Jersey’s sports great menu, reputation

When Scott Marchetti bought Jersey’s Sports Cafe in 2004 with his partner, it wan’t known as a family hotspot.
Today, you can’t really imagine the place without a family or a group of Little Leaguers coming in for a platter of wings.
Jersey’s, on the corner of Cleveland Avenue and Pondella Road, is the place to go to watch your favorite team in action, as well as to try out a microbrew and some of its food offerings.
The building started as a Kenny Roger’s Roaster (and was briefly a Mulligan’s) before a golf pro from Boston bought the place and turned it into a sports bar in 2001.
The ambience of a sports bar usually starts with the 40 TVs with nearly every sporting event known to mankind on them and all the season packages from the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL and college sports.
It also serves as a central location for Pittsburgh Steelers and New England Patriots fans to come for the game, with Steelers fans getting their own black and gold room in the far end, as it has for the past 10 years.
“You have to market yourself and the more clubs and organizations you’re affiliated with, the more people you meet and the more business you have,” Marchetti said.
That means backing the North Fort Myers High School athletic programs, as well as Hancock Little League, for which it sponsored two teams, and North Pop Warner, who are regulars year round.
“We usually get the same people coming here for lunch and happy hour, and we just joined the Chamber of Commerce and met some nice people,” Marchetti said.
As for the food, everything is homemade, from soup to meatballs, to sauces, with food specials every day from half-price pizzas to 50-cent wings to AYCE seafood.
“We have a fantastic homemade macaroni and cheese, fresh salmon, and we are best known for our wings and burgers,” Marchetti said. “I have 40 different flavors, including exclusives that we run.”
Marchetti said Jersey’s also has more than 15 craft beers and between eight and 10 beers they rotate.
Jersey’s is open every day at 11 a.m. It closes Sunday through Thursday at midnight and Friday and Saturday at 1 a.m.
For more information, call 995-2900 or visit their Web site at www.jerseyssportscafe.com.