New pool rooms in Maryland?

inside_english

inside_english

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I have been hearing rumblings about a new room in the Fort Meade / Elkridge area, off Route 198? Anyone have details?

I also heard that Hagerstown Billiards Cafe is reopening.

Can anyone validate these or provide more info?

TIA!
 
Not sure about the Elkridge area but I can tell you Hagerstown Billiards is not re-opening anytime soon. There is a Hard Times Cafe opening up soon which might be the closest thing to a pool room for Hagerstown.
 
HarleyKR07 said:
Not sure about the Elkridge area but I can tell you Hagerstown Billiards is not re-opening anytime soon. There is a Hard Times Cafe opening up soon which might be the closest thing to a pool room for Hagerstown.
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There is a bar in Hagerstown with two 7' diamonds and a 9' diamond!
 
inside_english said:
I have been hearing rumblings about a new room in the Fort Meade / Elkridge area, off Route 198? Anyone have details?

I also heard that Hagerstown Billiards Cafe is reopening.

Can anyone validate these or provide more info?

TIA!
Click to expand...

I have heard of a new room opening not far from Fort Meade. IIRC, it is near the intersection of 198 and 32.
The owners are working with the local APA operator and they will have a number of Diamond Smart Tables and this location will be used for upper level APA playoffs in this area. I'm not sure if, or how many, 9' tables they will have. I'm also not sure when it will be open, but it should be open by the end of summer for the next APA Tri-Annual tournament.

I don't have any information about Hagerstown Billiards Cafe reopening.
IMHO, the last owner ran it into the ground. It is a good location with a decent amount of parking. A new owner could make a big difference and that place could be a very successful business.
 
Rich R. said:
I have heard of a new room opening not far from Fort Meade. IIRC, it is near the intersection of 198 and 32.
The owners are working with the local APA operator and they will have a number of Diamond Smart Tables and this location will be used for upper level APA playoffs in this area. I'm not sure if, or how many, 9' tables they will have. I'm also not sure when it will be open, but it should be open by the end of summer for the next APA Tri-Annual tournament.

I don't have any information about Hagerstown Billiards Cafe reopening.
IMHO, the last owner ran it into the ground. It is a good location with a decent amount of parking. A new owner could make a big difference and that place could be a very successful business.
Click to expand...

The story with Hagerstown Billiards was the rent was killing the business. The building was falling apart and the owners of the property did absolutly nothing to accomodate the situation. They refused to lower the rent when this so called bad economy started tanking. The owners kept it open as long as they could but it just capped out eventually. To this day the 2 buildings on that property sit empty because the property owners think some fool will pay the same rent in a building that is on it's last leg. The room owner had a new spot but it was shot down due to lack of parking. Who knows what will happen now.
 
HarleyKR07 said:
The story with Hagerstown Billiards was the rent was killing the business. The building was falling apart and the owners of the property did absolutly nothing to accomodate the situation. They refused to lower the rent when this so called bad economy started tanking. The owners kept it open as long as they could but it just capped out eventually. To this day the 2 buildings on that property sit empty because the property owners think some fool will pay the same rent in a building that is on it's last leg. The room owner had a new spot but it was shot down due to lack of parking. Who knows what will happen now.
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Some people have more money than brains. Too bad, it was a nice room.
 
easy-e said:
Have you ever met a guy in their named Rhett Knight? He hangs out in there a good bit and plays a lot of pool (not too well though). He is my BFF!
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I don't recognize the name but I'm sure I have seen him in there at sometime or another.
 
Rich R. said:
I have heard of a new room opening not far from Fort Meade. IIRC, it is near the intersection of 198 and 32.
The owners are working with the local APA operator and they will have a number of Diamond Smart Tables and this location will be used for upper level APA playoffs in this area. I'm not sure if, or how many, 9' tables they will have. I'm also not sure when it will be open, but it should be open by the end of summer for the next APA Tri-Annual tournament.

