The Depot Sports Bar and Grill is a neighborhood bar in every respect.
So says regular Robert Villa, who lives in the area and been coming to The Depot at least twice a week for five years.
"The people are really fun here and really friendly," he said last Friday, nursing a beer in between glancing at the myriad TV screens showing all manner of sports, from poker to hockey.
He was sitting at the far edge of The Depot's bar that stretched half the width of the main room. And no, this isn't his regular seat.
"I'm not that guy," he said, then chuckled with such warmth you couldn't help but laugh along.
Seated all around Villa were others who would describe themselves as regulars to the nearly 30-year-old establishment, which got its start in the late 1970s as a steakhouse before being christened The Depot. The name probably owed its roots to the twin signature rail cars abutting the building.
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The current owners, brothers Bill and Butch Clark, took over in 1997 and remodeled the joint, from the floor tiles and tables to the stucco slathering the former wood exterior.
They added more than a dozen big-screen TVs built into the far wall in an area that earlier hosted couples dancing to a live country band.
The first thing the Clarks did was get rid of live music.
"Every night I had to patch the walls," Butch Clark said. "Too much testosterone."
The bar is much calmer now, he observed, as senior bartender and manager Jasmine Chase greeted customers with a friendly "Hey hon, what can I get you?"
"I love working here," she confided, as Jamie Wright and Jim Caffrey, both 49, started their first round of the NTN Buzztime interactive game airing on one of the big screens.
The game is what brings them to The Depot, Caffrey said. NTN is a national trivia game in which local scores are compared to those in other states. Four years ago, The Depot boasted the top score in the nation, Clark said.
"It's kind of relaxing," Caffrey said, sipping a beer. "It gives you something to do as you're gingerly sucking on a beer."
The couple had tuned their table-top speaker to the hockey game.
On University of Arizona game days, the bar is packed with a crowd as diverse as the neighborhood.
"Once in a while you'll see guys pumping their chests at the pool tables," said Chase, 31, who has served drinks there for 10 years. But with a firm word from the staff, tempers cool quickly.
Sports dominate The Depot. It offers the NFL Sunday Ticket, and on Sundays, there's sometimes a line to get in.
Mandy Bergstrom, 24, and her friend Richele Schlomer, 27, could not care less about the sports. They like The Depot because of what the Clarks have done with the rail cars. They converted them into a smoking patio by opening the walls at the back ends. Last Friday night, a cool breeze swept in and carried away the smoke from about two dozen people playing pool.
Clark said he lost about 15 percent of his business after the ban went into effect in May. He struck on the idea in the fall to convert the rail cars into a smoking patio by building a wall of windows to separate it from the bar.
The Depot Sports Bar and Grill
3501 E. Fort Lowell Road. 795-8110
Hours: 11 a.m.-2 a.m. daily
