The Townie Bar Challenge: Mondo's Drafthouse

Mondo's Drafthouse
516 2nd St.
Coralville,IA 52241

Yes, kids, it's the triumphant return of The Townie Bar Challenge for 2013 and we're breaking into Coralville with a peek at the new version of the old Mondo's Tomato Pie, now reborn as Mondo's Drafthouse.

The Quiet Man and I visited for a late lunch- which might have been a mistake. It's entirely possible that around dinnertime, the place is hopping, alive and an altogether rockin' joint but I doubt it. My first impression was that the decor and the ambience was at war with itself. Nice table cloths and chairs war with a century's worth of American kitsch plastered to the walls and the trappings of a traditional sports bar (pool tables, shuffleboard tables, scoreboard, etc). I was left with the impression that this was a bar that didn't know what exactly it wanted to be. It felt like it was supposed to be a sports bar for grown ups or a place for recent graduates of the Tippie College of Business to hang out. (Given the apparent love for 80s soft rock around lunch, it felt a lot like a place where the frat guys from Revenge of the Nerds would come and drink and talk about how awesome the 80s were.)

I scored a sandwich and The Quiet Man scored some of the meat-free vegetable sautee and the sandwich (the Chicken Bacon and Guacamole) was decent but underwhelming, especially given the price. (Overall the food was what I would consider slightly pricey. Not overly pricey but more than you'd expect to be paying for what you get.) The bourbons and the whiskeys were a disappointment... most of them are to be found at the local Hy-Vee Wine and Spirits and I'm sorry but if the most expensive whiskey you've got is Johnny Walker Blue, you should consider me unimpressed. The beer list... was also disappointing. It was decent but not amazing and to me, if you're going to call yourself a Drafthouse, then you best have at least one beer on tap that I can't get anywhere else in town or if you really want to impress me, the state. Or otherwise, what's the point?

Consider me underwhelmed. That's not to say that Mondo's Drafthouse is a bad bar by any stretch of the imagination. (The one time I went to One-Eyed Jake's, I stuck to every surface I touched and I honestly felt like an STD was trying to crawl up my leg and infect me and once I had left that fine, festering turd of a bar I wanted to go home and burn all my clothes and take a very long shower. That's my standard for what constitutes a 'bad bar' experience and Mondo's Drafthouse was, happily, nowhere near that.)

My Verdict: An average, decent establishment, I have to admit I was a little disappointed in the place. There seems to be a clashing set of identities going on in an attempt to craft what I'd imagine is a 'Sports Bar For Grown Ups.' The only problem is that its kind of a mess as a result. But if I'm looking for a place to hangout on the Coralvile Strip, I'm thinking of The Vine, Old Chicago, even Tailgators before this place.

My Grade: C