A serious sports fan, I headed to TD Homer’s Sports Grill in Southington with a buddy to catch the UConn-Syracuse semifinal of the Big East Basketball Tournament.
Watching games between these conference rivals is tough on me, because I have been a big fan of both teams since the 1970s. Whenever they meet up, I’m inevitably disappointed, because one of them obviously has to lose. When I attended Syracuse at UConn earlier in the year, I just sat mute, unable to root for or against either team. So all I asked of this contest was that whoever won the semi-final game would go on to win the whole tournament.
Why a UConn fan? Well, that’s obvious. Why Syracuse? I went to college at nearby Cornell and adopted the Orange during the Louis-Bouie years. And why Michigan, who earlier in the day made me ecstatic when they picked up their twentieth win of the season by defeating Illinois in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament and icing an NCAA bid?
I was born in Ann Arbor and attended law school there.
I hadn’t been to TD Homer’s before, but I knew it was owned by the Hartford Restaurant Group that also has Agave Grill in Hartford and several Wood-n-Taps. As I headed inside, I noticed that there was plenty of outside seating, sure to be a boon when the weather improves.
Inside, we were greeted nicely by a cheerful hostess and Karen Montano, front of the house manager for the entire restaurant group.
TD Homer’s is clearly a big hit in Southington, and there were quite a few people waiting for tables.
TD Homer’s doesn’t take reservations, but they employ a call-ahead system similar to Outback Steakhouse, putting down one’s name for a particular time. When one arrives at the appointed time, one’s at the top of the list. Our wait, using this system, was only about five minutes.
The bar area was rollicking,
but we were seeking a table. As the not-so-proud owner of a bad neck, I was concerned when I first entered TD Homer’s and noticed that some of the big screens were too elevated and would require me to tilt my head upward.
But I needn’t have worried, because it turned out that every booth had its own wall-mounted HD television, complete with elaborate controls and a remote.
Not everyone was into the sports possibilities, and yet they were able to enjoy the food, drink and charged atmosphere.
Soon we were being attended to by our friendly waitress Amy,
who dropped off the box of popcorn you may have glimpsed,
an awfully nice way to get started. Beer was the next order of business, and here again, as with the individual TVs and popcorn machine, technology gave our dining experience a much appreciated boost. It turned out that many draft beers were available by the glass, the pitcher, or by the TD tower. Usually, beer deals are only for crappy beers, so how pleased were we to get this roughly seven-beer tower of Blue Moon for just $18! Maybe we wouldn’t finish it, we reasoned, but even four beers probably would have run us about the same amount.
Here’s a close-up of the handle of the beer tower,
here’s my buddy, Bob, operating this high-tech equipment,
and here’s what my pour looked like.
I had run across equipment like this in my 2010 trip to Asia, but this beer tower had the added benefit of a core of ice that kept our Blue Moon cold throughout the entire game.
Our beer needs fully met, we turned to food. Paul, a manager,
helped us with our desire to show readers the great variety of wings—some cooked with rubs, others with sauces—that TD Homer’s offers.
A cup of New England clam chowder also hit the spot.
I went for a Brattleboro burger with pickle and steak fries (the fries are bottomless),
while Bob opted for a huge plate of the chicken “riggies.”
We finished our meal by splitting an order of strawberry shortcake.
We not only enjoyed our food, but we sucked our beer right down, as evidenced by this empty beer tower.
UConn won the game in overtime,
and then fulfilled my request by winning the Big East Tournament title the next day. UConn won five conference tournament games in five days—a feat never before accomplished!
So this year, I’m thrilled to have all three of my teams to follow in the tournament, and I’m likely to turn up at TD Homer’s again. Remember, there’s a booth waiting for you!
TD Homer’s Sports Grill, 461 Queen Street, Southington, 860-329-0387
www.tdhomers.com