"Beef O'Brady's Family Sports Bar" Dayton City Paper - October 18th, 2004

Walking toward Beef O’Brady’s, Centerville’s newest sports pub, I had visions of whole cows, perhaps even buffalos, rotating over large flames with sweat-drenched spit cooks dousing them with an overrated barbecue sauce.

Begrudgingly agreeing to accept this beefy bar as my next assignment, I had put this misadventure off until the last possible minute, imagining 40,000 menu variations of beef. I sat down and immediately noticed a divergence from my cow and buffalo theory. They had a grouper salad. Grouper? That’s not so beefy.

I thought to myself, “What is going on here?” I skimmed the menu further. “There’s a tuna salad sandwich on here!” I muttered, unheard beneath the clamor of the NFL games playing on the tubes. I kept skimming. A chicken philly sandwich and the club wrap went even further in proving my theory wrong.

Beef O’Brady’s was not simply a mass beef dispenser. It was a new taste in a great location catering to many different appetites. Whether you are in the mood for a lighter sandwich or a salad and the soup of the day, or for the more traditional bar food, this new restaurant can accommodate. The Beef, as the regulars call it, is a national chain restaurant located mostly in the South and in a few Midwestern states.

While the menu is varied at Beef ’s, they do have some specialties. Their bacon mushroom cheeseburger sounded excellent, as did the O’Brady Burger seasoned and topped with melted provolone cheese, and served with mayo, lettuce, tomato, pickle and onion. If only more restaurants could figure out that seasoning one’s hamburger meat is the secret to an outstanding burger. One could also not help but notice the “Big Burger” entry on the menu. It has a pound of beef and double cheese. I decided to table dip to see if anyone was eating that one at the moment, but could not locate a single brave soul.

I ordered the chef salad and the chicken wings. The salad included cheese, turkey and ham. The ham was unusually excellent — sweet and not excessively fatty. The Italian dressing left something to be desired. Store-bought dressings take away from restaurant meals.

The chicken wings are a must order. They are without a doubt some of the best I’ve had in the area. Beef ’s wings are a bit larger than those offered in other parts of the wing realm. The skin is crisp, lacking the slime that most wings have. And then there is the sauce, perfected by owner Jim Mellody. Not overpowering, it has the best blend of all the best wing sauce ingredients. Order the wings in advance and take them home for a friendly get-together or buy a $3.99 bottle of the sauce.

For football lovers, the search for the perfect bar/restaurant to watch the games could also be over. With more televisions than I could count and Direct TV’s “Sunday NFL ticket,” Sunday patrons can watch just about any NFL game they like. At 2 pm on a Sunday afternoon, the place was absolutely packed with football lovers downing beers and chicken wings.

While I could have lived blissfully without the personal visit from the fluffy touring “Miller Lite Cheerleaders” who assumed that I, and the two grown women sitting next to me at the bar, would enjoy receiving autographed posters of their likenesses and a beaded Miller Lite football necklace, I would make a special trip to Beef O’Brady’s again, if only just for the wings.

Beef O’Brady’s Family Sports Pub is located at 953 S. Main St. (Rte. 48) in Centerville. For more information, call (937) 433-9400. Reach DCP food critic Renee O’Beid at contactus@daytoncitypaper.com.

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