The Sporting Club
I'm not sure any city on the planet loves sports and food as much as Boston, and those two things come together like Tom Brady and Gronk at The Sporting Club in the Seaport of Boston.
When you walk in, they do an amazing job simulating the experience of walking in to a sports stadium. But what I really love about this place is with the high TVs on the curved wall, whether you sit at the bar or at a table, you have a great view of the game.
Yousef Ghalaini, wears the big C because he's the captain of culinary at the entire Omni Hotel, including The Sporting Club.
“What sets us apart is the different experiences inside The Sporting Club in terms of the rooms and different little spaces. But you know, the most important thing is the food we have, the best food here for a sporting bar in the city.
“Our food is always very heavy on flavor and incredibly craveable. And when you're sitting in a sports bar environment and you're cheering for your team, and you're really excited to be there with your friends. We want something that lives up to that hype, and our food 100% does”
“You can come here to watch the game and have a great meal.”
As legendary ring announcer Michael Buffer would say, Phantom Gourmet fans, let's get ready to eat!
Chicken wings are the official food of all football fans. They make some great ones here. They're actually cooked three times, served with the whole wing. That's unusual, but I happen to love it…
They add some Jamaican jerk spice, some orange blossom honey, and serve it with a side of buttermilk ranch.
My favorite sport is boxing, and when I'm watching one of the great Mexican fighters I got to get the Queso Fundido. They make an all star version of it here…. But what really makes this dish is the fresh tortillas.
“So the Queso Fundido is one of our most popular appetizers, but the star of the Queso fundido is the local tortillas that we get. So the tortillas come from a farm in Hadley…in Western Mass, grown nixtimalized, made. We fry them here.
The first thing you're going to see when you take a bite of the Queso fundido is the amazing cheese pull. And then you're getting into the smoky, deep Mexican chilies and the savory flavors from the chorizo and the ground beef and the potato. And for me, it's an ultimate combination of crunchy and salty and savory. It's great.”
The Exotic Mushroom Mac and Cheese is well named. It features a Tasso ham that's a smoky, garlicky type of pork, Cajun style, which I absolutely love. They use fresh, seasonal mushrooms, and they make the pasta in house. It is deliberately shaped so that delicious sauce clings to the exterior of that pasta and gets inside the pasta. This is definitely not the mac and cheese that my mom used to make me after basketball practice.
“We always have a mac and cheese in house, because we make pasta in house. So we have a great pasta production facility… and because of that, we always have access to excellent pasta. We use, usually, whatever kind of mushrooms are in season. And the fun ingredient there is Tasso ham, which really gives it that smokiness and it gives it that little protein kick that goes well with the sauce.”
When I'm watching baseball, I'm craving a hot dog, and I gotta say, the dog here buries your regular Fenway Frank. This is an all beef wagyu hot dog served on a toasted brioche bun with aioli, Pico de Gallo and jalapenos. This is a Hall of Fame hot dog.
If you're going to hang around post game, get the fudge brownie sundae. That delicious brownie. Nutella, ice cream, bananas, drunken cherries, pineapple, whipped cream. But what I really love about this is the Cracker Jacks, in a nod to the great song, Take Me Out to the Ball Game. So this is sweet, crunchy and nostalgic, a hat trick.
“Our fudge brownie Sundae is the over the top dessert that you need to get when you're in an over the top place like this, so....”
“super dark chocolate, you are getting caramel, you are getting cherry flavors, and you're getting some really fun texture all throughout.”
Sports, drinks, and great food, that's what we do at the Sporting Club.
