Visited my local "bar-cade" - my review

joemagiera

Thread Manager
Joined
Mar 22, 2003
Messages
6,162
Reaction score
1,073
Visited my local Chicago "bar-cade" - my review

Last night (Saturday, 2-16-2013), for the first time, I visited the local bar-cade in Chicago, Emporium, at 1366 North Milwaukee in Chicago.

http://emporiumchicago.com/games/

Wanted to report for the group. First off, parking is extremely difficult. I drove by the place at 11PM and it took me a solid 25 minutes to find any parking. Now this is a young person's area of Chicago, with a lot of bars in the area on a Saturday night, so that probably explains things (and if you lived in Chicago, I'm sure you've been through that before).

That said, once I actually got in the place, I thought it was great! Pretty impressive selection of games and on the games I played at least, they seemed to be pretty well maintained. The place was jam packed. It was great to see all the old games in a public setting, very actively being played. Age group is what you would expect for a bar in this area, mostly 20's & 30's age group. I though sure it would be more of an attraction for older people that played them in the arcades. Then again, older people don't go to bars as often. As I walked up and down the bar to check the place out, I don't think at any point did I see two games in a row not being played.

They had three new Stern pinball games, Transformers and ACDC, can't remember the last. Good decision on their part not to have any old e&m games. (no offense to the e&m lovers, but those pins would never earn in a setting like this). Now maybe a 90's Williams DMD would have been nice, but that's okay. All 3 pins were being played the whole night, and generally all on 4 player games.

The place was a typical bar, the music was loud and you had to talk (shout?) very loudly to get the person next to you to hear you.

I played Q*bert, joystick was nice and tight and even the knocker was working. Space Invaders, fully working, including the mystery ship sound. Asteroids, b/w x/y and game working fine. Missile Command, track ball rolled very smooth, just like it should (monitor could have used a cap, but it wasn't bad at all). Played a few others, Burger Time, Zaxxon, Centipede (working, but had a bit of a board issue, still playable though), and all seemed generally fine.

They had a big chalk board with high scores on it. Nothing glitzy or special, but it did the job. I got a couple high scores and reported them. On a very busy Saturday night, the bartender that I told about it, immediately came and verified the score and immediately got out the ladder and posted my name and score. I was impressed that he clearly made it a priority to post up the new score so quickly. I thought sure he'd need to attend to the liquor buying customers first, but they waited. Nice touch.

All in all, I thought it was great and I would likely go back. If you have any thoughts or interest in it, go give it a chance, I think you will enjoy yourself. Just remember, parking is difficult and costs before 9PM. And the parking police watch the area like hawks. Both buddies I was with said they had received parking tickets parking around there previously. I stayed out until 2AM. It's a 3AM bar and would have stayed until closing, but my buddies all left. I had a great time and recommend it to all.
 
Last edited:
Retro video but new Stern pinballs? Bleh. Some 80s/90s williams and gottlieb machines would fit the time frame better. What a strange choice, unless their tech is no good at fixing pins - probably true since their website shows a Bride of Pinbot and Firepower as being off the floor, in need of repair. Thanks for the review, place sounds decent otherwise.
 
I recommend going during the week if you can, they are not as crowded and it is much easier to just walk up and play the games you want.

Same goes for the other barcade in Chicago, HQ Beercade, going during the week you get more playing time and more variety of games open.
 
Very cool. My wife (who is from Evanston) and I are actually going to Chicago next month and I've carved out some time to check out both Emporium & HQ while we're there. Very much looking forward to it :)
 
Sounds like a great place to go . If it was local I'd be there .
 
North Side parking is usually a pain. I haven't lived there in nearly 20 years but when I did I rented a garage for my car...it made things so much easier. And I usually took cabs or mass transportation when going out at night.

When I lived there Wicker Park was still pretty dicey.

Nice to see these games getting new fans.
 
Retro video but new Stern pinballs? Bleh. Some 80s/90s williams and gottlieb machines would fit the time frame better. What a strange choice, unless their tech is no good at fixing pins - probably true since their website shows a Bride of Pinbot and Firepower as being off the floor, in need of repair. Thanks for the review, place sounds decent otherwise.

I bet the new Sterns draw in more people than the old games would unless they were A-list MM, MB, or AFM or such. Whole different group of people and seems like a smart move to me.
 
I bet the new Sterns draw in more people than the old games would unless they were A-list MM, MB, or AFM or such. Whole different group of people and seems like a smart move to me.

Not necessarily. I remember a chick in her 20's at The 1up tell me her favorite was Elvira Scared Stiff. Pretty much all the pins get a lot of love there. Rocky and Bullwinkle seemed to get played less but I found that to not be such a great game.
 
Sounds like they've been hard at work fixing games. When I was there in October the only vid working 100% was Circus Charlie. There's another place near there that has a lot of games -- Logan Hardware. They dont have beer...but they do have a lot of cool records and a great beer place on the corner.

Can't believe this thread hasn't received a cease and desisit letter from the NY guys for mentioning the words bar and cade in the same thread.
 
Can't believe this thread hasn't received a cease and desisit letter from the NY guys for mentioning the words bar and cade in the same thread.

ha ha ha, that's funny. the same thought passed through my head, too, then to see it written....

We are due for a Chicago trip this spring, looking forward to any pinball experiences since SE Iowa is devoid of anything at all. Have to drive 2hrs to even play a new Stern.
 
Thanks for the review! I'll be going to Chicago in a month for a concert at The Vic.
I found a nice looking place to stay, a block from HQ beercade. My favorite bar in town, Delilah's, is also very close.
I can't wait to check out HQ, Emporium, and Logan Hardware.
 
Back
Top Bottom