ESPN ZONE
At Downtown Disney, 1545 Disneyland Drive, Anaheim; (714) 376-ESPN; open 11 a.m. to 12:30 a.m. Sunday through Thursday; until 1 a.m. Friday, Saturday; full restaurant, bar, 10,000-square-foot sports arena, screening room, retail shop.
Couldn’t get a Super Bowl ticket? ESPN Zone at Downtown Disney,the first one west of the Mississippi,might be a better place to watch the “big game” anyway. The Screening Room,one of three main areas in the building,has a 16-foot screen for the main action, surrounded by 16 smaller screens tuned to whatever other sports happen to be in progress (particularly those on Disney’s ESPN and ABC). Down front, there are half a dozen or so recliners called “Zone Thrones” with built-in speakers where solo patrons can dial in to the audio for the screen of their choice or order refreshments. Then there’s a series of booths that have on-table screens that allow patrons to pick an event for up-close viewing. Want to check Shaq’s current free-throw stats? The touch screen is linked to the Internet. (The Disney folks,never ones to miss a cross-promotional opportunity,display Web site choices like espnzone.com, espn.com, abcsports.com at the top of the screen.) The Screening Room has a full bar and other table service where the complete restaurant menu,from breakfast on special game days to appetizers, salads, burgers or full dinners,is available. But if the Super Bowl turns into a super bore, there’s a 10,000-square-foot Sports Arena upstairs featuring a 30-foot climbing glacier, football toss, miniature hockey rink, basketball and other proprietary games along with the usual sports simulators and video games. The caveat: the Screening Room is in demand on big game days and the seating is limited. There’s also a per-person, per-game minimum for table service in the Screening Room during special events. But there are almost 200 screens throughout the building (including in the restrooms), so you can just as easily see the action in the Studio Grill while you have lunch, or at the upstairs bar while you watch the kids play video games. Granted, you’ll hear more of the commentary in the Screening Room,one of the only large venues I’ve ever been to where you could hear despite the crowd. The food is tasty, the portions are big, and the service is good. Since this crew has already coped with hundreds of boisterous Raider fans, I suspect they can cope with anything.
