Readers told us their favorite sports bar in York County. Where to catch the big game
If there’s a sport happening in front of a network or cable video camera, it’s probably beaming straight to Lake Wylie.
On the homebound side of S.C. 49, up a couple of hills from the lake, sits a restaurant and bar started by avid bikers. Yet it’s always been a place for families, like the community itself where Clover School District enrollment grows year after year as people move into newer and newer subdivisions.
“We’ve just been so fortunate to have such an excellent community behind us,” said Chris Lorusso, managing partner at Sweetwater Sports Bar & Grill. “The area’s grown insanely over the last few years, so it certainly has helped.”
Sweetwater has more than 30 televisions. It has every available sports package its owners could satellite or stream. On a typical day a lunch or dinner customer might see a golf tournament, basketball game, sports highlight show and football clip without having to turn to the left or right to order.
“We really try to be as diverse as we can in showing sports, anything that people might want to watch,” Lorusso said.
Then there are the atypical days. Maybe the U.S. men or women have a World Cup soccer game. Maybe it’s the NBA Finals, or the World Series. Pretty much any time the Carolina Panthers play will do for the gathering spot just south of Charlotte.
“We certainly jam for football season,” Lorusso said.
This weekend brings a gift for Sweetwater.
The NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments were scheduled long ago, but recent games brought some pretty enticing matchups. Rivals Duke and North Carolina, both with avid area fan bases, will meet Saturday -- for the first time in an NCAA tournament game. And Larusso thought last Saturday was busy.
“That is definitely going to be an eventful day for sure,” Lorusso said.
On the women’s side, South Carolina plays in its final four round on Friday. Championship games follow for the women on Sunday, men on Monday.
By at least one account, Sweetwater may be about the best place around to catch those games.
Hardwood Hot Spots bracket
The Herald asked readers a pretty simple question. Where is the best place to grab a bite or beverage, and watch sports? Sports bars worked. Restaurants with televisions worked. A bowling alley and billiard hall made the list. The Herald took reader feedback and created a 16-team bracket, then gave readers all month to go online and pick their favorites.
A highly unscientific seeding system that accounted for reader input, number of locations throughout three counties and other details put Sweetwater at a No. 9 seed. The first round matchup was No. 8 Lake Wylie Bowl N’ Bounce.
Sweetwater topped its cross-community opponent with 84% of the vote. The next round Sweetwater drew No. 1 Towne Tavern. In easily the closest contest of the quarterfinal round, Sweetwater bested the restaurant group with Fort Mill, Rock Hill, York and Indian Land locations by a 52% to 48% count. The back-and-forth matchup was the second straight seed upset for Sweetwater, with two more to come.
The semifinal round saw Sweetwater against tournament darling and No. 13 R&B Pub House in York. Sweetwater earned 55% of the vote to advance to the final.
The final saw more online votes cast than in the prior rounds combined. There were 28,572 votes cast when Sweetwater faced No. 6 Burgers & Barley of Rock Hill. Multiple times in the final day, both restaurants had half the vote. When it ended, Sweetwater edged ahead with 52%. Sweetwater collected almost 15,000 votes just in the final round.
Taste of Sweetwater
Lorusso’s father, Steve, decided to bring a restaurant concept to the building he and Mad Dog Custom Cycles owned more than a decade ago. What began as Wylie Gators became Sweetwater. The restaurant grew in popularity and parking, at one point buying the former Checkers drive-thru restaurant site beside Sweetwater just for the extra spaces.
Chris Lorusso has been involved since 2011. Now there are about 70 employees, many having worked there for years. There’s an outdoor patio with televisions that was just screened. The place is as known now for its chopped Southwest salads as its drinks or bar food.
Burgers are hand-pattied and made to order. Plenty of menu items and sauces are scratch made.
“We just do comfort food really well,” Lorusso said. “We don’t have anything too extravagant on the menu, nothing that you haven’t heard of before. We just do it with care, with consistency.”
Community support
The recent run through the Hardwood bracket shows a strong fan base, but Sweetwater Sports Bar & Grill isn’t alone. Most restaurants or bars still up and going after the COVID pandemic have had their backers. Lorusso said it was a confusing time going from business as usual to take-out or outside only, or 10 feet apart, then slowly returning to normal.
“The last couple of years have definitely been the most challenging times in this business,” Lorusso said. “But again, if it wasn’t for the support of this community, I’m not sure if we would have made it through.”
Sweetwater tries to do its part. When the Panthers made a Super Bowl run a few years back, the restaurant had a kickoff event with giveaways. Sweetwater has plenty of local high school or college students employed, to further promote the family vibe.
For his part, Lorusso takes what in some situations might seem a fair weather fan approach. To him, it’s just good business. Duke or Carolina? Home team or road? Underdog or heavy favorite? For Lorusso, it’s all about the hospitality.
“I’m cheering for whoever the guest is cheering for at that moment,” he said.
Want to go?
NCAA basketball tournaments still have plenty of action left with local interest. There are final four teams remaining in the Division I men’s and women’s tournaments. The women hold semifinals Friday and the championship Sunday. The men play semifinals Saturday and their championship Monday.
Here, according to ncaa.com, are the matchups that will decide the brackets:
▪ Women’s semifinal, South Carolina vs. Louisville, 7 p.m. Friday
▪ Women’s semifinal, Stanford vs. Connecticut, 9:30 p.m. Friday
▪ Men’s semifinal, Villanova vs. Kansas, 6:09 p.m. Saturday
▪ Men’s semifinal, North Carolina vs. Duke, 8:49 p.m. Saturday
▪ Women’s final, 8 p.m. Sunday
▪ Men’s final, 9:20 p.m. Monday
This story was originally published March 31, 2022 at 5:02 PM.
