Another local room closes

[Cord]

After nearly a decade of a second career as bar/poolroom owners, Harry and Tarina of Crazy Hats in Springfield, MO are hanging it up. This will be the final weekend, as the lease expires September 30.

Starting as a small, 2-table bar in a historic firehouse at the corner of National Ave & Atlantic St, they moved to the current location on N Campbell Ave about 5 years ago. Being avid league players, the couple expanded the new location to its current 6 Diamond barboxes to cater to local league play. Faced with a couple of rising numbers, though - (the building rent and their age,) - the time has come for the once-retired pair to call it quits. They will still be active in the local league scene, but sadly the bar will be no more.

So this weekend is the last hurrah. There will be the usual cheap 8-ball tourney Fri night ($10, DE, race to 3), probably filled with the usual thieves. Saturday will be the big bash. Scotch Doubles tourney at 11 am. Astonishing drink specials to get rid of remaining inventory.

If you're in the area, come on out to say goodbye, or to check it out for the first time. (First-timers are welcomed with a complimentary apple pie shot!)

 

[Mensabum]

After nearly a decade of a second career as bar/poolroom owners, Harry and Tarina of Crazy Hats in Springfield, MO are hanging it up. This will be the final weekend, as the lease expires September 30.

Starting as a small, 2-table bar in a historic firehouse at the corner of National Ave & Atlantic St, they moved to the current location on N Campbell Ave about 5 years ago. Being avid league players, the couple expanded the new location to its current 6 Diamond barboxes to cater to local league play. Faced with a couple of rising numbers, though - (the building rent and their age,) - the time has come for the once-retired pair to call it quits. They will still be active in the local league scene, but sadly the bar will be no more.

So this weekend is the last hurrah. There will be the usual cheap 8-ball tourney Fri night ($10, DE, race to 3), probably filled with the usual thieves. Saturday will be the big bash. Scotch Doubles tourney at 11 am. Astonishing drink specials to get rid of remaining inventory.

If you're in the area, come on out to say goodbye, or to check it out for the first time. (First-timers are welcomed with a complimentary apple pie shot!)

So sorry to see that place to. Was a fixture on the local scene back when I ran thru there. Springfields loss. Bummer.

 

[mikemosconi]

Well way back when - most pool
Rooms that I visited did not even sell liquor. Talking the post Hustler movie 1960s pre Vietnam war era that eventually sapped the pool rooms of all their late teen / early 20s male patrons.
All the pool rooms down here in SW FL
Are just bars masquerading as pool rooms anyhow - their Facebook pages tout happy hours and football drinking frenzy’s - almost never pool.

I play mostly daytime now. In a pool room where 90% of the time I am alone with 7 nine foot tables all afternoon. At night it becomes a loud frenzied bar and dance hall - no thanks! That is pool in America today

Gone are the times when you walked into a room at 9 PM and ALL you heard was the click of the pool balls and All you saw were men with very
serious faces putting it all on the line - the pool room really was a place onto it's own-- it was NOT a bar, a restaurant, or a dance hall--it was an escape from everything and an entrance into something that only many of us here would understand and love-----it was the Roman Coliseum and your cue replaced the sword----- so glad that I was there to experience that / many don’t realize what they missed!

 

[Biloxi Boy]

Well way back when - most pool
Rooms that I visited did not even sell liquor. Talking the post Hustler movie 1960s pre Vietnam war era that eventually sapped the pool rooms of all their late teen / early 20s male patrons.
All the pool rooms down here in SW FL
Are just bars masquerading as pool rooms anyhow - their Facebook pages tout happy hours and football drinking frenzy’s - almost never pool.
I play mostly daytime now. In a pool room where 90% of the time I am alone with 7 nine foot tables all afternoon. At night it becomes a loud frenzied bar and dance hall - no thanks! That is pool in America today
Gone are the times when you walked into a room at 9 PM and ALL you heard was the click of the pool balls and All you saw were men with very serious faces putting it all on the line - so glad that I was there to experience that / many don’t realize what they missed!

Oh man, you hit me in my gut. The image of stepping into a dimly lit pool room, the only sound being the clicking of balls, and letting your eyes adjust as a roomful of occupied Gold Crowns reveals itself is too much to bear. You are 100% correct, if you were not there, you do not know. And the most critical element is the disconnect between the smothering humidity outside and the soft air conditioned world within in which all of the cares of the world fell behind. I think that men have always instinctively sought refuge. The pool world I grew up in was one of the best.

 

[poolandpokerman]

Go back a little further, how about the players yelling for a rack man to rack the balls for 10 cents a game, those were the days.

