Sports Column

We love SPOCO, great place to work while grabbing drinks and food.

The door staff is terrible. They need to get trained and learn how to do their job better. The other night I was planing to go In to have a good night with some friends and I literally got denied with my real ID. I am very upset because most people that go there are Freshmen with actual fakes and they never get denied. I was also not mad because I did not get in, I was upset because the door staff don’t know what a real ID looks like. I’m basically 24 years old and the bouncer “JT Cooley” refused to let me in even after showing him a second proof of identification. He was rude and unprofessional. I wish the manager was there so they could see how terrible their staff is. I want to give zero starts but that was not an option. Never going back there, specially if people like him work there. Terrible experience, I would not recommend this bar to anyone.

Before I start this review, I want to state that I have been in the service industry for over 5 years. Now for the positives, the venue has a rather large space (compared to the competing bars). They also have rather affordable beverages. Moving to negatives (which is why they are rated 1 star). The service was absolutely atrocious. I went to the bar and informed the bartender that I had 6 drinks to order. He said that's an overload and would need two trips to complete the order. So I gave him my order and he brings me three drinks and a tab at $27 which was the total for the 6 drink order. I proceed to wait roughly 30 minutes while he looks me dead in the eyes and does nothing about the remaining 3 drinks he did not provide. Then he tried to take the ticket for the full order before I was given the drinks (I did not sign it and grabbed it out of his hands). Also, while I was waiting for the proper service I was looking for there was another employee (apparently a manager from the information I was provided by another employee) who further exemplifies why the establishment deserves a low rating. There was a polite and nice young lady next to me who ordered a round for her group and asked for salt to pair with her order. The employee, Male, at the main bar, who wore a black hat backwards, long black hair, and was roughly 27 years old proceeded to grab the salt shaker and slammed it in the young girls face and had a negative posture and attitude towards all the guests. I also noticed him spit in a drink for another guest which really left a foul taste in my mouth. Overall, I would say this bar could do so much better with the facility they have. The employees were awful and besides the door men and shot girls this place we a true mess.

Why read about the Hawkeyes when you can watch them here?!

I have just moved to Iowa city I went to this place, it was around 1:30 AM and I asked for two tequila shots, I was planning to invite either bartender or someone at the bar but I received just tequila shots when I asked the Bartender about Lemon and Salt, he said he don't have after that I asked can I have vodka instead of it and he quickly asked the security and told them to throw me out of the place. He would have asked me to pay for tequila or would have asked me to leave on my own or would have simply talked about it if there was any other problem. This was so rude, I am not sure this is how they behave in Iowa city with all guests. I have traveled to over 20 countries but never observed such a behavior. The bartender need to learn how to behave with the guests.

Danny was an amazing bartender!! Made a personal connection for my friend’s 21st birthday and served everyone in the group with great hospitality! Will definitely be returning for future events because of our service!

Food was good! Never sat so long in my life waiting for our food. We sat in there for two hours. They knew Ragbrai was coming and it wasn’t even packed. First time in years I have been disappointed with a food establishment. Food was also cold and one member received his meal 20 minutes after the first one received his.

A real dump. There only claim to fame is very cheap pitchers of low quality beer. It's dirty, smells, and is in disrepair. The lower walls are falling away from the bathroom allowing you to see into the basement. Server was friendly, but I'd go anywhere else than here.

Sports Column is a solid college-town sports bar. No frills: just bar food, beer and sports being played on many TVs. What more can you ask for? There's literally a beer special everyday from 7PM-close. Or all day on Sunday ($1 off anything that pours and half price pizza.) And let's not forget SpoCo's birthday special -- $30 for 20 pitchers of Busch Light. The food menu has wings, pizza, mozzarella sticks, onion rings, chicken fingers and a trio of cheesesteak/beef sandwiches. I came here on a Monday evening for an end of the year youth sports team shindig. The bathrooms were clean, the thin crust pizza wasn't half bad, the waitstaff was friendly and the kids had so much fun with the different games SpoCo boasts. (Hello boxing game.) The beer menu is mostly domestics -- nothing uber local by any means-- my biggest complaint is a pint of Bud Light was $5? Open daily (weekdays at 6PM, weekends at 3PM) this Iowa City sports bar is definitely somewhere to hit up when you want to catch a game and enjoy a pint!

They'd rather have a table filled with water and food than paying customers. Yeah, good bye.

Went there to watch the game with some friends....obviously, younger friends and I couldn't believe that I was there. I thought I'd feel out of place but since it was parent's day or something like that, I felt right at home. I actually really liked our waitress. Very attentive and did a great job! Note to ALL waitstaff....SMILE, it goes a long way!!!

