Café des Sports: table football and natural wine
A vintage wood-panelled bistro, a table football table, hundreds of wines and many of them natural: the liveliest bar in the centre, and it knows it.
The verdict
Café des Sports is a cheerful contradiction: a vintage wood-panelled bistro with a table football table, and behind the counter a cellar of several hundred bottles, many of them natural wines (unfiltered, with little or no added sulphur), that would embarrass plenty of solemn wine bars. The room is loud and unapologetic about it. That is the point.
What to drink
Natural wine in quantity, craft beer, all at ordinary city-centre prices. The list is not posted on a board, you ask for it: the staff navigate the cellar according to your taste, and that is part of the game.
Visiting tip
Do not come here for a hushed conversation on a Friday night, the volume is part of the folklore. Early on a weekday evening the place shows its other face, a neighbourhood bistro where the world gets put to rights over the table football. Santa Elena, the Argentinian restaurant, is on the same street.
Frequently asked questions
What is the atmosphere like at Café des Sports?
Does Café des Sports serve beer?
Camille Roth
Born in Schiltigheim, Camille spent ten years working in Strasbourg kitchens before swapping the apron for a notebook. She writes about winstubs, the city's newer tables and Alsatian produce. Her rule: never recommend an address she would not send her own parents to.
