What's there to say about a sports bar with a great patio? Not much that you haven't already heard.
You like beer? Sports? Patios? 17th Avenue? Chicken wings? Huge pubs? Then Melrose is a place to grab a patio and a drink on a hot day with buddies after work.
The restaurant patio is giant. It's giant by regular patio standards, not just 17th Avenue patio standards. It's actually an okay spot to hang out for Sunday brunch buffet.
The lounge-side patio is really just a series of tables pushed against a low window sill that they open in the summer. If you like to perch with a vodka-water and leer at the passers-by, this is your kind of outdoor space.
Melrose located in the centre of the 17th Avenue restaurant district and boasts being "the Heart of the Red Mile". (This is in reference to the 2004 Calgary Flames Stanley Cup run where 1000s of people took to the streets in celebration of every game win; Melrose simply happened to be in a central enough location to be caught in the crowds. All the other bars in that location did just as well with 1000s of people in the street.) This location has kept Melrose afloat ever since.
Heart of the Red Mile or not, this bar is just a summer spot for a drink. With the windows open and the patios packed it's hard to remember that the beer is average and the food never-changing.
Melrose is simply in a convenient location; and it's big enough and vanilla enough to accommodate a large crowd. So if you have a big group that vary widely in food and drink tastes, or are afraid of anything above average, you could take them to Melrose for pizza, wings, beer and high-balls.
T.