Sports column has take a fresh approach to their kitchen hiring a new manager. The menu has been refreshed and the I must say the burger I had was made fresh and was not a pre fabricated frozen puck. Fresh, fast, and the fries are great!

Very childish and employees. Cannot give my condolences to this business, if you want to deal with college level employees, then come here, just be ready to be disappointed

The thin bar tender with the man bun called me a "bitch" for tipping him Only a dollar after he spilt my drink and threw my card back at me. Hey jerk, you are lucky I even payed.

One word... or two... or three Meat Market... actually it's more like a live stock auction....

Busy game day and I gotta stand so that a table can be used by another group to store their dirty pizza trays. Empty table and management says there won't let us sit their. Who do you think gives the kids the money to spend their.

If you're not underage or wanting to fight avoid "SpoCo". Drinks are not well made and staff is rude at best. On a fun note, for cheap entertainment if you're there, watch all the high school kids run out the back door when the cops walk in on a Friday night

Oh, SpoCo. Drinks are crap, service not great. But it's a classic stop for every night on the town in Iowa City. Spacious but also cramped.

10/10 recommend!!! such a great environment, especially on a hawkeye game day! i love the staff and the food is great :) definitely going to come back!!

For one, I searched spoco but couldn't find it because this bar is actually called sports column wtf. But geez I came here to celebrate my friends birthday with pitchers but they said we can't play any games with quarters. This place is trash. Always has been

Awesome bar. Spoco is my bar away from home whenever I'm in Iowa City. Gin and Tonics all day. I always make a point to go in the bathroom whenever I'm at Spoco to relive the memories of throwing up and making friends. Classy? No. Fun as hell? Yes. I always remember going, but have trouble remembering leaving. Go, spoco, go!

I went to sports Column with some friends this last weekend. I bought two beers for 7.50 not bad at all. Cool place, the basketball games were on so it was fun. I get home and see 7.50 was charged to my card. the next day it is changed to 17.50. I did not leave a tip on the card just signed my name and left a dollar. It appears someone here decided to write themselves at 10 dollar tip, this should never happen. Classless place

The golf stop was not fair we were here for 45 minutes, but the guy working was getting bribed for money. Also only bar that did not participate in beer deal."

Tim hooked us up with pizza but it was trash. Tasted like cardboard. Great place for drinks but would stay away from the pizza.

Terrible food, terrible atmosphere, listless staff. Sat, Nov 4, 22:45 am: We should have walked out when the door opened, and the acrid smell of too-much-bleach hit our nostrils. Since we were limited for time, we stayed. As it turned out, it would have saved time to have left - we ordered standard bar fare, a Reuben and a French dip, which for some reason took 30 minutes to arrive -- after I told the waitress that we were in a hurry. My Reuben was okay, the side salad hadn't been inspected for wilted-on-their-way to rotten pieces of lettuce. My husband's French dip was the "worst sandwich he had ever eaten", and the french fries were the coated and twice fried kind that tasted terrible. To my amazement, when I paid the $20.04 bill with $25, the waitress finally came over, and asked if we wanted our change. 25% tip for that? To be fair, at least she (finally) took some initiative. By mid-afternoon, my burnt out nostrils had begun to recover.

Came in with friends expecting to be able to play drinking games. Everything was fine. We played quarters for a good fifteen minutes when these assholes had the audacity....the tenacity.....the sheer gall to tell us not to play..... apparently you can't play drinking games in Spoco because it is unamerican. That's what they said. I promptly told them Trump will rip them a new one and proceeded to drink myself to sleep until they eventually kicked me out. All in all pretty nice but needs some work.

Went for birthday pitchers a week after my birthday. Bartender on an empty bar refused to serve the "20 for 30" special because it wasn't 6 days later. Then told me he could do it if I threw 20$ his way for keystone. Haven't gone to Spoco for the first 21 years, now I'm not about to go for another 21 years

Came here pretty much every weekend in college and always had a great time. Wish I could say more but my memories are kind of blurred by all the alcohol. I live in Denver now and frequent the Sports Column there quite often to watch Hawkeyes football....GO HAWKS!!

ONE WORD - PIT! Alumni of Iowa and have been coming here for years. Decided to head over after the for pizza. Table dirty, bathrooms GROSS, STICKY FLOORS from the night before! After our lousy pizza that looked like a frozen one and nachos we thought had some form of meat on them...when we went outside and looked at the awning, that should have been our indication right there - it was moldy. RUN, even if you are starving!

