Paul Poteet is hungry for Eddy’s Sports Pub

Paul Poteet is Hungry for Eddy's Sports Bar & GrillPaul Poteet is hungry. He is hungry for delicious food, good drinks, and invaluable conversation. Paul has actually taken his hunger and made it out to be an excuse to gather his closest friends and to invade any number of restaurants around our Circle City. This side project of Paul’s is called Paul Poteet’s Gotta Eat and has been gaining an increase in followers each and every event. The first event that I went to was held downtown at the Skyline Club. Since then he has held events at Urban Elements, the Brickhouse Burger Company, and The Pub, also located downtown. Paul actually has been hosting these events every couple of weeks. But, after picking his brain about the future of this side project he and some others close to him have said they plan on having at least one of these a week (more than likely on Thursday evening) in the very near future. I already know of two more that have been scheduled! There are a lot of good things coming from this man and his appetite, that is for sure.

The most recent stop on Paul’s journey took us to the north side, the far north side actually, all the way into Noblesville. Sitting deep inside a strip mall, a place called Eddy’s Sports Pub can be found. Sitting next door to El Rodeo, one of the best authentic Mexican restaurants you can find in this city, and across the street from a Crown Liquors and Chase Bank, you would not think to find a place serving the coldest beer around and some food that screams deep friend and delicious. There are over twenty big screen televisions hanging all over the place, video games in the corner to eat your quarters, and a bar as wide as the restaurant pouring anything you desire. The place even has the cliché corner bar neon signs showcasing Blue Moon, Corona Light, and Bud Light Lime. This is a place I could call home.

The event started with some munchies including some sloppy Joe nachos and some deep fried onion rings. The nachos were incredible. Just imagine a huge plate of nacho chips piled mile high with fresh sloppy Joes topped with shredded cheese, tomatoes, and jalapeños. By the time you are to the bottom of the plate (yeah, we made it all the way through them) you are left with nachos soggy with goodness.

The onion rings were simple, deep fried, and boring. Nothing really to get excited about when it comes to onion rings. It is also pretty hard to mess up onions rings. But the Buffalo wings that were served alongside it were another story. At first I passed these up as I was in the middle of a handful of conversations with guys like Daniel Herndon, but I could not hold off all night as I began to smell the heat from the buffalo sauce. Good thing there was a side of bleu cheese on the plate to cool my burning lips.

Shortly after I wiped my face clean of hot sauce came a plate filled with more deep fried goodness. This is what they mean when they say pub food. Food that is easy to make, fills you up, and forced you to drink one more beer. Speaking of beer, Eddy’s has some great drink specials. They run specials every night and all of the tables, at least on the restaurant side of the bar, had a table tent that explained all of their deals. Thursday nights they feature $2 domestic pints. Pretty hard to go wrong with deep fried and domestic.

About the time I was starting to get full I saw some friends of mine that I actually met at a previous Paul Poteet’s Gotta Eat event. I went over to say hello and here I was greeted with even more food. I started with a section of their club sandwich. Piled high was three slices of wheat toast, thin sliced tomatoes, turkey, ham, lettuce, and a mayonnaise that I could see myself bathing in. This stuff was tangy, but soothing at the same time. It absolutely made this sandwich perfect. It was so good I went back in for seconds and actually managed to clean the plate.

Now I am full. I moved from Coors Light to a Diet Coke and was ready to let everything just sit for a while before I tried to move. Just then John Karamanski, the man behind the curtain making these videos and images of the events, walks over with a pizza. He sits it on the table, grabs a few slices for his wife, and leaves the pizza for the rest of us. The four folks sharing the table beside us were just leaving so that meant more for us. I grabbed a piece, Bob Clark and Clayton McDaniel grabbed a slice, and we began enjoying what might be the single best piece of pizza we have ever eaten.

This pizza was not what I would call pub food. It was a chicken alfredo pizza. Yeah, a pub serving what tasted like brick oven chicken alfredo pizza. It was amazing. I devoured it hoping to enjoy one more piece when Paul himself walks up and grabs the last slice. He took one bite, knew there was something special here with this pizza, and managed to require a few napkins before had was finished. It was the perfect dessert for a meal filled with carbohydrates and calories.

As the night was wrapping up I made mention to Paul that the crowd was possibly the biggest I had seen yet. Half the restaurant was filled with people eating, drinking, and networking. Although they are not taking a head count at each one of these PPGE events, he felt it was the best crowd they had seen as well. Even the weather, which some blame Paul for in the first place, couldn’t stop folks from coming out. I tipped my waitress and my cap as I walked away from yet another successful event. Until next time, remember that Paul Poteet’s Gotta Eat.