On Game Day, Watch From the Sideline

T he buzz: Former Washington Redskins hero LaVar Arrington has returned to Prince George's County, but he has traded FedEx Field for a giant sports bar and restaurant (with a burgundy and gold color scheme, of course) called the Sideline. The sports bar -- and so much more -- is the perfect destination for watching March Madness.

The space: The building is loaded with TVs, including eight large flat-screens around the bar and an enormous scoreboard-style monitor mounted high in one corner, almost reaching the 30-foot ceiling. Running along another wall, an extended ticker shows the latest scores and headlines from various leagues and tournaments.

The focal point of the lounge is a giant hollow football, which looms like a cathedral dome over most of the bar area. The TVs are well-spaced for watching games.

Some of the NFL's greatest running backs, including Tony Dorsett, Franco Harris and Eric Dickerson, are honored with a display of autographed jerseys. Photographs, manipulated to look like paintings, are overhead. They include one of Arrington playing for Penn State, where he was a standout linebacker. The art includes other sports as well, such as Muhammad Ali standing over Sonny Liston and a Capitals goalie blocking a shot.

But classifying the Sideline as just a sports bar is misleading.

The lounge and bar cover only a fraction of the building's 7,500 square feet. Most of the floor is given over to rows of red booths, which can hold as many as six people, and dining tables. Even in the wee hours of the weekends, there are as many groups occupying booths as there are huddled around the bar.

VIPs relax in a row of high-backed booths, set off from the dining room by velvet ropes and separated from one another by gauzy gold curtains. Naturally, the section is raised so that everyone can see who's sitting there. (All of this can be yours for a minimum of $1,000 on weekends -- plus a 20 percent gratuity.)

A cheaper -- and more entertaining -- velvet-rope option is to reserve a table with a built-in Xbox screen, which only costs $30 an hour, not including food and drinks.

The VVIPs, meanwhile, can be found on a private mezzanine balcony that overlooks all of the action.

The scene: Arrington bills the Sideline as the county's "first upscale sports bar." After work, it's full of well-dressed professionals who pack the tables and bar to take advantage of cut-price drinks amid the networking and socializing. Most folks in the lively crowd seem to pay little attention to the televisions.