The Deck at Moonshine Flat’s is an animated sports bar in downtown San Diego. There are pool tables. Shuffleboard games. Oversized Beer Pong. It’s like a day care center for people over the legal drinking age.
Put this place on your radar.
Make plans now to toss some corn hole bags. Buy a bucket of beers. Watch football on the new 165-inch LCD wall.
The Super Bowl is February 13. It’s essentially a national holiday.
Two years ago on NFL Sundays, The Deck at Moonshine Flats was a Los Angeles Rams bar. For 2021-22, management called an audible and hung the flag of the Los Angeles Chargers.
Now, here we are on the verge of the 56th NFL Super Bowl. And it’s the Rams gearing up to play a home game in the stadium the Rams and Chargers now share in LaLa Land, against the upstart Cincinnati Bengals.
Emotional Ping Pong is volleying back-and-forth here at The Deck.
It’s acceptable to love the grit and ability of young Chargers QB Justin Herbert.
The boos rain down when the TV pans to a shot of Chargers’ owner Dean Spanos, the villain who moved the team out of town, says The Deck at Moonshine Flats general manager Antion Hough.
The Rams-to-Chargers allegiance flip by the bar was, in part, a savvy business decision. More than 100 members of a Chargers tailgate crew regularly filled the place for games this year, Hough says.
“We get fans of both the Chargers and the Rams here,” he says. “I think we’ll have fans of both Southern California teams in here for the Super Bowl.”
Hough adds most of his patrons definitely were glad to see the Kansas City Chiefs fall to Cincy.
That local sentiment stems from the longstanding AFC West rivalry the Chiefs have with the team formerly knows as the San Diego Chargers.
Regarding misplaced fanbases, it should be noted that Moonshine Flats has a sister bar in Pacific Beach called Moonshine Beach. It’s a San Francisco 49ers hangout.
That 49ers alliance dates back the better part of two decades, when Moonshine Beach was the site of the former Typhoon Saloon.
And yep, it was the Rams that knocked out the 49ers in the NFC Division Championship game.
Do those 49ers fans now switch loyalty to the other California team?
It’s complicated.
Anybody But Dean Spanos!
Eric Weddle (pictured from halcyon San Diego Chargers days) is playing in Super Bowl 56 for the Los Angeles Rams. Dean Spanos’ team is not. (Getty Images) |
San Diegans don’t have to root for the Rams on February 13. The Deck, and every local sports bars, however, will be packed with partisans who’re pleased that Darth Spanos will have to watch his in-town rival play for all the marbles in the shared stadium he now calls home.
One silver lining: The Chargers owner isn’t eligible to win a Lombardi trophy, but Eric Weddle is. After the then-San Diego Chargers dumped Weddle in 2016, he went on to play four more brilliant years in the NFL (with the Baltimore Ravens and the Rams).
Weddle retired after the 2019 season—but the Rams pulled him back into the league right before this year’s playoffs.
The 37-year-old is among the team’s leaders in postseason tackles.
It’s just the latest evidence of myriad personnel blunders by Team Spanos. After the 2016 diss, Weddle’s said publicly of Spanos & Co.: “You’re dead to me.”
Recall that the Chargers once fined Weddle $10,000 for leaving the locker room to watch his daughter perform during a halftime show at Qualcomm Stadium.
And what was Weddle doing with his retirement time before the Rams called him back on the team? Coaching his son to a Pop Warner League championship in Poway!
Curse the memory of Spanos. Long live Weddle!
Going Out to Watch the Super Bowl
The Deck at Moonshine Flats in East Village. (Photo courtesy of Good Time Design) |
It’s cathartic to diss Spanos—and you can do it elbow-to-elbow with like-minded strangers at any number of downtown San Diego sports bars.
The Deck at Moonshine Flats is offering $10 St. Louis Rib Baskets, Flaming Hot Cheetos Corn Dogs, Pork Belly Burnt Ends, Fritos Pies, Smoked Wings, and Cinnamon Pretzel Bites.
Jack Daniels shots or cocktails are $7. Buckets of Buena Cerveza, Coors Light and Miller Lite Mix n Match are $25.
Doors open at noon for the 3:30 pm Super Bowl kickoff.
East Village mega-bar Bub’s at the Ballpark (with a 400-person indoor-outdoor capacity) is offering its usual NFL Sunday special for The Big Game.
Bud Light and Bud Light Seltzers are $5. Add a shot with any draft for $5 more. View the game on one of 26 screens, including mobile setups outside.
Bub’s is a Pittsburgh Steelers bar. The only angst here: The departure of veteran Steelers QB quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. Bub’s general manager Tyler McCutcheon expects no antipathy towards Pittsburgh’s AFC East foe Cincinnati.
Wanna be inside the Gaslamp’s most popular sports bar on Super Sunday? Get over to Barleymash early. There are no specials, but this magnetic, 667-person-capacity bar will be full by noon. It just will be.
Both Rams and Bengals fans are welcome. “We’ll be flying both flags,” says Barleymash manager Juan Oceguera.
For more details on a dozen outstanding options for watching the Super Bowl and/or group therapy for sports team abandonment issues, check the San Diego Sun’s list of the Best Downtown San Diego Sports Bars. SDSun
[COVER PHOTO: 2019 shot of an airplane pulling an anti-Spanos banner. (Getty Images)]
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