These 2 San Fernando Valley sports bars score big time with fans

I grew up walking distance from Yankee Stadium, where I’d go with my pre-teen buds to sit in dirt cheap bleacher seats, eat Yankee Frankies, and cheer on Mickey and Maris and Yogi, back in the day.

My first house in Los Angeles was in Silver Lake. From my balcony, I could see the lights of Dodger Stadium, and see fireworks going on at the end of games, which I’d drive to for seats in the Upper Deck, to watch Tommy Lasorda waving his arms, listen to Vin Scully on the radio, and eat Dodger Dogs.

I love sports — always have, always will.

Here in Los Angeles, nothing makes me happier than to sit at a bar drinking a cold draft, and watching USC, UCLA, the Dodgers, the Lakers, the Clippers, the Rams, the Chargers — whoever is playing — on an array of big screens stretching all around the restaurant’s perimeter. I love sports bars for the excitement, for the sense of being at a game without having to deal with traffic (before and after), for the beer, and for the food.

Fortunately, the San Fernando Valley is blessed with strings of sports bars in just about every neighborhood. But, of course, I do have my favorites.

That list begins with the perfectly named General Admission (3311 Cahuenga Blvd. W., Universal City/Studio City; 323-963-5011, www.generaladmissionla.com). General Admission would be a fine ride up the hill at Universal Studios — a ride where you sit at bar seats, and watch sports in every imaginable direction. Seriously, it’s impossible to sit anywhere in General Admission where you don’t see a game in progress. Except, I guess, if you sit on the front patio, and face the traffic. Though why you’d want to do that, I can’t imagine.

And in terms of eating and drinking, what General Admission offers is classic sports bar food — reimagined for a new generation of smarter sports chewers.

Though this certainly isn’t a Mexican restaurant, there are tasty culinary touches from south of the border — carne asada street fries, street corn with Tajin and cotija cheese (mayo too!), and breakfast tacos for weekend brunch. There’s lots of Americana as well, ranging from Buffalo cauliflower, through mac and cheese balls, to Wagyu beef sliders, burgers topped with truffle cheese and truffle aioli — and yes, a Beyond Beef burger, for meat-averse sports fans.

And there’s are beers and more beers, because, well, that’s what makes a sports bar a sports bar — aside from the visual avalanche of big screens. There are 22 draft beers, including some serious oddities: a nitro stout called Peanut Butter Milk, an IPA called Bunny Fuku, a Belgian Triple called Gravity Hill.

There are some seriously expensive tequilas, sold by the bottle. The champagnes are even more expensive — Dom Pérignon for $500. I grew up with sports bars that served Schlitz, Bud and Miller. Champagne? What the heck?

The Studio City branch of Rocco’s Tavern (12514 Ventura Blvd., Studio City; 818-985-9876, www.yelp.com/biz/roccos-tavern-studio-city) is so beer intensive, it has earned a Beer Connoisseurs Badge from untappd.com, where the various special beers poured over the years are lovingly catalogued with photos of quaffers studying their suds before knocking them back, with lots of care and concern. Which is not to say that Rocco’s (which also is in Westwood, Old Pasadena and Culver City) is a destination for beer snobs — anything but! It’s an old school, red sauce Italian restaurant/sports bar, with walls lined with big screens, and a menu of dishes that stick to the tried-and-true.

About the wildest dish on the menu is a Philly style soft pretzel — an addiction which those from the City of Brotherly Love carry with them everywhere they go. (Actor Adam Shapiro spent his COVID isolation baking them in his kitchen. He’s now got a thriving business selling Shappy pretzels through www.shappypretzel.com!)

The beers at Rocco’s may be cutting edge, but the food is pure nostalgia — more or less. Seven-cheese mac and cheese with bacon. Little Neck clams in garlic and white wine or marinara sauce. Minestrone in a cup or a bowl. Chopped antipasto, both as an appetizer and a dinner dish. An Italian sub “stuffed” with ham, capicola salami, provolone, lettuce, tomato, red onions, chopped olives, with red wine vinaigrette, mayo and mustard. A chicken parmigiana hero. A hero with Italian sausages, peppers and onions — a real taste of the old hood!

And wings — of course. Pizza — of course, part two. And lots of pasta — spaghetti marinara, fettuccine Alfredo, five-cheese lasagna and more. The place is tasty fun. The big screens are everywhere. The crowd is rambunctious and well-fed.

But a word of caution: wear something washable…or disposable. If you cheer a big score, there’s a chance that red sauce will wind up on you and the tablecloth. The tablecloth, I don’t worry about. But that nice Rams sweatshirt, that’s a treasure. Covered with sauce, it looks like I’ve been tackled by the Dallas defense. Sports bars are famously not elegant. But they sure are fun.

Merrill Shindler is a Los Angeles-based freelance dining critic. Email mreats@aol.com.