The sports bar as we know it first arose in the 1960s, when a bar in Buffalo decided to change the typical menu offered to guests. The menu included familiar favorites such as chicken wings, which were low-cost menu items meant to help attract guests.
One of the most common locations for a pool table was in the pool room at horse racing tracks. Owners of these tracks wanted to give their customers something to do between races, and a game of pool fit in with the gambling theme of the tracks.