 

[lfigueroa]

Oh man, you hit me in my gut. The image of stepping into a dimly lit pool room, the only sound being the clicking of balls, and letting your eyes adjust as a roomful of occupied Gold Crowns reveals itself is too much to bear. You are 100% correct, if you were not there, you do not know. And the most critical element is the disconnect between the smothering humidity outside and the soft air conditioned world within in which all of the cares of the world fell behind. I think that men have always instinctively sought refuge. The pool world I grew up in was one of the best.

It is a shame another room has closed up.

Back in the day pool was like stepping into an episode of "The Twilight Light Zone." I remember walking up the long wooden staircase from Market Street that led to The Palace in San Francisco: the torn up theatre-style seats along the rail; the mirrors along the wall and the fluorescent lights above; the diner-style counter; and the two huge paintings on the wall, one of a bare chested guy about to pounce on a prone damsel and I believe the other was of a pride of lions.

Of course there were the players and regular characters like Filipino Gene, Searcy, Ronnie Barber, and Ears. Truly a magical bit of American pool culture now lost.

Lou Figueroa

 

[Twocylndr]

Springfield, IL has lost it's last real room. Had 2 for a number of years. Starship Billiards and Maui's Cue. Maui's is still open...3 bar boxes and rest in

video gaming.

 

[mikemosconi]

Go back a little further, how about the players yelling for a rack man to rack the balls for 10 cents a game, those were the days.

I had a friend here this weekend - a bit older - 79- he is from my hometown - a town in shadows of NYC - he told of a time Mosconi came to do an exhibition and also he recalled pool at a penny a minute $1 an hour.

 

[j2pac]

It is a shame another room has closed up.

Back in the day pool was like stepping into an episode of "The Twilight Light Zone." I remember walking up the long wooden staircase from Market Street that led to The Palace in San Francisco: the torn up theatre-style seats along the rail; the mirrors along the wall and the fluorescent lights above; the diner-style counter; and the two huge paintings on the wall, one of a bare chested guy about to pounce on a prone damsel and I believe the other was of a pride of lions.

Of course there were the players and regular characters like Filipino Gene, Searcy, Ronnie Barber, and Ears. Truly a magical bit of American pool culture now lost.

Lou Figueroa

Well said Lou.

 

[garczar]

After nearly a decade of a second career as bar/poolroom owners, Harry and Tarina of Crazy Hats in Springfield, MO are hanging it up. This will be the final weekend, as the lease expires September 30.

Starting as a small, 2-table bar in a historic firehouse at the corner of National Ave & Atlantic St, they moved to the current location on N Campbell Ave about 5 years ago. Being avid league players, the couple expanded the new location to its current 6 Diamond barboxes to cater to local league play. Faced with a couple of rising numbers, though - (the building rent and their age,) - the time has come for the once-retired pair to call it quits. They will still be active in the local league scene, but sadly the bar will be no more.

So this weekend is the last hurrah. There will be the usual cheap 8-ball tourney Fri night ($10, DE, race to 3), probably filled with the usual thieves. Saturday will be the big bash. Scotch Doubles tourney at 11 am. Astonishing drink specials to get rid of remaining inventory.

If you're in the area, come on out to say goodbye, or to check it out for the first time. (First-timers are welcomed with a complimentary apple pie shot!)

Not trying to sound too picky but this is not a poolroom. Its a bar with some tables in the back. sorry its closing tho. Isn't there still a room in s'field? Billiards of springfield is still open afaik. Nice spot. Darren Everett used to run it at one time. Top S'field player along with loony Harriman.

 

[Bob Jewett]

... Isn't there still a room in s'field? Billiards of springfield is still open afaik. Nice spot. ....

I played there in April. A bunch of Gold Crowns in good condition, good food and friendly service.

 

[fjk]

Well way back when - most pool
Rooms that I visited did not even sell liquor. Talking the post Hustler movie 1960s pre Vietnam war era that eventually sapped the pool rooms of all their late teen / early 20s male patrons.
All the pool rooms down here in SW FL
Are just bars masquerading as pool rooms anyhow - their Facebook pages tout happy hours and football drinking frenzy’s - almost never pool.

I play mostly daytime now. In a pool room where 90% of the time I am alone with 7 nine foot tables all afternoon. At night it becomes a loud frenzied bar and dance hall - no thanks! That is pool in America today

Gone are the times when you walked into a room at 9 PM and ALL you heard was the click of the pool balls and All you saw were men with very
serious faces putting it all on the line - the pool room really was a place onto it's own-- it was NOT a bar, a restaurant, or a dance hall--it was an escape from everything and an entrance into something that only many of us here would understand and love-----it was the Roman Coliseum and your cue replaced the sword----- so glad that I was there to experience that / many don’t realize what they missed!