Top notch bar in Iowa city. Lately they have added a DJ on most nights and have started to play quality music for the college kids and have great deals with a friendly staff. Not to mention that their first is good, as well. I personally enjoy playing golden tee or darts.

Took an hour and ten minutes to get our food and it was nothing special. There was hardly anyone in the bar and if we hadn't asked for our food, who knows how long it would have taken to come out. Beer was cheap but there were only a few HD tvs. Hard to watch a game at a "sports bar" when you can't make out which team scored because the tvs are so fuzzy.

Every time I have been here it was packed with undergrads that seemed very underage. Besides the very un-sportsbar atmosphere they are usually blasting mind-numbing country music, and the tables/floor is packed with broken glass. Two of the times I went there I waited at the bar for 20 minutes (no joke) and never got service, but hey, the bar tenders like hitting on the youngest chicks, so that's a plus if you have an underage sister you have to drag around. It's been a consistently bad experience, and I always end up getting broken glass stuck in my shoes. The WORST of all Iowa bar experiences I have ever had. I made the mistake of coming here thrice... no more mistakes for me.

Sports Column, also known as Spoco. A classic college bar. Cheap beer, known for their bday special..$20 or $25 for 30 pitchers of Keystone or something like that. I've done it so many times I should know it, but I don't sadly. I ate here once for free. Wouldn't ever eat there otherwise. If your not watching a game or getting pitchers probably not an ideal place to be. Bathrooms are the worst, on a Weekend night you my as well stand on a slipping slide and drink beers with your friends and listen to loud music. Have had a lot great memories here...definitely a college bar though.

Waitstaff super friendly and extremely hard working. Bartenders aren't terrible on the eye. Drinks are strong and food is surprisingly good! Worth a visit if you're in Iowa City- though it is a bit chaotic Friday and Saturday nights.

This is my favorite bar in Iowa City. Cheap drinks and food service. Great place to come and watch the game. Had some curly haired girl as my waitress, I believe her name was Gabby. She gave excellent service. Seemed like she was the only waitress in the whole place and it was packed. My only problem was with the manager on duty. He was a guy with short darker hair, all his friends were calling him freeze or something like that. We were in to watch a finals game and he is swearing about how he hates basketball and complained about changing the channel. You work in a sports bar dude that's how it works. There were families in there and this guy was swearing up a storm and yelling at everyone working, and I am pretty sure I watched him pour himself and friends free drinks. Great place and great waitress, but something needs to happen about that manager.

I was out in Iowa City last night with my friends. Spoco was our second stop of the night. Once we arrived at Spoco my friend had to use the bathroom. The bar we had been to prior has their women's restroom in the basement so once she saw a stair case she figured it was the same at this bar. Oh was she wrong as these two girls who claim they work at Spoco so rudely let us know. This was her first time at this bar and in Iowa City so she figured all bathrooms were in basements. I am not sure as to why the door was left wide open but these girls sure let us know what "idiots" and "freshmen" we were. They called it a total underage move, which is funny because they later admitted to some of our other friends that they were underage. So unless you want to be verbally assaulted by two spoco underage workers who were in the bar DRINKING (again they are underage) and doing homework I wouldn't recommend this bar. Also maybe these underage drinkers/workers should do their jobs and not leave open doors to place that people shouldn't go into. Also maybe they shouldn't be underage drinking and so openly admitting it in their place of employment unless they want their place of employment to lose a liquor license.

Beware! If someone throws a beer at you and tries to start a fight, not only will they not be asked to leave, but you are stuck with sticky hair and smelling like beer for the rest of you evening. The staff here really dropped the ball on this one because my entire 10 person group will never come back.

Ordered a 9 inch pizza and they gave me a 15 inch. This was during a social with friends for my birthday so unfortunately I was not paying attention to the size of the pizza and could not tell it was the wrong size. After getting my bill I realized I was served the wrong pizza. I politely told the wait staff that I didn't order that size of pizza and would wish to pay for the 9 inch price. The waitress continuously told me I was lying and ordered a 15 inch which was rude and untrue. The manager then came to the table and told me I had to pay for the 15 inch and said that he believed his wait staffs word over mine. It was very unprofessional! Usually restaurants give you free desert for your birthday instead I was yelled at by management. I reluctantly paid for the 15 inch and personally have never been treated so poorly by management. Worst management from a restaurant I have seen, Very rude! Must not know the importance of retaining customers. I suggest any other bar in Iowa City.