My Pool Hall Closed - LAME!

[NeZ]

I've been going to the Corner Pocket in Chicago at least once a week for about 5 years now. It was great bar/pool hall with nice tables, great food, and friendly waitresses. tMy buddy and I never had to pay for pool and got a lot of drinks free on top of it.

As you know, with all the other commitments and travelling in the summer it's hard to have a free weekend so it had been a few weeks since I'd been there. The cab pulled up last Friday to find the windows covered with paper and a note on the door saying thanks for 17 years of business.

I was stunned. I knew they weren't doing great but had no idea they were so close to closing.

Now we've got to find a new place. Lame! Luckily, there are quite a few options around Chicago. The only problem is we won't have all the built in freebees. I don't know if I can afford taking the time to become a regular at another place.

No real point to this I guess other than venting.

 

[Black Cat 5791]

Just curious did you guy's ever kick in a healthy Gratuity? How many other people got the great arangement you and your friend got? Sometimes Business owners are great people, and not so great business owners. My favorite local spot to my surprise was sold a few months ago, and now an even bigger surprise is that the new owners are looking to sell already. Just food for tought, 17 years is along time maybe they just got tired and wanted to get out.

Good Luck, Black Cat

 

[Samiel]

I had the same situation several years ago. Serious bummer man!

Wilt's in Arlington, TX was my hangout and they had to close down.

Great place and great people I'll never forget!

 

[NeZ]

Just curious did you guy's ever kick in a healthy Gratuity? How many other people got the great arangement you and your friend got? Sometimes Business owners are great people, and not so great business owners. My favorite local spot to my surprise was sold a few months ago, and now an even bigger surprise is that the new owners are looking to sell already. Just food for tought, 17 years is along time maybe they just got tired and wanted to get out.

Good Luck, Black Cat

We always tipped insanely well. There were a few groups of regulars who got the free pool deal, but I'm not sure how many.

The place was really more of a bar/grill type crowd than hardcore pool players. Most people would just play for an hour or two and then go out to other bars, etc. I'm sure they paid full price for pool which I think was $12 an hour.

I'm not sure if they closed due to lack of business or some other reason (maybe their lease was up or rent skyrocketed). I do know summers were never great for them. Especially in the midwest when it gets nice out people want to be outside instead of in a dark bar.

 

[Da Poet]

Not the end of the world in this case.

Although it's always sad when any business closes, in this case, Corner Pocket was owned by a larger company that still owns several other successful pool halls, bowling alleys, bars, and restaurants. From what I heard, it wasn't that the pool tables were doing poorly as much as they thought that restaurant tables would do better. This company has a good handle on what's going on and they still have another place about 3-4 blocks away with exactly the same tables, felt, and a bowling alley. There is no shortage of table time within walking distance. One of my league teams played out of there last year and I know this place well. I got my share of freebies once in a while too, and I always tip stupid high.

Corner Pocket was okay. I wasn't great, it wasn't bad. Sort of a TGI Friday kind of vibe to me. I would never recommend it as a must see pool hall. I never saw any players there that were very good like you would see at Chris's, but folks seemed happy there with the slow felt and the big pockets. It was a good mixed company, slightly upscale kind of place to introduce newer players to the game. I heard from the league operator that Corner Pocket was considering changing to a restaurant several months ago, however, I checked with a bartender there a couple weeks ago, and she said the place was going to be open at least through the fall. Oh well, I guess not!


Lots of places to play pool in the Windy City.

 

[Timberly]

I had the same situation several years ago. Serious bummer man!

Wilt's in Arlington, TX was my hangout and they had to close down.

Great place and great people I'll never forget!

Where was that place? It's ringing a bell.... I always played at Rusty's and once in a great while I would venture over to clicks but... Wilt's is sounding familiar... I think I had some friends that went over there on a semi regular basis and I might've joined them a time or two.

 

[NeZ]

Although it's always sad when any business closes, in this case, Corner Pocket was owned by a larger company that still owns several other successful pool halls, bowling alleys, bars, and restaurants. From what I heard, it wasn't that the pool tables were doing poorly as much as they thought that restaurant tables would do better. This company has a good handle on what's going on and they still have another place about 3-4 blocks away with exactly the same tables, felt, and a bowling alley. There is no shortage of table time within walking distance. One of my league teams played out of there last year and I know this place well. I got my share of freebies once in a while too, and I always tip stupid high.

Corner Pocket was okay. I wasn't great, it wasn't bad. Sort of a TGI Friday kind of vibe to me. I would never recommend it as a must see pool hall. I never saw any players there that were very good like you would see at Chris's, but folks seemed happy there with the slow felt and the big pockets. It was a good mixed company, slightly upscale kind of place to introduce newer players to the game. I heard from the league operator that Corner Pocket was considering changing to a restaurant several months ago, however, I checked with a bartender there a couple weeks ago, and she said the place was going to be open at least through the fall. Oh well, I guess not!


