To the pleasure of all hockey and of course the local “Dinamo Riga” fans, the first and only so far official KHL Sports Bar was opened in Riga. Originally, a platform for informal events held during the KHL All Stars games in Riga held over 21 and 22 of January 2012, it was a place for reception of over 600 guests coming from all over the world.
The new KHL Sports bar in Riga has a big wall of honour of the KHL league, all official KHL jerseys, of course with Dinamo Riga, as well bar areas stylized as locker room, coach area or tables looking like goal with a net. This bar was designed by the Swedish company, which decided to extend an ice-hockey theme by bringing in over 300 hockey sticks and 2,000 pucks to compliment the interior.
We found interior of the bar simply perfect for those long sports evening – very comfortable chairs, almost every single table has got a nice plasma screen. All waiters have a uniform with a logo of the KHL, as well as a number in the back of their “jerseys” to keep the genuine atmosphere of the ice-hockey game.
The bar menu was also carefully thought through. It was developed by Janis Yendzis, a well-known Latvian restaurateur, and the main part of it (which is pretty much standard for sports bars) are sandwiches, fries, and various bar snacks. The second part of the menu, the more expensive and exclusive consists of a range of soups, salads and healthy snacks.
Menu itself is not large, but quite decent – from the starters you have about 5-6 items like 3 types of a salad, 3 soups and pizzas and some desert. Price tags vary from 2.80 LVL to 6 LVL per meal (but for 6 LVL you get an XL portion). The service is also very quick, discreet and efficient, probably so you don’t get distracted from an important game.
Drinks card is also quite good – a wide selection of whiskeys, liquors, wines and sparkling wines, however they only have 6 kinds of beers, which is quite strange as this is classified as a sports bar, where usually beer is given a priority. But from what we’ve tried, the beer was of a good quality and not too expensive – ranging in price from 1.50 to 2.50 per pint.
Now about TV coverage- even though it’s an official KHL bar, they still are showing other sports like football and sports related programmes, for instance over a drink, we had a chance to check out a program on new generation of young Russian ice hockey players – future KHL stars.
Next door from a bar, you’ll find a club called Friends, where you can come for one of those karaoke nights. This seems like a new place and we’ll make a review of that place in a short time.
Since KHL Sports Bar is located in the Radison Blu Hotel, there is a slight chance that prices might go up with an overall rent fee, but let’s hope they stay reasonable.