Playtrix Sports Bar
Sports viewing trickery goes upscale
With a few notable exceptions, themed bars have had an indifferent history in Colombo — you don’t sell the theme, you sell the place. Although not the first, the Cricket Club took this concept a step further. Theme a pub and a restaurant around the single most popular sport in the country; and oh, show a little footy, some NRL and rugby union on the screens in the bar while you’re at it. The result is a pretty reliably packed pub on match days, and a reputation as a place to go to watch some sports. But actual sports bars? A few places in Colombo bill themselves as such, but it’s difficult to see how they’re much different from any other pub that screens a few matches on a projection screen.
So what makes an actual sports bar? Sporting action on display 24/7? Multiple screens of the stuff? Mandatory pushups at the door? A pop quiz on the offside rule in football or on the intricacies of the cover-2 defence in that other sport, also called football? A minimum number of team jersey wearing patrons? It all seems a bit nebulous, like someone offered to carry you places on their back while riding a tricycle, and decided to call themselves a three wheeler.
But why have I launched into this rambling exposition? Because the (not quite launched) Playtrix sports bar bills itself explicitly as such, and promises (and mostly delivers on) an experience quite novel to the citizenry of Colombo.
What they have, 16 large LCDs piping your choice of sporting event in high definition quality. So what, you snort derisively. Both Cheers Pub and Echelon offer a projection screen or two, and several (4, in the case of Cheers) smaller TVs dot the bar area. Maybe not screening in HD quality, but they do exist. But screening in HD does add to the enjoyment of the viewing experience.
Playtrix also takes this sporting wheeze to the next level by offering each table their very own personal sound box. Want to listen to FIFA WC highlights commentary while others watch Wimbledon? Press the appropriate channel button on the box, and you’re sorted.
The sound boxes themselves seem to run off a limited range FM transmitter, which brings about an unexpected and not entirely pleasant side effect. Sit just at the edge of transmission range; and other public radio broadcasts bleed into your audio signal. I amusingly spent my time sharing Wimbledon commentary with occasional bursts of a monk chanting *bana*. Who said watching tennis isn’t a spiritual experience, eh? Of course, this quirk only applies at the far end of the premises, everywhere else I checked seemed fine.
Other that that little snafu (completely outside the control of both staff and equipment), the sport spectating experience offered by Playtrix is top drawer. I happily split my attention between Wimbledon and the FIFA WC highlights on screens conveniently placed next to each other. The seating was plush (if a little on the low side for me), and honestly — I’d be hard pressed to compare viewing experience unfavourably with any other sports bar I’ve visited.
With sports viewing out of the way, my other favourite pastime involves a tipple and this is where some perspective starts to kick in. The sports viewing experience isn’t bargain basement; and the beverages on offer aren’t either. Not to put too fine a point to it, but the drinks list is extensive, expensive and tends a little towards extravagance. A bottle of Carlsberg (half size 300ml, although I could be wrong about this) retails for 300 rupees while Lion, Heineken, Corona and Tiger beers also make the list. A 25ml shot of local vodka costs LKR 200, while again — plenty of better quality (and considerably more expensive) vodka makes the list. On the nights I visited, mojitos and martinis seemed extremely popular with the crowd, along with extravagant balloon glassfuls of Henessey XO.
In two words, not cheap. Just to say that several hours of casual drinking has the ability to leave a severe dent in your wallet region.
As for the food, it’s still early days so the menu was painfully limited to about 10-12 finger food dishes. I was told that Friday night was indeed their first day of kitchen operation (food had been sent in from the CR&FC kitchens previously); which is fair enough. I had the cheese fritters which therefore surpassed my entirely modest expectation. At 600 bucks a pop, the quantity on offer represented quite good value.
Service, I do have to say, started great and then went to shit as the night progressed; and the place filled up. Being fair, the staff and management are well aware (and said as much, very apologetically). This will almost certainly be fixed, and may not even be apparent on less busy nights (of which the days of World Cup screening are definitely not — all tables were reserved on match days). Having said this, though — I certainly had no problem getting refills, bellied up as I was to the bar. I could hear quite audible service mishap carnage swirling around me for most of the night though. The bar was short handed, even with some people wearing Amuseum (one of the three partners of this venture owns the nightclub) tshirts filling in.
Playtrix isn’t priced to appeal to everyone, and this is most apparent with their concept of an entry fee on match days. At 500 bucks, the entry fee just gets you in the door, it isn’t a cover charge to be redeemed later. Regular hours, I am informed, which is to say before 1800 on match days, are currently free. Incidentally, their social media listings insist the place is open 24hrs, and the management seem quite intent on honouring this (provided a crowd is there to view the event, see member benefit 5). An interesting example of these hours is the NBA matches, which screen early morning SL time; and I was told would be considered once the season begins.
The actual demographic of interest is the members — membership to Playtrix is priced at LKR 25k per annum and comes with free entrance and a 10% discount off the total bill (and a few other useful, if personally less exciting perks).
Is this worth the money?
Clearly, everyone should make up their own minds on this score, but it is possible to watch some (if not all) sports screened at the bar with a cable TV subscription. Again, this probably isn’t a fair comparison — you could easily make hot butter cuttlefish and sip beer at home too; just that some people will do this, and others will not. This place isn’t necessarily geared towards a casual drop-in with friends (as I said earlier, pretty much every table was booked on match days, it’s not a large space) and may not substitute for my long-standing Cheers/Cricket Club outings where you could watch televised sports. The price for watching on great HD screens though, is to the tune of LKR 2000 per month. It’s the same tradeoff as paying LKR 750 for a cinema ticket (large screen, awesome sound, proximity to other humans, hopefully non-sticky seats) vs just waiting a bit and watching a copy of the movie from the comfort of your own home.
Personally, I’d find membership quite worthwhile and I suspect most fans of a regular season of some kind of sport — be it EPL or rugby or even F1 will feel exactly the same way. Everyone will have their own idea of usage that represents value; if anyone watches sport no more than 2-3 times a month, I’d say a membership easily constitutes good value for money.
