Home Plate Bay Street Grill
Cold beer and comfort food.
“You get a cold beer and some American chops. So you're all good.”
A burger as big as big as a tight end.
“I think Gronk is about 6’7. I’m not sure if that’s a 6”7 burger.”
Mouthwatering meatballs.
“We're a sports bar, right? But everybody loves meatballs”
Forget everything you know about sports bars, because you're bound to clean your plate when you're at Home Plate.
Located in this spot on Bay Street in Taunton, Home Plate isn’t your average run of the mill sports bar. And chef, Rick Lowe isn’t your typical owner. Because here, he’s created two restaurants, Home Plate Sports Bar and Bay Street Grill- and put them side by side serving the same quality food.
"Just because they're coming into a sports bar, they still want to have great food, right? We want to create a menu that's fun and inviting, but we want to kind of bring that up with just the quality products. We believe that great product that come in the back door equals a great dish to the guest and we put a lot of heart and soul into it.”
The atmosphere differs depending upon which direction you go after heading to the host stand.
“To the left, we have Bay Street Grill. You can sit in the sunroom, and enjoy and just relax and have a great meal. When you walk in to go to the right you come into Home Plate Sports Bar. It's a place that people can come in for a myriad of reasons to have fun with their friends to watch a game. You can sit up in the green monster and you don't have to spend $100 to go sit there. You can come in and have a cold drink if you want or some great food.”
Every meal at Home Plate begins with a basket of warm focaccia- made at Rick’s Wilmington Bakery, Josie’s. From there, you’ll find amped up takes on sports bar classics- like the Mozambique Wings.
“There's a huge population of Portuguese in the Taunton area, and they love their Mozambique sauce. But you gotta make a good Mozambique sauce. Otherwise they're going to tell you about it, I promise. It’s got a big kick to it. It has white wine, beer, buffalo sauce, vegetables, olive, linguica..It's wonderful once you put it on wings, I think it's the ultimate wings.”
And for a grilled version of wings- order the so-called Hammerheads.
“They're brined and then we grill. They're dark, they're charred, they're delicious. And when you try and it's something that you're not going to find anywhere else.”
And for an Italian way to kick off your meal, try Nonna’s Meatballs. They’re nostalgically delicious, and truly mind blowing.
“We handroll the meatballs. They're great to come with a house made pomodoro sauce that we have. When you bite into them, not as meatballs, it's really magic. You don't really win the lottery per se, but you're gonna feel like you did with every bite.”
Whether you have it yourself or share it with the table, you’ve got to try the Johnny Cash Bar pie- a pizza that even the Man in Black would be proud of.
”It’s got a lot of Johnny Cash kind of stuff on it right? We have grilled steak, bacon, BBQ, burrata caramelized onion. A little salad on top. I'm not sure if Johnny Cash had salad he probably should have but it is probably one of our most popular pies.” (top of byte may not work because of ice- but he raised his volume so pick it up at ‘I’m not sure if.”
Since we’re in a sports bar, burgers are a staple- but at Home Plate, they take theirs over the top and name them after some hometown heroes.
“Pedroia the Destroya- is named after Dustin Pedroia. And that the burger is similar to Dustin Pedroia. It's simple. It's great. And it works hard. Has a crispy bacon. We have onion rings, cheese, barbecue sauce, lettuce, tomato, onion, all the great things that you want on a burger.”
For a burger you’ll to have to unhinge your jaw for, order the Gronk Monster. Stacked with bacon, onion rings, cheese and lots of lobster salad, this burger can definitely satisfying a Gronkowski-sized appetite.
“It's about this big. It looks great on a plate. And it has turned out to be our most popular burger.”
But if you're more of a traditionalist when it comes to lobster, Home Plates Lobster Roll is not only tasty, it’s affordable.
“Lobster roll is indigenous to New England is something that everybody loves to look forward to during the summertime. But a lot of times we have to go take a loan up for the bank to have a lobster roll and by the amount we sell. I think our price is pretty good.”
Entrees at Home Plate run the gamut from comfort food classics like American Chop Suey…
To plate tipping portions of Chicken Parm.
“We use a panko mix. So when you put the sauce over it doesn't get soft and mushy but still has that nice crunch to it. It's just a just a great chicken parm.”
There are tender Bourbon Marinated Steak Tips served with mashed potatoes and green beans.
And the “Cowboy” Ribeye- which gives you a lot of beef, for not a lot of money.
“Remember the old Red Sox would cowboy up, that was their saying when you have this ribeye, you've got a cowboy up, right? Because it's a big ribeye. You're not breaking the bank and you're certainly going to be full and you're gonna be happy once you have it.”
And if there’s room- you may want to also “cowboy up” to Home Plate’s Skillet Brownie Sundae.
“The brown is nice and hot and put the ice cream on top starts melting down. It's just an amazing dessert.”
And what truly makes this sports bar so unique is their dedication to making sure every customer is happy, whether their team is winning or not, which is why you should slide into The Home Plate.
