Xtreme Wings Sports Grill Is Not Quite A Packers Bar

No one ever told me Xtreme Wings was actually going to a bar for Packers fans. I was just kind of hoping it might be, since the bar is fairly close to home and not at all located in the St. Johns Frown Center. It worked for one game, actually, even if it’s not quite a Packer Bar.



On a week when the Pack played Buffalo at the same time as the Jags were playing, I had my choice of two TVs with the Packers on, including the second largest TV in the bar, located at the main bar. This makes sense for Packer fans, and it seemed maybe 5 of 10 people at the bar were rooting (at least partially) for the Pack.

There was also a NASCAR race on the TV next to the Packers. I believe it was on because sports, but the Brewers/Cubs trying to win the Division or even golf would have been a more realistic representation of athletics. Maybe driving in circles is a big deal here, but this was the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, so the drivers were also weaving, which meant more crashing than usual. Still not compelling television.

Back to the Packers. None of the wait staff wore anything but Jags t-shirts. And short shorts, which was cool with me. The drunk-by-Wisconsin-standards guy next to me seemed to know the girls by name, even if these girls were all a good decade his junior. Mostly, I was disappointed because I asked for a darker beer, and my options seemed to include an Intuition IPA and Yuengling. I suppose they are technically darker than Michelob Ultra or Coors Light, but we're not talking craft or even tasty beer here.

My favorite part of the day was when my Super Drunk Packer neighbor tried to ask one of the lookiest waitresses out on a date, fully outkicking his coverage by a good twenty yards. I thought her objections were just standard bar maid refusals, at least until she laid out her schedule for him, as if to actually pick a date to go go-karting with him. It's possible she did not think he'd remember or was hoping it would mean a big tip. Or he's wealthy. Or she got to know him before he was drunk enough to fall off his barstool. So I guess that situation was kind of xtreme.

All the cheering and fun was in the other half of the bar and for the Jags’ game. But there was plenty of slurred speech on my side of the room, and that's a clear sign these guys bleed green and gold. And a percentage of alcohol. Some minuses against Xtreme Wings include the limited beer selection, broken beer cooler when I was there, and some talk of a bar fight from a previous week. Had there been no Packer fans here, I would have ruled it out as an option because of a past fight. I just don't know how many Florida bar patrons stand their ground in bars.

On the plus side, I'd say the bar was employing as many waitresses as customers at the food tables. A lot of them hung out at the bar and looked at me while waiting for something to do, and they’d probably be fun to talk to if I was some guy’s wingman. When the Cincinnati bonus coverage came on, one guy wearing an Andy Dalton jersey at the bar was happy, but this was also no Bengals Bar. (They should play “Walk Like an Egyptian” all the time at actual Bengals Bars.)

When one of the cooks came out to check on the NASCAR race, I understood why it was on, but I'd just stick a TV in the kitchen instead of making football fans watch racing, unless that’s like a beer chaser around here. My wife wanted to know if it’s a place I could take the kids to watch a game, but I’m not too sure. There’s really not all that much for kids to do besides pig out on wings, but that’s pretty standard in bars, I guess. I’m probably really looking for a beer garden with an adjacent park and playset that has TVs tuned to the Packers game, but that’s only something that exists in Milwaukee, and if I was there, it would be on local TV.