Lots of places to play pool in the Windy City.

Your assesment is pretty much dead on. I became a regular there because it's close to my house and we liked the staff. I really didn't play pool until I started hanging out there. But I caught the bug and have been playing regularly for several years now.

We're going over to Southport Lanes tonight which is owned by the same company and is pretty similar.

We like to have a few beers and relax while playing pool that's why we steer toward places like Corner Pocket and Southport over Chris's and the real straight-up pool halls.

 

[scruff]

One problem I see with the Ameriacn way of doing things (tipping, I am an aussie living in the US) is that it encourages big tips as a reward for as you say 'Freebies'.
The problem with this is that it's a false enconomy for the bar owner - my local hall is owned by a good friend, and I also used to work there and am now a very frequent customer - so Ive' seen all sides to the story.

I rarely pay for table time, and my drink bill always seems low, so I always tip high - this is great for the staff, who feel good, the general atmosphere stays good, but overall the room owner gets screwed.

I think that these days owning a pool room is really an enthusiast thing, anyone looking to make a lot of money should look somewhere else.

My only solution to the tipping thing is that you have electronic tables - not quite coin op, or even bill accepters, but a linked system that keeps an account of activity on the table somehow, a sensor in a ball return area would do. If it was logged on a computer with a front and back end (front end that staff can get too, back end that they can't) the room owner will see what is really going on and the staff will have to charge where necessary, because they can be checked.
Maybe a system where the cue ball isn't released until a tab is linked to a table ?

Of course if the room owner is the one kicking out free table time he/she has no-one to blame if they go broke. I personally like the idea of people who are regulars getting a discount card type deal (yes like fast food restaurants have) where once they have paid for ten hours, they get another 5 for free, which again would be easy to track with a computer.

I'd love to own a pool room, as long as it made a modest income, I'd be happy to put in the time for the satisfaction it'd bring. Now if a big enough space in my local area would just open up !

 

[Joseph Ortega]

Where was that place? It's ringing a bell.... I always played at Rusty's and once in a great while I would venture over to clicks but... Wilt's is sounding familiar... I think I had some friends that went over there on a semi regular basis and I might've joined them a time or two.

i went once and it was a cool place, had a snooker table i beileve.

 

[Timberly]

i went once and it was a cool place, had a snooker table i beileve.

Was it on Cooper St inbetween UTA & Rusty's? Coming from 30, heading towards Rusty's there was a place on the left inbetween Rusty's and UTA...it was a building that stood alone, almost barn like in structure if I remember correctly. This was almost 9 yrs ago so this stuff gets a little fuzzy.

I know a couple of places out there had a snooker table. I used to play on the one at Fast Freddy's in Ft. Worth.

 

[Blunt Instrumen]

I've been going to the Corner Pocket in Chicago at least once a week for about 5 years now. It was great bar/pool hall with nice tables, great food, and friendly waitresses. tMy buddy and I never had to pay for pool and got a lot of drinks free on top of it.

As you know, with all the other commitments and travelling in the summer it's hard to have a free weekend so it had been a few weeks since I'd been there. The cab pulled up last Friday to find the windows covered with paper and a note on the door saying thanks for 17 years of business.

I was stunned. I knew they weren't doing great but had no idea they were so close to closing.

Now we've got to find a new place. Lame! Luckily, there are quite a few options around Chicago. The only problem is we won't have all the built in freebees. I don't know if I can afford taking the time to become a regular at another place.

No real point to this I guess other than venting.

I hope you're proud that you played such a vital role in their failure.

 

[Da Poet]

Speak of the devil

I became a regular there because it's close to my house and we liked the staff.

Yes, I should have mentioned that the staff was great, but speaking of the staff,...

I just got back from dinner 30 minutes ago with my Dad at Daley's, one of the restaurant bar places that is owned by the same company that owned Corner Pocket, and our waitress was none other than Danielle, who I'm sure you know from Corner Pocket. I asked her what happened and she said they sold the space. What was rather odd was that no one knew beforehand. They just held a staff meeting the last night they were going to be open and announced that they were closing the place for good at the end of the evening. To the owners credit, she said they didn't let people go and that they already had shifts lined up for them at the other places they owned.

Still, I don't know why they needed to keep it a secret from their staff up to that moment. Seems weird, but at least they kept their people busy.

However Rebecca, the coolest of cool, who I'm sure you know as well, unfortunately has departed to L.A. for reasons respected but not completely understood.

Southport is a good substitute. Playing wise, easy felt tables, but other than that, Southport has got to be one of the coolest looking poolrooms in the city. Very classic old decorative 1920's style hardwood paneled walls and hardwood floors, high ceilings, cool old style fixtures, and the bowling alley with the hand spotted pins is way cool. That place I would definitely include for a quick stop on a Chicago pool tour for it's uniqueness, if you can find a place to park around there.

