Indigo Joe’s Sports Pub & Restaurant

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Indigo Joe’s Sports Pub & Restaurant is the quintessential sport bar.

You want to watch the game? It’s pretty easy at Indigo Joe’s, which has 23 flat-screens in the dining room alone plus more in the men’s and women’s rooms and in the video-gaming area. On the evening of our visit, all of the monitors in the dining room were tuned to the same playoff-determining game, and all eyes in the considerable crowd were turned to it.

Indigo Joe’s also is a comfortable place, not much less so than many living rooms, which helps it live up to the "what a neighborhood restaurant should be" motto. There’s lots of sports memorabilia on the walls. There are booths for those who want to cozy up, high-tops with high upholstered chairs for those who don’t. It’s light and airy, with an updated feel quite unlike the dark, smoky sports bars of old.

And it’s got the bar food thing down cold. Fab Fries ($3.50) were not only reasonably priced but quite well executed, the huge platter of crisp-edged, grease-free fries liberally scattered with bits of bacon and slices of scallion and lots and lots of a mild cheddar cheese, with a bowl of ranch dip on the side for those who want to truly indulge.

The fried zucchini ($7.99) offered much less bang for the buck but also was well executed, the zucchini cut into sticks, coated in a light batter and fried, and served with a vaguely southwestern dip with a lot of flavor.

The Aspen Burger ($8.99) was another winner. There were some snags with this one, the first being that it was more of a medium-well than the medium-rare that we had ordered (and which our waiter said we could indeed get), the second being that the fat ratio in the meat was sufficient that, while it correspondingly had a lot of flavor, it rendered the bottom half of the bun so soggy that it was falling apart (so maybe it’s better that it wasn’t rare, since it would’ve been juicier still), and instead of the kaiser bun promised by the menu it was a standard sesame-seed version. On the plus side, though, there was plenty of flavor, and there were a lot of lightly sauteed mushrooms, Swiss cheese, a slab of tomato and some reasonably crisp lettuce, so it was a very flavorful burger. Fries on the side (coleslaw was the other option) were as fab as those in our appetizer.

Barbecue baby back ribs, not so much. We ordered a half-rack ($13.99), and were glad that we did. The ribs tasted as though they had been boiled, and were as sticky and gummy and overly soft (as opposed to falling-off-the-bone tender, which is not the same thing) as usually happens with that method. A little barbecue sauce had been brushed on before they were served, which meant that what they really tasted like was unsmoked soggy pork with a little barbecue sauce on it. We chose a baked potato with this one and it was really nice — flaky and light, topped with a big chunk of butter — but the soggy vegetable mix that also was served on the plate was inadequate, to put it mildly.

And we guess we shouldn’t have been surprised by that, because several things that we had attempted to order were no longer available or not available that evening, and they were some of the most interesting things on the menu. I sense a bit of a retreat to bar food staples, and I’m thinking that’s probably not a bad thing.

But back to the crowd: It was pretty healthy on the evening we wandered in, which is always a little surprising in this economy. What wasn’t healthy was the level of staffing. Really, one guy to serve the whole place? A person who might have been a bartender wandered in to help a bit, but more help definitely was needed as the waits were way too long until the place finally quieted down after a while. Yes, someone may have called in sick or quit or whatever, but we saw people walking around who clearly could’ve helped.

Indigo Joe’s is a pleasant enough place, especially if a big game is on the tube and you’re of a mind to choose from its pretty decent list of draft beers. But until and unless things change somewhat, I’d suggest sticking to bar food.

And planning on a long wait.

Las Vegas Review-Journal reviews are done anonymously at Review-Journal expense. Contact Heidi Knapp Rinella at 383-0474 or e-mail her at hrinella@reviewjournal.com.