Champs Family Grill

Champs Family Grill opened up on Combee Road in 2006, the name may seem familiar to you since it's an offshoot of Champs Sports Bar and Grill way out on S. Florida Avenue. I've been familiar with this place for a long time. I used to meet my dad there for lunch way back in high school when they were located in the same plaza as Lou's Tattoos. In 1997 the current owners Beth and Cary Liptak bought the joint and have been kicking ass every since. I chose the the Combee location for two reasons: it's very near to my home on the north side; and I know for a fact that most of the time owner Cary is in the kitchen at this location.

Brian and I stopped by for a quick snack on Valentine's Day to fuel my thrift store shopping spree and we were very impressed. We planned on just having some wings and a few beers but upon being greeted at the door by a white board offering a dozen fresh raw oysters for $6.95 my plans changed. That dish will cost you $10+ at Hooter's nowadays, don't even get me started on that place. They were also offering a burger and fries or 6 wings and fries for $5. Their beer is also extremely cheap, $1.25 for 12oz or $2.50 for 24oz and that's not even happy hour pricing.

For a sports bar this place has a great menu offering things you would and wouldn't expect. I'm used to ordering off of their old menu where items were named for famous sports coaches so I took the time to look over this new "cheese-free" menu. (I can't really say anything I ran a restaurant where everything was named after super heroes so......) Appetizers include everything from seared ahi tuna to fried green tomatoes. There is a huge selection of sandwiches and entrees so you can take your pick, it's all delicious. You can see their full menu at champstogo.com.

We ordered the oysters, the wings and fries special and the buffalo sandwich. We got a table full of delicious food. The oysters were shucked of course but they had also been cleaned properly, no sandy bivalves in this place (ehhmmmhooters) and they were served on ice with good spicy horseradish, cocktail, lots of lemon and saltine crackers. The wings were huge, saucy and delicious as was the buffalo sandwich. Everything was very, very good and our beer was ice cold. The service was also great.

My only "complaint" if you could call it that, about this location is that it's really big, I venture that they could do the same business in as little as half the space. I've also never been there in the middle of lunch rush though. There's a selection of video games to keep big and little kids occupied when you come in, hell this location even sells lotto. I highly recommend you take a trip to the east side of town to enjoy a cold beer and a bite to eat from this place, they beat the socks off of any other wing place in town for a fraction of the price.

Champs Family Grill

1950 S. Combee Road

Lakeland, Florida 33801

http://www.champstogo.com/