When Scott Slaga took over the 710 Beach Club, located at 710 Garnet Ave. in 1989, he decided to turn the bluesy music venue into San Diego’s official home of the Chicago Bears. The venue will be the place to be on Sunday, Nov. 20 when the Chargers travel to The Windy City to take on the Bears in a televised game at 1:15 p.m. In 1989, the club was called Blind Melons and it took a lot of creativity and determination to keep the Bears theme alive during the early days. For one thing, there was no DirectTV back then to easily access the games. Instead, Scott, who is a Chicago native, would use giant-size receivers to search every signal in the country to find the game. And even then, catching the games wasn’t guaranteed. “‘The Mike Ditka Show’ started at 7:30 a.m. and was over by 8:30 a.m., so we had another hour and a half of waiting,” Slaga said. “By the time the game started, a lot of people didn’t even really care if the game was on. We did promotions like power tool Sundays and walnut and peanut throwing Sundays. We used to stack stools and try to climb all the way up to the skylight when the Bears scored.” Not being able to show all the Bears games may not have been the worst thing at the time, considering the abysmal state of the organization throughout the 1990s. In fact, the Bears following was so meager, Slaga also turned the club into a Buffalo Bills bar — a team that was extremely successful and popular during that time. Fortunes for each team seemed to reverse in the 2000s, and soon the Bills fans were far outnumbered and they finally left for good two years ago, Slaga said. Today, it’s typical to see a capacity crowd of 200 fans jam the 710 Club every time the Bears play a game. In fact, sometimes the line to get in stretches down the sidewalk, depending on the magnitude of the game. “I think the three biggest games here were the NFC championship and Super Bowl games of 2007 and when the Bears made the playoffs for the first time in seven years in 2002,” said co-owner Brian Wirtz. Besides being a Bears bar, 710 Beach Club is known for its Chicago-themed contests. For example, in a relay game the bar organized, someone might have to down a drink and then another devours a sausage dog before a third teammate can run to the ocean for a quick dip — usually during the winter. The grand prize for the season is a weeklong trip to Slaga’s house in Lake Tahoe for that year’s top team. Every time the Bears score or come up with a big play, the master of ceremonies, who also happens to be Slaga, grabs his microphone and belts out the Bears theme song called “Bear Down.” The voices of hundreds of singing fans can be heard all the way to the beach, creating a real hometown feel in a faraway city. “We let the Bears fans feel like they’re at home, like they’re in The Windy City,” Slaga said. The 710 Beach Club is also known for its famous “little Ditkas,” (shots of Rumple Mintz named after the team’s iconic coach), handed out by Slaga throughout the games. The club also offers $3 well drinks and $3 domestic draft beers. Food is also a must for newcomers to 710. “We have a football menu,” Wirtz said. “We have breakfast in the morning until 11 a.m. and different discounted food items throughout the game.” Thirteen plasma TVs and two projector screens for night games make watching sports events at 710 a great time. Some recent remodeling, which included installing garage-style doors, has added to the ambiance. “The ocean breeze coming in makes it much cooler with 200 fans in here and makes it more inviting on the inside as well as the outside,” Wirtz said. Whether you’re from Chicago or not, watching a Bears game at 710 is an experience everyone should try. “All the Bears fans who are local and the ones who come in from out of town tell me that the Bears experience at 710 Beach Club is by far the best Bears experience they’ve had since they were in Chicago,” Slaga said. So as not to discriminate against local football fanatics, Slaga guarantees every Chargers game, notwithstanding an NFL blackout. “We actually get a pretty strong showing for the Chargers games now,” he said.