Monday, July 02, 2012

BARCADE Comes to H Street

IMG_4978
Quit playing around and make plans to check out BARCADE 

Erik Holzherr (Church and State, Wisdom) has just released details on his newest venture. BARCADE (1236 H Street)"will be an 80s retro-themed beer and video game bar." He plans to hold a grand opening Tuesday July 10th.

35 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not a bad idea. Jut cut out the $10 terrible drinks and it should do fine.

dt said...

Is this going into the former Fruit Bat location, or is it something completely new?

Anonymous said...

AKA old "Fruit Bat" AKA old "Martini Lounge"

inked said...

dt,
It's the old Fruit Bat location, but a totally new concept.

Anonymous said...

I'm totally down to check this place out upon opening day. Love the unique theme. Hope it works. Hope they sell cheap drinks (aka PBR)

Anonymous said...

Soooooo frickin' awesome!

Anonymous said...

the hipsters are going to love it!

Anonymous said...

Ms. PacMan, Donkey Kong and Frogger!

kat said...

Sounds cool. I hope they actually have some games in addition to being "80s retro-themed."

Reminds me of Dallas' "Barcadia" (http://barcadiabars.com/barcadia-dallas/). Hope it's just as awesome!

Anonymous said...

Is this the same as in Philly and NYC? It's trademarked, so I hope so. Remove the snotty bartenders from the equation (at the Philly location) and it is a decent place, albeit a huge sausage fest.

Anonymous said...

AWESOME!! Have good beer prices, and this place will be pretty popular. I'll be fine going here just for the games if they have a solid selection.

dave b said...

i can't wait to pull some fatalities in mortal combat II.

down forward back back high kick. turn into a dragon and bite some bama's torso off

Guile said...

mortal kombat is a 90's game. If they're gonna do 90's video games please please have a street fighter 2 game!
But either way, I'm really excited for this place to open!

Anonymous said...

Galaga, Spy Hunter, Paperboy, TMNT 4 player would be sick tho

Anonymous said...

Contra, and Double Dragon 1-2!!!!

E in Rosedale said...

Oh man, I am so stoked! They should use this place as a model:

http://groundkontrol.com/

I've been there and it's way fun.

ML said...

If it's like the one in NYC I will be very excited. Classic obscure games plus great drinks is an awesome combo. I think the space is too small though. They will need to fill up the eastern wall with games and not have room for tables.

Rayful Edmond said...

Love this idea.

Games I would like to see added:
Guantlet
NBA Jam
MK3 or SF2
TMNT
Simpsons

Note to owners: Please install railings so patrons can place drinks down while toggling the joystick.

bryandc said...

per report on Eater DC, same theme, same name but different groups.

http://dc.eater.com/archives/2012/07/02/barcade-hitting-h-street-with-vintage-arcade-games.php

Looks likely that Erik will be changing the name from Barcade® to something else

Anonymous said...

ROBOTRON!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Robotron would be sick, but I'd rather see Smash TV with all its glorious noise, its gonna be cool drinking in with all the classic arcade noise going on, I would be amazed to see some vector games

Anonymous said...

Sounds like he maybe hasn't thought this one all the way through, given that story about stealing the name from another established bar without permission.

Good to ready he's focusing on beer for this one, because his cocktails are a disaster.

Derek said...

I first read it as BARCODE and thought another location for....oh I read that wrong. Yeah they do need a new name.

It would be great if the staff looked like arcade characters. "Hey, Luigi I need another...."

It would be great if some classic coin operated games were included.

Anonymous said...

alright the theme bars are getting lame....just open a quality bar and we will come....

Ryu said...

Goddamit I'm seriously regretting moving to the burbs now.

Anonymous said...

It seems like all they'll have is pinball, ms pacman and pinball. Definitely 80s themed and none of the games listed in the comments :-(

Anonymous said...

I want Leisure Suit Larry.

Anonymous said...

I'd like to see this guy succeed here, but this is just another dumb idea. How about dropping the silly gimmick ideas and bringing to H what you did so well on the other side of the Hill with Wisdom?

Anonymous said...

I think this sounds like a good idea, but like Fruit Bat and Church and State before it, it's all in the execution. If it's half assed (a few games) and done with a hokey quick-change interior people won't return.

It's hard to see how a space that small can host a concept like this, but hopefully I'm wrong.

Snafu said...

This will succeed if and only if they have more games other than donkey kong and ms. pacman. I'm a 30 something and do not remember those games. Those are probably more for the 40 somethings crowd.
BTW - this is not a dumb idea. I love the concept and for us 30 somethings who grew up in the Nintendo era I know most, if not all of us will be frequent customers (assuming the selection is there).

Anonymous said...

Wish they were opening this up on the west end of h street......

Anonymous said...

I think the same guy owns church and state upstairs. For this to work, he should go all out and make this a two level place.

Anonymous said...

the dude didn't even know that Barcade was already a place, I mean just google your creative bar name idea first...

Donald Trump said...

Glad to see we're finally getting a "theme" bar. Now if we could just get some pay toilets!

KMB said...

I'm in my late 20's and certainly remember Ms. Pac-Man and Donkey Kong. They both came out in the early 80's, but I remember seeing them at arcades well into the 90's. Ms. Pac-Man, in particular, was my favorite game at both the laundromat my family went to during the six months we lived in an apartment with no washer/dryer and at our local pizza place. I'm excited for this place!

I do agree that it would be awesome if they got rid of Church & State and made Barcade (or whatever the name will be) two stories.