Barcade

07/26/08

Antisocial and gimmicky, but not too shabby

by rojedejong at Citysearch

Barcade is basically a hipster Dave and Busters. Just as folks from around the neighborhood enjoy wearing garments from the eighties, thus making the eighties the present (are you with me?), people here enjoy playing Asteroids, Galaga, and Ms. Pacman as if they were trying out the most futuristic virtual reality golf simulator. But the drinks are good. What does this all mean?

A) This bar is antisocial. Go there alone to drink yourself to happiness, or go with a friend if you don't have anything good to talk about. Go with your girlfriend who you're about to break up with. You will never pick up girls here because you are not in Fantasy land, you're playing Marble Madness and talking to yourself.

B) This bar has good beer. In so many ways I wish the beer selection here was bad, because then I wouldn't ever go. But I live a block away and Barcade represents minimal effort in obtaining good beer, which is sort of my style once darkness falls.

• Pros: beer selection, games for when you're sad and alone
• Cons: very antisocial

04/24/08

Get lost here and enjoy it

by asana at Citysearch

OK, maybe I felt a little old here, but those games brought me back! So easy to strike up a convo with anyone, and I even danced to the rock music there. Lots of "hipsters" but they're not so bad to play with!

• Pros: chill, relaxed, mixed crowd
• Cons: not diverse enough

02/13/08

Hilarious place to people watch.

by Hymburglar at Citysearch

Jesus, this place floored me on how hilariously douchy people can get. It is the hipster mecca, I'd say. If you want to laugh at people with Gel-Made bedhead and "ironic" short shorts, as well as tattered tourist shirts from Bermuda and Oklahoma, look no further. I actually had a pretty good time laughing at the guy with the Prince Valiant Medieval-style bowl cut. I'm not kidding. The bar has all sorts of weird microbrews, but the majority of them taste like brewed sewage, honestly. You can probably hear the hipsters talking about how they're beer experts, but really, they should shut up. The videogames are cool for like 2 minutes, then you realize that they weren't all that fun to begin with. It does have some appeal in that it's kind of like being in a warehouse with a bunch of a-holes. In all honesty, I did enjoy myself laughing at people talking about the latest indie rock or films as if they were all geniuses waiting to be discovered. So if you're down for people having identity crises and hearing some skinny dude in a pork-pie hat and thick rimmed glasses talking about Matt and Kim or some other stupid "underground" band while drinking some sludgy dumpwater, then look no further. I know I'll be back. I haven't laughed so hard in ages.

• Pros: Hilarious comedy show; great for people watching
• Cons: Your realization that all of the draws are really lame.