During the course of the NFL season, DSB will walk you through the best and worst places in Central PA to catch all of the games on a Sunday afternoon. Every week we will be reviewing where the DSB editors (and various guest stars) spent the better part of our day. We will be judging the locations on four criteria with a 1 (bad) to 10 (great) scale for each. Hopefully, this will help our loyal local readers find the best places to spend your Sunday afternoons.

If there are any restaurateurs or bar managers out there interested in their establishment appearing here, please contact us at EditorsDSB@gmail.com.

This week's cast of characters: Bearcat, Max Power, PJH, and special guest TS. We’ll also count Squeak - the very short, loud, and annoying guy with the high-pitched voice at the table next to ours. If you go, hopefully you won’t have to put up with this asshat all day like we did.

This week we laid our money down and rolled the dice on our choice…the Skybox Sports Bar located inside the Hollywood Casino. Located at the Penn National racetrack off the Grantville exit off of I-81, the Skybox is one of several dining choices inside the casino. It was our first time ever at the casino and obviously the Skybox too...so we were both hesitant and ready to be impressed over the course of the day.

• They have booths each with their own individual televisions lining the walls
• The front bar area offers a literal wall of 12 flat screens (three rows of four)
• Throughout the entire area are various suspended TVs
• Not be missed are the hanging glass plates located near the rail overlooking the casino where the television feed is projected directly onto the glass

Because we like to watch as many game as possible, we sat in the front bar area so we were right in front of the wall of TVs. If you aren’t watching a specific game, the proximity of the TVs to each other make it a bit of sensory overload…the staff also didn’t do a great job in keeping up with the televisions when the games changed over in the 4 o’clock hour - - some were left showing a celebrity long driving championship, an outdoorsman program and a Friends rerun.

While walking around the casino floor, we also came across a bar with a HUGE projection screen. If there’s a big game on (like a college game or Monday Night Football), this would be the place to watch it.

Beer: 6

They have a small selection of draft beer that includes Magic Hat Wacko and Stella Artois to name a few. There are also the typical choices of domestic and import bottles available. The beer prices are pretty high if you are going to drink all day (for example, $4 for a pint of Miller Lite) and they don't serve pitchers because of laws within casinos. Take full advantage of the "happy hour" specials at various times throughout the day as they slash their prices by half.

Food: 9

The Skybox has typical sports bar fare like burgers, wings, and pizza. But they also offer other menu items like their signature smokehouse sandwiches (brisket and pulled pork shoulder among them) and hearty dinners (like ribs and sirloin steak). We give enthusiastic thumbs up to the appetizers we ordered which included Sweet 'n Spicy wings, mozzarella cheese sticks, and calamari. The last two were served with a delicate and tasty pomodoro sauce that elevated the starters above the usual. Throughout the course of the day, we also indulged in baskets of their homemade chips, a huge mound of nachos, an Asian salad, and the prime rib sandwich served on garlic Texas toast. Most items on the menu are a couple of bucks more than you would find at other places, but the quality of the food more than makes up for the added cost.

Other/Miscellaneous: 8

Easily the best thing about the Skybox is their use of the ESP system. Each table is outfitted with a transmitter which allows the customer to "page" their waiter or waitress. The wait staff wears watches that notify them of a table request or summons from the kitchen or bar to pick up food or drink items. You will never have to wait twenty minutes again for a refill or an extra dressing.

DSB is used to the bathrooms not being very clean by the end of a day of football viewing - - clearly, that was not the case here as the bathrooms are located just across a public area in the casino and they were immaculate all day long.

The Skybox is an escalator ride away from hitting up the slots & video games and right around the corner from the "theater" for watching and betting on the ponies all across the country. But if the state budget contains the rumored inclusion of table games, the Skybox will become THE place to watch NFL games in the area. I can watch football all day and mix in some blackjack and Texas Hold ‘Em? Count me in…

The major drawback to the bar & seating area was the lack of WiFi…as Bearcat said in the comments of last week’s review "The lack of WiFi in 2009 is unforgivable".

The other slight negative is the lack of a regular and real sports crowd watching the games. The clientele is mostly the social security check casino crowd looking for a break from their slots.

Overall: 31 out of 40

I didn’t know what to expect from the Skybox and Hollywood Casino in general…but, it really delivered in a lot of the key areas we look for in deciding where to go on a Sunday afternoon. The two biggest drawbacks are the beer prices and the lack of WiFi. They are seemingly catering to those that come to gamble and hope you’ll stop by for dinner, instead of cultivating a clientele that is coming to watch the games at the Skybox and while they are there might lay money down on a horse race or take a couple of pulls on the one-arm bandits.

That being said, I would definitely recommend checking out the Skybox for your busy college football Saturdays or NFL Sundays.

Thanks for coming and suckling Daddy's Sugar Ball...