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Restaurants gear up for game time

Business was brisk Tuesday night at Brixx Ice Co., a sports bar in Dayton, Ohio, near the site of the first game of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. But general manager Christopher Bhai didn’t know whether the traffic lift could be attributed to the tournament’s opening-round game, the St. Patrick’s Day crowd or a broadcast of the World Baseball Classic, in which the United States came from behind to beat Puerto Rico.

“Apparently, it was pretty exciting,” Bhai said. “I didn’t get to see it; I was pretty busy.”

The increase in traffic and sales should continue at Brixx and other sports-focused restaurants throughout the country these next three weekends, as the NCAA tournament consumes the attention of sports fans and the people who love to serve them.

According to consulting firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas, about 58 million fans follow the men’s tournament every year.

Brixx will be ready for the fans of competing schools playing first- and second-round games at the University of Dayton with offers of $1.75 domestic draft beers, $10 buckets of beer, $3 appetizers and $5 sampler platters during games. It also will sell 12 different flavored lemonades at $7.50 each or $24 for a pitcher. The restaurant also expects to get big crowds during the University of Dayton Flyers’ first-round game against West Virginia University, which will take place Friday afternoon in Minneapolis.

Brixx will show every tournament game on its TV sets throughout the bar.

“We’re very, very busy during this time,” Bhai said, “and it always carries us all the way into April, for baseball season. We’re directly across from the stadium of the Dayton Dragons, which is a Class A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds.”

Other cities hosting tournament games are poised to cater to out-of-town fans and local sports nuts, and some even have the benefit of a local team playing its tournament games in town or nearby. The Ohio State Buckeyes and Louisville Cardinals start their journey to the Final Four in Dayton, for instance, and in Philadelphia, local university Villanova will play its first game and a second-round game if it advances at the Wachovia Center.

Philadelphia’s popular Chickie’s & Pete’s Crab House and Sports Bar will have a $35 all-you-can-eat buffet during tournament games on Thursday and Friday at its five locations. The deal will include the restaurant’s famous crab fries, wings, salad, Philly roast-beef and roast-pork sandwiches, pizza, and mussels, as well as domestic draft beers, house wine by the glass and soft drinks.

Nick and Jake’s Bar and Grill in Kansas City, Mo., also is in a favorable spot to cash in on March Madness. The city hosts first- and second-round games on Thursday and Saturday, and the restaurant will look to attract out-of-towners and fans of the local rival No. 3 seeds, the University of Kansas Jayhawks and the University of Missouri Tigers. Nick and Jake’s will market a lunchtime menu of seven entrees for $7, including an 8-ounce sirloin, a meatball grinder, or a crab cake slider with soup.

In South Florida, Bru’s Room Sports Grill will serve $2 domestic beers and $5 Skyy vodka doubles at its six locations. Although tournament games in Miami will host few teams from the Southeast, Bru’s is used to catering to fans from out-of-state colleges, as the restaurant is the official bar of the Ohio State Alumni Club of Broward County.

The Hyatt Regency Minneapolis will welcome the University of Kansas team and its fans, said director of sales and marketing Michael Kofsky, who added that the hotel’s restaurant, Spike’s Sports Bar & Grill, will be “overrun by Jayhawk fans.”

Spike’s will offer a $15 combo deal that includes an appetizer and a bucket of beer during games and has lowered the price of some items, such as nachos for $4, chips and salsa for $3, and an Angus cheeseburger meal for $8, down from its normal price of $11.50.

The Hyatt also will host pep rallies for fans Friday morning and Sunday morning, and Spike’s will air the broadcasts of the Lawrence, Kan., radio stations covering KU's tournament games. The hotel’s occupancy rate for the weekend is in the high-80-percent range, Kofsky said.

Contact Mark Brandau at [email protected].

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