Where to Eat and Drink on Super Bowl Sunday in Park Slope

If Fredrick Exley’s fictionalized memoir, “A Fan’s Notes,” took place in Brooklyn during Super Bowl XLVI, the Giants-obsessed Exley may have picked one of Park Slope’s many gastro-pubs, regular old watering holes or take-out joints to nurse his beers, watch the game and fill his gullet.

Sadly, the days of Exley are over, and his obsession Frank Gifford is no longer a Giant, but to cheer on today’s Giants team.

As the New York Giants prepare for the big game against the New England Patriots this Sunday, Feb. 5, Park Slope restaurants and bars are also gearing up for a big day of local eating and drinking.

Last week, Park Slope Patch found that local shops bet big bucks on G-men merchandise and won, as they before and after the Giants beat the 49ers in the NFC Conference Championship. 

Now, just a couple days away from Super Bowl Sunday, local restaurateurs and bar owners said that they’re betting on a sharp increase in business come game day.

, a high-end Italian deli on Seventh Avenue , has experienced a spike in their delivery business with each Giants game this season. But, during the last game when the Giants won their ticket to the Super Bowl, that spike became an unprecedented boom.

“The Super Bowl has come at the perfect time. We started delivery six weeks ago and we have seen our numbers growing coinciding with each game,” said Marcello Bucca, the co-owner of Zito’s. “During the game [Sunday, Jan. 22] the phone was ringing off the hook, it was insane. It was literally the best day to date. The Super Bowl will only be better.”

Bucca said that when Zito’s first started their delivery service they were only getting five to ten orders a day, but the last game brought 60 deliveries. Bucca said that business has become so crazy that he has added a shift for one of his employees just to answer the phone.

For the Big Game they have put together a special catering menu, with sandwich platters, vegetables, salads, tortellini, rice balls and desserts that serves up to 15 people for $125 and one for 50 people for $475.

Zito’s is also selling their 64-ounce growlers of beer for $13 (usually $18) and are making huge party heroes for $25 per foot. They come in three feet ($75), four feet ($100), five feet ($125) and six feet ($150) heroes with six different options, ranging from the Meatball Parm to the Meatless.

Although Zito’s take-out is delicious, it is not the only place that is getting ready to fortify fans for the rematch between the Giants and the Patriots.

, on Ninth Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues, is having its own version of the Super Bowl battle between New York and New England. But instead of taking place on the gridiron, it’s taking place on their patrons’ palates. 

The gastro-pub’s owners, Wade Hagenbart and Clay Mallow, created a menu where staples from the Giants’ and the Patriots’ home turf go head-to-head. On Sunday, The Dram Shop will have Manhattan Clam Chowder vs. New England Clam Chowder and the New York Strip Steak Sandwich vs. the Maine Lobster Roll.

The game will be playing on their five TVs and a projector screen and the bar will have specials on Sam Adams beer and will serve hot apple cider with rum.

Right at kick-off, on Fifth Avenue and the corner of Second Street, , will be doing a free buffet with free shots at half time. The buffet will include pulled pork, mac and cheese, sausage and peppers and other items.

If you want to keep it low key and enjoy something that has never been on their menu before, head over to on Seventh Avenue at 15th Street, and order their Buffalo wings with homemade blue cheese dressing.

“If I have to work during the Super Bowl, I am going to eat Buffalo wings,” said John Bush, the co-owner. An order of 10 traditional-style wings will cost $12.

Bush is not sure how the Super Bowl will affect his business—or Park Slope in general—but either way, it can’t be bad.

“Best case scenario is that the wives will kick all the husbands out of the house and they’ll cram in our corner bar,” he said.

However, during the NFC Conference game, Bush had to turn off the music and up the volume on the TV per the patrons’ request for the first time ever. 

“It was record breaking,” Bush said, whose bar/restaurant has one TV.

But if you’re looking for the sports bar of all sports bars, well, Park Slope has two.

, on Flatbush at Seventh Avenue, is an underground labyrinth of TVs and beers, with room enough for 300 people. It has six projection TVs and 24 flat screens that are situated so everyone will have a good view of the game.

It’s also a place to gobble down cheap eats. Everything is under $10, from fries and Buffalo wings, to Kobe beef sliders, burgers and veggie burgers.

The bar touts 24 draft beers, from craft brews to Bud, and has an array of bottles. Pitchers start at $9 and the 100-ounce beer tower starts at $25.

The other sports bar of all sports bars is . With 70 TVs, no one will need to crane their neck to see the All-American action at this Fifth Avenue spot, between Union Street and Berkeley Place.

For eats, the bar will feature a game day plate, fit for three to four people, with hotdogs, wings, fries, ribs, fish and sliders (price is not yet decided). They also have 100-ounce beer towers, what they call “Super Tubes,” for $25.

200 Fifth, which has been in Park Slope for 25 years, has 40 beers on tap alone and has a large menu of delicious food from braised short ribs, dry-aged T-bone steak, cornmeal crusted catfish, Trout Du Jour, St. Louis ribs and all the typical bar bites.

But wherever Slopers go, Bucca said, who has started a Super Bowl box on Zito's wall where the winner will take home $1,000, he knows the Giants will win and storeowners will come out on top.

“In the past three games the Giants only gave up 34 points,” Bucca explained while pouring a Six Point draft. “And we are going to win with our catering menu. Growing up in Bensonhurst every party had a six-foot hero and hopefully every apartment in Park Slope will have one also. The Super Bowl is going to be a win-win for the Giants and for our business.”