Business & Tech

Stars to Come Out for Ciccarelli's Sports Bar and Theater Grand Opening

Ciccarelli's Sports Bar and Theater, which has more than 50 flat-screen TVs and three HD theater-size screens, celebrates its grand opening on Sept. 8.

Dino Ciccarelli is going the whole nine yards for the Sept. 8 grand opening of Ciccarelli’s Sports Bar & Theater.

“The whole thing is you never know who will stop up here,” he said.

Ciccarelli, the former Detroit Red Wings player, is corralling his star power to bring in some current Detroit Lions and Tigers players and a few old buddies by the names of Darren McCarty, Kris Draper and Kirk Maltby, to join him for a celebratory drink at the grand opening.

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It’s a good day to celebrate the grand opening of a sports bar that has more than 50 flat-screen TVs since it’s the NFL season kickoff with Green Bay Packers taking on the New Orleans Saints.

Detroit Sports Talk Radio 97.1 The Ticket will be broadcasting live, chronicling the excitement at the bar and the football fans’ enthusiasm for opening day.

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And no grand opening would be “official” without a red ribbon cutting. City dignitaries and the Chamber of Commerce will help Ciccarelli cut the ribbon at 5:30 p.m.

“I am pretty excited about this bar. I’ve learned something over the years in the business and I’m trying to bring a new concept here to watch sporting events and mix it with some good food,” said Ciccarelli

Ciccarelli closed , a 10,000-square-foot discotheque, on Hayes Road earlier this year and reopened Ciccarelli Sports Bar and Theater in its place in mid-July.

Ciccarelli said he got the idea to open a sports theater bar after visiting a theater-style sports bar in Toronto in 2010 while being inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

“You’ve got to see the size of the screens I have,” he said. “What separates us are these three HD theater-size screens. That’s why we’re called sports bar theater.”

Ciccarelli says there is no bad seat in the house and at any given time, 12 different games can be streaming at once.

But Detroit teams always take precedence and the audio is always turned on for the home team games. But wait, what do you do if more than one Detroit team is playing at a time, Patch asked.

“If it’s a Lions game and a Red Wings game, we’ll have to flip a coin,” said Ciccarelli, laughing.  

Canadian-born Ciccarelli said he has brought a little bit of his heritage to the full menu by sprinkling in some Canadian recipes and seasonings to the wings and pizza dough.

Hungry sports-lovers can also find burgers, salads, pasta and desserts created by executive chef Kris Kareus, formerly of the Rattlesnake Club in Detroit and 220 in Birmingham.

Happy Hour specials are served 3-6 p.m. daily. And since sports kick into high gear, the bar has new fall hours: Monday through Friday 3 p.m.-2 a.m. and Saturday through Sunday 11 a.m.-2 p.m.

And true to Ciccarelli's dance club heritage, the tables and chairs are cleared Friday and Saturday nights and the music is cranked up for those who want to shed their weekday worries and dance away their stress.

“We pretty much have a wait on Friday and Saturday, and that’s all just from word of mouth.”


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