My spouse and I visited the newest West Hamilton Street
location of Big Woody’s Sports Bar for an early dinner on a Sunday afternoon in
mid-April 2017. A local family whose
patriarch was a defensive tackle for the Philadelphia Eagles in the 1960s owns
the Big Woody’s chain; three of his
sons now operate the restaurants. The Lehigh Valley hosts several
additional locations of Big Woody’s: Allentown (the original Hanover Avenue
location), Allentown (South Fourth Street), Easton (Sullivan Trail in Forks
Township), Bethlehem (Easton Avenue), and Emmaus/Upper Milford Township (on
Chestnut Street in the former Pickles building). You can park in a dedicated
lot that is shared with strip mall neighbor Dunkin’ Donuts and a free-standing
bank. Big Woody’s is located in a newly constructed building towards the rear
of the parking lot, and the bank partially obscures your view if you approach
from the east. Big Woody’s is open daily (including holidays, 365 days a year)
for lunch, dinner, drinks, and late night.
The Big Woody’s West Hamilton Street location is situated
between 19th and 20th Streets (across the street from the
Hamilton Family Restaurant but on the same side as neighbor Phoebe Florist).
The huge cavernous space offers high ceilings, black-and-white checkered tile
floors, maroon booths (some of which offer small personal TVs), and an enormous
rectangular bar with seating on all sides (which probably seats 50+ people!).
The restaurant offers so many TVs (70+) that you will never miss your favorite
sporting event! A large covered outdoor patio offers al fresco dining
overlooking Union Terrace Park. The bar/restaurant also operates a separate but
connected storefront where you can pick up takeout food and beer to go.
Big Woody’s offers American pub food, including strombolis, pizza, cheesesteaks, burgers, wings, quesadillas, fries,
wraps, and salads, We shared the garlic knots as an appetizer (which
pleasantly were not dripping with oil and garlic, like at some other
restaurants), followed by two strombolis (cheesesteak and classic [ham,
pepperoni, sausage, salami, and veggies]). The strombolis were large; we could
have easily shared one, but instead, we each took half home to enjoy for lunch
the following day. Because the strombolis and the garlic knots were tasty, we
think that the pizzas would be too, because they are all made from the same
dough. The bar offers an extensive list of beers on draft and by the bottle, in
addition to wine and cocktails. Our server was friendly, but because the
restaurant had just opened days before our visit, she was not knowledgeable
about the menu options when we asked questions.
Big Woody’s offers a place to enjoy a casual meal and/or a
drink while you watch your favorite sports.
