Local sports bars offer a taste of home for fans far and wide | Canada Voices

When you walk into Pazzer’s Saskatchewan Pub, you can feel the pride. The decor is the same green as the CFL’s Roughriders, and the food names are an homage to provincial locales: Regina Ribs, Rosetown Reuben, Weyburn Wings. Except this sports bar is located in Calgary.

For more than two decades, Saskatchewan transplants have been using Pazzer’s, located in Calgary’s Montgomery neighbourhood, to combat their homesickness. But you don’t have to be from Saskatchewan to appreciate the pub’s vibe.

Chelsea Clark, a born and raised Calgarian, has been coming to Pazzer’s almost weekly for years with her Saskatchewanian boyfriend. She compares it to another famous watering hole.

“Everybody’s really friendly. When someone leaves, it’s like an episode of Cheers. They’ll be like, ‘Bye, everybody,’ and everybody in the pub turns towards the door and yells, ‘Bye’.”

Across Canada, sports bars are like a clubhouse for fan communities. While there are plenty of chain locations, others offer a distinct local feel – even if they’re dedicated to a rival team in the home of another. Clark stays true to her roots and is a Stampeders fan but is in the minority at Pazzer’s.

“On game day, it’s just packed in there and decorated with Roughriders stuff, and they’ve given us free shots when the Roughriders score a touchdown. But it’s a friendly rivalry,” says Clark.

Having a cozy, hospitable atmosphere for fans to gather, whether to cheer for or against teams, is the key to the experience, says Stephen Yan, Pazzer’s marketing manager.

“We always like to say that Pazzer’s is more than just a bar. It’s a vibrant gathering place where the spirit of Saskatchewan thrives in the heart of Calgary,” he says. “While we do have a loyal following of those with Saskatchewan roots, we are open to anyone seeking the taste of Saskatchewan with a warm and welcoming community that comes along with it.”

Other sports bars have evolved from another identity to find their niche as a fan hub. In Richmond, B.C., Legends Pub started its life as a nightclub back in the 1990s.

Glenn Jensen and his business partner, Neil Beaumont, called it Woody’s, and for a few years people would party until the wee hours on its dance floor. In 1994, the pair applied for a rezoning permit as a pub, changed the name to Legends and opened just months before the Vancouver Canucks made a Stanley Cup run.

“Every game was so exciting. A lot of them went into seven games, overtime, it was craziness,” recalls Jensen. “We had a Safeway across the street, and people would go buy chairs there and sit outside looking through our window because we were so full.”

The pub has changed locations a few times, and is now in a space with three times the seating of its original venue and 30 TVs on the walls. “There’s always a game on,” Jensen says.

On the other side of the country, sports fans in Sydney, Nova Scotia, have the Steel City Sports Bar & Steakhouse as a touchstone. Barkley Haddad’s parents ran it before he took over more than 40 years ago, after returning home following his time as a semi-pro hockey player in Ontario.

Back in the 1950s, the place was more of a quintessential diner, with a jukebox and burgers. “Like something out of the show Happy Days,” says Haddad.

After the CRTC began allowing U.S. satellite signals into Canada, Haddad bought the place from his parents and turned it into a sports pub. “I love coming to work and making sure we’ve got sports on all of our TVs.”

He has made a point to make his pub a place not just for fans but for players as well.

“Anything that has to do with sports we support, especially hockey. The junior players [and] their families, this is where they come to eat when they’re in Sydney. I go above and beyond because I was on the road a lot of the years playing hockey, and I know what it’s like to get a good meal.”