Super Bowl Parties By Fritz Hahn washingtonpost.com Staff Writer Thursday, January 31, 2002

Where will you watch Kurt Warner and the Rams on Sunday? (Michael Conroy/AP Photo)

Another year, another Super Bowl without the Redskins. But that's no reason to stay home and mope -- not when there are so many sports bars in the area, many of which are throwing parties for the last competitive football game of the season. The types of events around town can be divided into three categories: bars with cover charges, bars with drink specials and bars that think it's just another Sunday.

First, here are the no-shows: ESPN Zone is closed for a private event, as is Strike Bethesda, although the latter had been making noises about hosting a Super Bowl bowling party.

Of all the bars with cover charges, Club Daedalus has the best deal. The $10 cover (with a printed flyer) includes free Tanqueray cocktails, a buffet, drink specials and pre-kickoff Madden 2002 and spades tournaments. Dr. Dremo's isn't a football kind of place, but it has one of the best deals running: They're showing the game on a 9-by-12-foot projection screen, and offering a free halftime buffet, a free hour of pool, and your first beer is on the house. Admission is $10. Lulu's also has a promising event. For $20, you get an open bar, multiple TVs, specials on wings, DJs after the game and more. There's nothing like that at Mister Days, where you have to pay between $10 and $20 in advance for your seating reservations; the price is based on the location of your seat relative to the big screens. There will be food and drink specials, but no freebees. That also goes for Lewie's, where the D.C. Society of Young Professionals is throwing a party in front of a big-screen TV. The $12 cover ($10 in advance) gets you access to food and drink specials, as well as door prizes.

If you just want drink specials without a cover charge, several bars have big-screen TVs and a variety of bargains. Grevey's has more than 40 TVs and food and drink specials that start before the game; at halftime, the sports bar is giving away prizes. Stetson's has one 92-inch screen (and four smaller TV sets) and is offering every drink in the house for $3.75 all day, whether you're drinking Miller High Life, Guinness or a gin and tonic. The Rock will have food and drink specials all day, but expects crowds from the Wizards-Pacers game, which has a noon tipoff. "If you want to sit, get here around 3," we were told. The Crystal City Sports Pub has specials -- drinks, hot dogs, prime rib -- but you have to put down a $25 deposit per person to reserve a spot at a table. Not a cover charge, the $25 will be deducted from your tab at the end of the night.

Some sports bars, like the Grand Slam, Willie and Reed's, Champps and the Park Bench Pub, aren't doing anything special for the Super Bowl. "We'll be showing the game on the big screen, but that's it," said the hostess at Champps Pentagon Row. The Park Bench, though, suggests you arrive early. It tends to attract a large crowd for University of Maryland sports, and there's a basketball game at 4 p.m. Managers expect most people to show up around 3:30 and stay to watch both games on the 20 or so televisions.

Finally, if football inspires thoughts of love, Learning Escapes is sponsoring a singles-only party at the Hard Rock Cafe. The $25 ticket includes an all-you-can-eat buffet, lots of televisions and introductions to other available singles. Women who like football together in the same room -- guys, are you listening?