 

[Da Poet]

I hope you're proud that you played such a vital role in their failure.

Aye chihuahua, take it easy.


A lot of Chicago places try to keep their regulars around this way. It's a neighborhood tavern style party town. If your a fun, outgoing person who regularly likes to spend money, bring friends and have a good time with the other customers, whoever they may be, that place loves to have you there and will certainly take a drink or two off the ticket, or just give every fouth one free or whatever. It's just the way it is here. That's the way a lot of places build and keep their base of cool and steady regulars.

Business was not terrible at Corner Pocket by any stretch. It is far more likely that the space had become more valuable as a restaurant than a pool hall at that particular location. That neighborhood has a bunch of new condos going up, and you could probably seat at least 10-12 restaurant customers in the space required for an 8' table. The place already has a kitchen. So what do you think would make more money for the space on a Friday or Saturday night. Fifteen an hour plus food and drinks for two on a pool table, or food and drinks for ten or more. This was not an owner operated place so there was no personal incentive to keep it the way it was.

There is another place, Seven / Ten owned by the same owners that is only about a few blocks away that is very similar, maybe too similar. Same cool kind of staff and everything. Competition wise it didn't make a lot of sense having those two places so close to each other anyway.

Also, the recent hikes in property taxes and the smoking ban could not have helped things either.

The place didn't fail at all. 17 years is a pretty good run at one location. What would really tick me off is to see some completely unoriginal chain type business pop up there.

 

[NeZ]

I hope you're proud that you played such a vital role in their failure.

As has been mentioned, the place didn't go out of business due to lack of revenue. They owner owns several other places and is a good businessman. The comps we received were based on the additional revenue we brought in by buying drinks, food, and bringing friends in. No different than a casino or whatever comping people for gambling a lot.

With the way real estate is increasing in value around the neighborhood where this place was it probably just made a lot more sense to sell when the market's good and focus on the other 6 or so venues this guy has.

 

[NeZ]

Yes, I should have mentioned that the staff was great, but speaking of the staff,...

I just got back from dinner 30 minutes ago with my Dad at Daley's, one of the restaurant bar places that is owned by the same company that owned Corner Pocket, and our waitress was none other than Danielle, who I'm sure you know from Corner Pocket. I asked her what happened and she said they sold the space. What was rather odd was that no one knew beforehand. They just held a staff meeting the last night they were going to be open and announced that they were closing the place for good at the end of the evening. To the owners credit, she said they didn't let people go and that they already had shifts lined up for them at the other places they owned.

Still, I don't know why they needed to keep it a secret from their staff up to that moment. Seems weird, but at least they kept their people busy.

However Rebecca, the coolest of cool, who I'm sure you know as well, unfortunately has departed to L.A. for reasons respected but not completely understood.

Our waitress at Southport last night was giving us an update on what she knew and she mentioned that most of the staff moved to different places within the company. It's cool to hear Danielle is up at The Daily. I think Lindsey might be up there too. I know she used to pick up shifts there even when the Corner Pocket was open.

I heard about Rebecca too. She is great. I know she was a musician so maybe she decided to give it a shot out in LA. Good for her. I hope it works out.

 

[Samiel]

Was it on Cooper St inbetween UTA & Rusty's? Coming from 30, heading towards Rusty's there was a place on the left inbetween Rusty's and UTA...it was a building that stood alone, almost barn like in structure if I remember correctly. This was almost 9 yrs ago so this stuff gets a little fuzzy.

I know a couple of places out there had a snooker table. I used to play on the one at Fast Freddy's in Ft. Worth.

Yes, it was on Cooper, just North of UTA. It was a great place and they had an old 12' Snooker table I love to play on.

They had been open 60+ years or something like that...

 

[ajrack]

Where from in OZ and what town are you in now?

 

[Eydie Romano]

Another "Corner Pocket" closed recently in Joliet as well. It was a long established hall, on a smaller scale but hosted some of the best players in the Chicagoland area.

As I have mentioned many times before, Pro-Tyme is Orland Park, IL is one of the nicest places in the south suburbs. Everything is kept pristine and the staff and players are some of the greatest.www.protymebilliards.com

Q Billiards in Darien, IL www.QBilliard.com has great entertainment, excellent equipment and daily drink specials. Starting Sept 20 we are bringing in BCA/ACS Leagues with HUGE payouts.

If you are looking to play some, give us a call or stop in. windycityopen@aol.com or 630-244-2900

Eydie

 

[scruff]

AJrack,

I grew up in Adelaide, lived in Melbourne for two years 1990-1991 then moved to Sydney between 1991 - 2003.
I've lived in Atlanta since late 2003. Stone Mountain until recently, now I;'m in Atlanta itself....