just warm you up it will get you hot with happy hours, specials and more specials. Every night there’s a star; Mondays, are dollar slider nights and three dollar pints of Bud Light; Tuesdays, the twenty dollar special gets you two burgers and pitcher of Bud Light; Wednesday the tide rolls in with bottomless mussels and Bud and Bud Light buckets; Thursday is Trivia Night with prizes and ten dollar Bud Light Pitchers; Fridays bring on a two hour happy hour with an open bar and all you can drink for a one time twenty dollar membership and fifteen dollars at the door; Saturdays it’s ten dollars Bud Light pitchers and three dollar red headed sluts (that’s a drink). It’s a week of fun, friends and sports and the Bullpen with a staff that’s experienced and personable knows how to treat you right.