My hometown had an awesome old school pool room. Clean, well-kept and always full of pool room regulars looking to find or negotiate a game.

Then come "the day". I was there gambling (and losing because I remember being in a bad mood) when all of sudden the lights started dimming (I didn't even know they had a dimmer switch). I was down on a shot when it happened and they dimmed to the point where I couldn't see to shoot. Then the dance music started. I looked around me and then noticed all the young non-players there. Turns out my pool room was experimenting with a "dance party and pool night".

Every once in a while, I'll go to a pool room now. It's a whole different vibe. There's nobody hanging around looking for a game anymore...let alone 10-20 guys like there used to be in my hometown. Not all change is good.

 

[mikemosconi]

I will never forget the day that I realized pool in America had changed forever. I was in a Boston Billiards room in Fairfield CT. This was a chain of about 10 or so rooms throughout New England. It was a chain that had firmly adopted the model of pool being secondary to liquor and dance. They never held tournaments, the place was full of loud music and non players at night.

Anyhow, it was President's day 2001, on any winter school holiday in New England I would take my then 14 and 12 year old sons to a local pool room and we would spend the whole afternoon playing and have lunch there as well. They were both excellent players ( we had a 9 foot home table too) and they loved the game and being with Dad at the pool room- as well the burgers and fries

So- at 6PM the manager came over to me and said that my sons and I had to leave the room! Why? Boston Billiards had a cabaret license, no one under 18 could be in the room after 6, even with their parents! We left of course, but it hit me like a rock- there was no interest in fostering the game here, or any up and coming players, everything in this business model was liquor, liquor, liquor!

As a kid in the 60s local ordinances forbade kids without adults under 16 in rooms at night; but owners ALWAYS looked the other way for kids like me who they know loved to play the game and never caused trouble. Most guys in the 60s got real good at the game from age 14 to 18 in the rooms themselves. How are the vast number of kids in America ever going to take to this game again if every room is totally liquor dependent to survive and the kids are all shut out- most of these rooms don't even open until 4 now anyhow?

 

[sammylane12]

Not trying to sound too picky but this is not a poolroom. Its a bar with some tables in the back. sorry its closing tho. Isn't there still a room in s'field? Billiards of springfield is still open afaik. Nice spot. Darren Everett used to run it at one time. Top S'field player along with loony Harriman.

You make a good point about a bar with pool tables not necessarily being a poolroom. But the fact is no one is making it in the pool hall business without selling alcohol. When I had my pool room alcohol sales were 43% of the gross, there was no path forward without it. But everybody there was there to play pool.

 

[Texdance]

Go back a little further, how about the players yelling for a rack man to rack the balls for 10 cents a game, those were the days.

My first pool experience was hearing "Rack, Frank!" up and down the line of 8-ft Brunswicks. We were just kids of 16, but we quickly learned if you were disrespectful in speaking "Rack, Frank!" you might go to the end of the line - twice. Frank's dad owned the place, but Frank was a whiz at keeping those dimes coming without delay.

 

[garczar]

You make a good point about a bar with pool tables not necessarily being a poolroom. But the fact is no one is making it in the pool hall business without selling alcohol. When I had my pool room alcohol sales were 43% of the gross, there was no path forward without it. But everybody there was there to play pool.

Still a big diff. in a bar with a few tables and a real room that sells beer/liquor. You do have to sell booze of some kind to make it these days.

 

[Texas Carom Club]

Well way back when - most pool
Rooms that I visited did not even sell liquor. Talking the post Hustler movie 1960s pre Vietnam war era that eventually sapped the pool rooms of all their late teen / early 20s male patrons.
All the pool rooms down here in SW FL
Are just bars masquerading as pool rooms anyhow - their Facebook pages tout happy hours and football drinking frenzy’s - almost never pool.

I play mostly daytime now. In a pool room where 90% of the time I am alone with 7 nine foot tables all afternoon. At night it becomes a loud frenzied bar and dance hall - no thanks! That is pool in America today

Gone are the times when you walked into a room at 9 PM and ALL you heard was the click of the pool balls and All you saw were men with very
serious faces putting it all on the line - the pool room really was a place onto it's own-- it was NOT a bar, a restaurant, or a dance hall--it was an escape from everything and an entrance into something that only many of us here would understand and love-----it was the Roman Coliseum and your cue replaced the sword----- so glad that I was there to experience that / many don’t realize what they missed!

only pool players would liken pool, hitting balls with sticks, to roman gladiators

lol wow