Bar 11 The Winking Lizard

Depending on what you are looking for, this week I went to a great bar or this week I went to an awful bar. It's like me and peanut butter. I can't stand peanut butter but I like Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. However, I don't like those Easter egg peanut butter cups because they are too peanut buttery. Bar #11, The Winking Lizard, is my peanut butter cup. The questions is, did it have enough chocolate to hide a bad experience?

The Winking Lizard is inside of a huge old BPOE Elks Club (as I learned from Stephen Udycz in the comments)  and it kept a lot of the original wood work. The entrance room gives you the option of heaidn upstairs to a private room, to the left is the dining room, downstairs is the bowling alley and straight ahead was the main bar area. The bar is a giant room full of old wood work and giant signs and tvs. There's plenty of seating and bar space. Johnny had already gotten a table, so I sat down and waited to put in an order.

Twenty minutes later, I gave up and went to the bar. The bar service was quick, helpful and polite. They have a large amount of beer on tap, I had an Arrogant Bastard. It's a nice complex beer full of alcohol and an awesome.They also have a giant variety of pop flavors, numbering over 100.

Food was real good too. I had five spicy bbq wings that weren't special but were very yummy and were actually a little hot. I also has these fried cheese wedges and really, what could be wrong with fried cheese wedges. By the time I got my food, one of the bartenders had switched my account away from the bar and back to our waiter. I let him know that I couldn't get service and I guess it was new kid. Luckily for me the manager was “helping” him now.

Closed bowling alleys are high on the creepy list.  They should do haunted bowling.

Service from then on ran every 40 minutes. This included time between ordering and getting beer and the time from when we wanted our check and were able to sign the receipt. Our waiter received $3 tip which was $1 for every word he said to me (he would only talk to John but did his job well when he did it). The last of the peanut butter is that a basket of cheese, 5 wings and 2 beers cost me $30.

Best Skee Ball in Lakewood

Now there are lots of fun stuff in the Winking Lizard, there's pool, skee ball, even bowling in the basement (it was closed that night). There is plenty of good food and beer everyone will like. The tvs are large and the sound system attached is excellent. I also love what they left of the building's original aesthetic. This is what many bars would like to be if budget allowed.  That being said, The Winking Lizard is a big chain bar that has the capabilities of dealing with poor service and it is implied in the cost. This is my second trip to a chain bar for this blog and both times the service as been poor and slow. Perhaps my standards are higher after visiting bars whose owners and employees are personally invested in their service and patrons. In the end I had a good time but when I got home I complained.

 I've been to the Winking Lizard before and I'll probably go back again. The Winking Lizard is the default bar of Lakewood.  It's the bar people go to when they need the majority of people to agree on it.  So go, have a good time and check off The Winking Lizard even if it is a peanut butter egg on occasion.

Awesome: Skee Ball, Games, TVs,  Food

14018 Detroit Avenue

216-226-6693

http://www.winkinglizard.com/

Also, I'll be Tweeting from the bars on my bar nights as well.   https://twitter.com/EveryBarLKWD