Alleyway bar

[TheAlleyway]

The tech came out. Fixed em' all up. They are running great. Mike and I went through all of them together and he showed me what was going on with all the machines. As of now L.O.T.R. is running fine. So, we all kind of said we will ride it out and see what happens next.
I agree with you Brian about setting some expectations. We talked about that when they were here. I think everything will be cool from this point forward.

[bounceback]

awesome! thanks for the update, can't wait to come hit the fresh games!

[eric]

What happened to the Alleyway? Did they ever finish their renovation?

[ROM]

All based on observations: at first the machines were still on all the time, while the place was closed up. This indicated to me that maybe they'd be open sort of soon. But they still aren't open, and the machines are now off. I wouldn't be surprised if Cashbox removes the games soon. I plan to take a closer look - I just noticed on a drive-by that the machines were off. maybe they were gone already.

The place looks super closed right now. Who knows what will happen...
Last week I wrote a review on Yelp, as a kind of "ode to what could have been."

[Dropshot]

My bet is that place changed owners, or needs to. That place is always empty and must be in the red every month its been open.

[ROM]

My guess is the place is/was owned by a few different people (as are many restaurants and bars, especially when they're owned by 30-something year-olds with families), none of whom were actually involved in the running of it. They just owned it and hoped their part-time managers (Nikki) would put it all together herself and turn it into a popular place. It had a lot going on for it, but was lacking in some managerial-related aspects (signage, advertising, presence, etc.). The owners let that place fail - they weren't dedicated.

[Dropshot]

I really think the non smoking aspect before the ban hurt it as well.

[ROM]

Alleyway is back open. They have three machines: Doctor Who, Medieval Madness, Sopranos.

They moved the bar itself 90 degrees, and set a pool table into the open space. We stopped in there on Sunday, and the place was jampacked with members from Weekend Kickball Teams, and it was too loud for us, so we left. No one was playing pinball.

[autofire]

i went in there last week. the games were playing alright but MM was set at a harder level, i.e. 4 shots to get them trolls instead of 3 etc etc. and a 12 oz can of pbr was 2 bones. i wont be going back.

[ROM]

Woah, they used to sell 20oz Giant Mugs of PBR for $2.25. That sucks.

But the kickballers seemed to be having a blast. I fear that ye olde Alleyway of yore is but gone.

Pool tables...... pool tables!

[revtest]

Bummer that place is way to small for pool tables! besides there are plenty of pool tables out there! BOO HISS!!!!!! MORE PINBALL!!!!

[bounceback]

yeah, they told me the expansion was going to make room for MORE tables-- like 7-10. they let maintenance on tables get away from them before the expansion, flaked on their own tournament, and were closed/closing at random hours constantly-- i'd go in there with 3 friends and they'd say they were shutting down at 10 or 11, it felt like they were always itching to shut down early with the "no one's in here" excuse, so eventually it becomes a reality. i once went there and they were closing, walking away passed 5 people on the street who were headed there and heard them turn around and leave, wondering where to go next.

pool players are loitering cheapskates, and half the bars in town have free pool to try to attract people to hang out and bump into people because their pool tables earn shit. i'd play once in a while but cues are always trashed, it's pointless. dumb move. i liked the direction they were headed... i guess it can always change again. would like to know the story though.