I don't have any information about Hagerstown Billiards Cafe reopening.
IMHO, the last owner ran it into the ground. It is a good location with a decent amount of parking. A new owner could make a big difference and that place could be a very successful business.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info Rich.
Given that this new room's focus will be APA they won't be seeing much of me unless they have other tournaments (non-APA).
 
Rich R. said:
I have heard of a new room opening not far from Fort Meade. IIRC, it is near the intersection of 198 and 32.
The owners are working with the local APA operator and they will have a number of Diamond Smart Tables and this location will be used for upper level APA playoffs in this area. I'm not sure if, or how many, 9' tables they will have. I'm also not sure when it will be open, but it should be open by the end of summer for the next APA Tri-Annual tournament.

I don't have any information about Hagerstown Billiards Cafe reopening.
IMHO, the last owner ran it into the ground. It is a good location with a decent amount of parking. A new owner could make a big difference and that place could be a very successful business.
Click to expand...
Actually I may have to agree with HarleyKR07 about Hagerstown. That was a great room, especially for tournaments, and they had decent food and liquor. I think they just couldn't get the turnout to cover their high-rent.

I always hated the state of their restrooms, which is a HUGE deal for me. I judge a place by the quality of its restrooms...always have, always will, just a personal thing. But maybe they could not afford to rehaul due to the fact that they were struggling?

I also heard that All-Star in Frederick is struggling to make ends meet as well.
I hope not, because I like that room too. They run some great tourneys up there.
 
I like going to All-Star also and their rent is even higher than Hagerstown Billiards with a space half the size, but in much better condition. That's Frederick county for ya. All-Star has a huge base of pool players to where they are running leagues 7 days a week, which take it for what it's worth, funds a good bit of their business. Fact of the matter is everyone in Hagerstown griped when the room closed, but the ones who griped were not there to support the business when they knew the room was in jeopardy of closing. Had Hagerstown had All-Star's base of pool players than they would have never closed.
 
inside_english said:
Actually I may have to agree with HarleyKR07 about Hagerstown. That was a great room, especially for tournaments, and they had decent food and liquor. I think they just couldn't get the turnout to cover their high-rent.

I always hated the state of their restrooms, which is a HUGE deal for me. I judge a place by the quality of its restrooms...always have, always will, just a personal thing. But maybe they could not afford to rehaul due to the fact that they were struggling?

I also heard that All-Star in Frederick is struggling to make ends meet as well.
I hope not, because I like that room too. They run some great tourneys up there.
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I really don't have any knowled of the problems the owner was having with the rent and the people who owned the building. If that was the case, I feel sorry for him.

I don't live near Hagerstown and I only went there to see tournaments.
I always liked that room. As you said, the food was good, but the restrooms sucked.
Also, the last time I was there, the tears in the rug were so large, the duct tape patches could no longer hold them together. It was also so cold that everyone had to keep their coats on.
Maybe the high rent prevented the room owner from making the necessary improvements, but, on the other hand, if the place was in better shape and the environment was more comfortable, business would be better and maybe he could have afforded the high rents.
I don't mean to be judgemental, but there are a lot of issues involved when a room goes down and all of them have to be considered.
 
Rich R. said:
I really don't have any knowled of the problems the owner was having with the rent and the people who owned the building. If that was the case, I feel sorry for him.

I don't live near Hagerstown and I only went there to see tournaments.
I always liked that room. As you said, the food was good, but the restrooms sucked.
Also, the last time I was there, the tears in the rug were so large, the duct tape patches could no longer hold them together. It was also so cold that everyone had to keep their coats on.
Maybe the high rent prevented the room owner from making the necessary improvements, but, on the other hand, if the place was in better shape and the environment was more comfortable, business would be better and maybe he could have afforded the high rents.
I don't mean to be judgemental, but there are a lot of issues involved when a room goes down and all of them have to be considered.
Click to expand...

You hit it right on the head. There was no gas going into November, so no gas equals no heat and no hot food. Good thing it didn't stay open past that or we would have played on ice covered tables!!
 
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