Hockeytown, U.S.A.

By AARON MESH

Housed in a white-painted brick bunker cavernous enough to be a Zamboni garage, the A & L Sports Pub (5933 NE Glisan St., 234-7607) devotes its prime flat-screens not to the NBA or baseball, but to hockey's Stanley Cup playoffs. It's semi-officially a Pittsburgh bar, but on a recent Saturday evening Penguins fans were outnumbered (though one beautiful girl did accessorize her black T-shirt with white-and-gold daisies in her hair) by a throng of Red Wings backers gasping in unison at a monster open-ice body check. Speaking of monsters: The A&L Chicken Sandwich ($6.50) is a cordon bleu beast that will soak up a pitcher of Full Sail. The jukebox is draped with a very forceful request not to play any songs until the games are over. This is Hockeytown, and nothing can shut the puck up.

WWeek 2015

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