MINNEAPOLIS — By Sunday, the Super Bowl’s massive security and VIP perimeter will have devoured most of the land around U.S. Bank Stadium, making tailgating as Eagles fans know it essentially impossible — and possibly illegal.
And yet … Beer needs to be drunk. Wings need to be eaten.
>>READ MORE: Super Bowl crowd to test Minneapolis’ booming craft beer scene
No problem. We made some calls and found a cheap solution.
Our advice: Grab a red vinyl stool at Liquor Lyle’s, the uptown dive bar that isn’t a whole lot different than when it opened in 1963.
William Bender
We have been assured by Lyle’s management that this is an Eagles-fan-friendly environment smack in the middle of Vikings country.
Furthermore, you will discover that between 10 a.m. and midnight Sunday, when you order one drink, two drinks will appear. It’s some sort of year-round local phenomenon known as the 2-4-1.
“Basically, you order something,” Lyle’s general manager Jeremiah Orvold patiently explained to a skeptical reporter for the third time, “and you get two of them.”
There will be no downtown price-gouging here. (Ahem, Ike’s Food & Cocktails, with your $36 Super Bowl guacamole that was allegedly just a “misprint.”)
Lyle’s, featuring 40 beers on tap, all-day breakfast, and pepper jack cheese curds, is “just an old-school dive bar,” Orvold said. “Come in and have a good time.”
Now, Lyle’s is not an Eagles bar in Vikings territory per se — nothing like that weird Chiefs bar in the heart of South Philly — but more of a melting pot of NFL fans. Perhaps the closest place to neutral ground for pre-gaming Philadelphians. It can also hold about 270 people.
“That’s our bar,” Orvold said. “We get a little bit of anybody.”
The 2-4-1 special applies to most of the drinks, with a very small number of exceptions for fancy stuff you probably shouldn’t be drinking before a football game anyway.
If you need the equivalent of Philadelphia’s Citywide Special to jump-start your Sunday — or Friday or Saturday, for that matter — Lyle’s has a few shot-and-beer combos of its own, including the Bud Light and Powers’ Irish Whiskey deal known as the “Beer and a Bump.” (No illicit substances involved, to the best of our knowledge.)
William Bender
“Best part about Liquor Lyle’s is that it’s a dive bar that’s accessible to everyone,” said Michael Rand, digital sports senior writer at the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “And while it’s not a branded sports bar, they take sports seriously enough that it’s an amazing environment for a big game.”
If you’re looking for a downtown spot within walking distance of the stadium, try Crooked Pint Ale House about three blocks away. They’ve held Vikings tailgates in their parking lot for past games, but won’t be doing that for the Super Bowl, because the NFL is putting up a huge tent there.
So, just forget the outdoor tailgating altogether.
Probably for the best, said Tom Corless, a veteran Vikings tailgater whose crew usually set up before 7 a.m. for noon home games at U.S Bank Stadium. Sunday’s forecast calls for a high temperature of 9 degrees and a low of zero, which creates all kinds of logistical problems — mostly for the beer.
When it gets that cold, Corless said, “we call our cooler the warmer.”
“It doesn’t keep the beer from freezing, but it slows it down,” he said. “You learn you can’t bring bottles, because in the neck of the bottle, the beer will freeze before the bottom, and it basically creates a big ice plug. That’s kind of a no-no.”
The other option? “Turn your beer into a boilermaker,” he said. Drop a shot of whiskey in there. Got to lower the freezing point somehow.
Corless said he doubts that most Eagles fans really would have wanted to experience a Minnesota tailgate. He recalled the 2008 wild card game, when an RV came rolling into the parking lot outside the old Metrodome and did the E-A-G-L-E-S chant on a loudspeaker. Then, they realized how cold it was.
“About 10 guys jumped out of the rig. They said ‘eff this’ and jumped right back in. We got a chuckle out of that,” Corless said.
Later, the two groups got together and Corless’ group taught them the tricks of the trade.
“We’re pretty proud of our hardiness,” he said. “We make fun of people from Green Bay because it’s so warm there.”
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