Best Appetizers to Share at 12 Hawks Before Kickoff

What to order before kickoff

For a table of four to six watching the game, order two or three shareable starters instead of individual apps. It costs less, comes out faster, and keeps hands free for the plays that matter. Here's what works best for groups.

• Wings, bone-in or boneless. A full order typically covers 3 to 4 people. Get one flavor mild and one hot if the table disagrees on heat. These take about 12 to 15 minutes, so put them in as soon as you sit down.

• Loaded nachos. One tray splits well across 4 people if nobody's starving. Ask for sauce and toppings spread evenly rather than piled center, so the bottom chips don't go soggy by the second quarter.

• Pretzel bites with dip. Good filler food that won't compete with wings for attention. Kids eat these too, which matters if you've got a family table mixing game-watching with an early dinner.

• Sliders. Order in sets of 3 or 6. Three sliders per person is plenty if you're also getting wings or nachos. This is the one item where portion math actually matters, since sliders disappear fast.

• Quesadillas, cut in sixths instead of quarters. More pieces means everyone gets a bite without someone claiming the last wedge. Ask your server to cut it this way; most kitchens will.

The honest tradeoff: the more you order at once, the longer the kitchen takes to get it all out together. If you're seating a group of 6 or more, tell your server you want it staggered instead of simultaneous. Wings and pretzel bites first, nachos and sliders 10 minutes later. Nobody sits staring at an empty table for 20 minutes waiting on everything at once.

Timing it with happy hour

If your group can get there between 2 and 4pm Monday through Friday, appetizer prices drop and it's the cheapest way to feed a table before an evening game. That window doesn't help much for Sunday afternoon NFL games, since happy hour is weekday-only, but it's worth planning around for weeknight games or a Friday night watch party. There's a full breakdown of what's included in the deal on the happy hour guide for Ephrata regulars if you want specifics before you go.

One thing to plan around: 12 Hawks is closed Tuesdays. If your league or watch group meets weekly on that day, you'll need a backup night. There's a short explainer on why the Tuesday closure happens and what days work instead.

Watching the game with a group

Every screen in the building runs a different game during football season, so a group of 8 to 10 can usually get their team on a screen near their table without asking the whole room to switch channels. If you're bringing a bigger group, 10 or more, call ahead. Tables for that size fill up fast on Sunday afternoons, especially during playoff weekends, and walking in cold means you might get split across two tables instead of sitting together.

Families are welcome at the same tables as the game crowd. If you've got kids with you, pretzel bites and quesadillas are the safest bet since they're mild and easy to split into kid-size pieces. The room isn't set up as a sports bar exclusively, so it works fine to have one half of the table watching the game and the other half just eating dinner.

What to skip if you're in a hurry

If kickoff is in 15 minutes and you just want food on the table, skip anything that's fried to order in small batches, like onion rings, since those come out one tray at a time and slow down a shared order. Wings and pretzel bites are the fastest bets. Nachos take a bit longer because of the assembly. Sliders are middle of the pack. None of this is a knock on the kitchen, it's just how fry stations work when everyone in the building orders the same thing at 12:55 on a Sunday.

Before you go

The full appetizer list, along with prices and current specials, is on the 12 Hawks menu. If you're new to the place or just want to know what else is on offer beyond game day, like breakfast hours or the cocktail list, that's covered on the About Us page. Either way, order enough to share, time it around happy hour if you can, and call ahead if your group is bigger than a table for six.