New Room Review: Parlor Billiards

[KingCarom]

Parlor Billiards opened Tuesday this week in my hometown of Bellevue, Washington, and I am thrilled that we finally have a room of this caliber in the Seattle area.

20,000 square feet & 44 tables large, with the main floor composed of all black Brunswick 9' & Pro 8 Gold Crown 4's, with Brunswick Metro 8 footers on a separated floorspace that will be reserved for league play. Additionally, there are three private rooms, one of which is pictured below, & heated Billiard and Snooker tables.
The food and drinks were great. We had Antipasta, Bacon Wrapped Prawns, and a Pepperoni, Mushroom, and Sausage Pizza after a few rounds and many racks.

To top it all off, Dan Louie is the house pro. Dave Lauer, who owns Emerald City Cue Repair, is the Pro Shop Manager; His cue repair work is fantastic. The staff is plentiful, attractive (meow) and well dressed, showing each new table renter how to properly use the Sardo and how to use the waitress paging at each table...on and on. Talk about firing on all cylinders!

Check out the photo's. Pictured are Scott Leach, A fellow team captain and Gene Birkelund, our league operator here in Seattle, who I shall say played pretty sporty tonight! ...but still ended up paying

If you live nearby or get up to the Seattle area soon be sure to check it out:

Entrance

Looking down the length of the main room:

Main bar of the two bars. Notice the white iced drink channel down the length of the bar to set your beer or cocktail on:

Back Room and League area w/ Snooker table in back:

One of the private rooms. Off to the right there is a nice sitting area with a big Plasma T.V.:

Scott and Gene:

 

[rackmsuckr]

Yes, there was a private party there last week. Mike Massey kicked it off doing his boot jump shot and finger pool. I was lucky enough to be the only winner against him in the challenge pool, when I broke and ran against him.

This is a martini bar, with chill strips that run down the length of the tables. I think there are 29 different types of martinis that run around $9. Pool is $16/hr. The food was awesome.

Btw, I thought Dan would want to have Parlor Billiards host an IPT qualifier. Turns out he doesn't even want to qualify himself! He showed up tonight at our little Friday night bar table tournament and I don't even know if he got in the money. I took 5th (yay!). Anyway, we talked extensively about the IPT. If anyone can win a qualifier, he should be able to. We even told him to get staked if he didn't want to put up his own money (which he doesn't).

Looks like Parlor will get a good crowd from its location. I hope they do well. Only criticism...they told Dave he couldn't hug anyone.

 

[Donovan]

That place looks real nice, but aren't some of those tables too close together? I haven't been to Bellevue Washington in a long time...like 7 years.

 

[LWW]

That is a good lookong room.

LWW

 

[Tbeaux]

That is a fantastic looking place.
A few observations and questions though....
1) Bernie, oh Bernie, I think we found the place for you ...just gotta move to Washington
2) Is it just the photos or are the tables to close together?
3) In pic #2 -What is that in the background? A cabinate or locker for something?
4) $16/hr????

Terry< gone in 30 minutes!

 

[curly]

That sure is a beautiful room! I just wish that the room planners and owners would allow more space between the tables. It's very annoying while playing having to stop and wait for someone at another table to shoot. It would be like making all golf courses par 3's so they wouldn't have to maintain (cost) a larger property. I think all tables should have enough room around them so that the players on adjacent tables don't interfere with each other. Afterall, you're paying by the hour so why should one have to wait for another player at another table? JMHO.

Curly

 

[sniper]

One thing comes to mind when I look at those pictures....CLASS. I have to agree the tables appear way to close together, but that is something that could be easily fixed. $16/hour is pretty stiff, I don't mind paying a little extra but that could definitely get pretty expensive especially if you frequent the room with some regularity. I hope the place does well it sure looks like the owner put his heart (and wallet) into the place.

 

[KingCarom]

Table rates

Hourly rates for the tables are $16.00 per hour from 7pm to close on Friday and Saturday nights only. All other times, rates are $8.00 per hour for any table type.

Leauges get hosted tables, which is nice

Sniper- The Parlor is very classy, it looks as if a "spare no expense" attitude was taken when they designed and decorated the place. Of course all the equipment is top notch. With over 4 million invested prior to opening, it's one of the nicest and most expensive rooms (if not the most expensive) in the country.

Tbeaux, in Pic #2 those are actually posts with light switches that activate the Martini glass light up above. This is the paging mechanism for your waitress to come by and attend to whatever you need. Pretty slick.

The tables are a bit closer together in the back room, where all the 8 footers are located. All the 9's and pro8's in the main room are very roomy.

 

[UWPoolGod1]

Very nice. Thanks for the photos. I have the week off of work from Christmas to New Years and will make it up to Seattle for a few days. I will definitely head over to Bellevue to check it out.

 

[Ummagumma]

Btw, I thought Dan would want to have Parlor Billiards host an IPT qualifier. Turns out he doesn't even want to qualify himself! He showed up tonight at our little Friday night bar table tournament and I don't even know if he got in the money. I took 5th (yay!). Anyway, we talked extensively about the IPT. If anyone can win a qualifier, he should be able to. We even told him to get staked if he didn't want to put up his own money (which he doesn't).(

I asked Dan about this. He is interested in qualifying, he just doesn't want to pay the $2,000 entry fee.

He hasn't asked the Parlor owner about the IPT thing because he figured Steve Olson is busy getting situated into the business of things, what with this and that going on. But he said for you to go for it, if you're interested.

-- Paul (formerly PaulAlex and the short-lived CirrusMinor)

P.S. Did Mike give you the IPT DVD that I dropped off at Harvey's? Did it play okay?

 

[Ummagumma]

Hourly rates for the tables are $16.00 per hour from 7pm to close on Friday and Saturday nights only. All other times, rates are $8.00 per hour for any table type.

Minor clarifications. Sunday-Thursday after 7pm is $12/hr. Otherwise, $8/hr unless Fri/Sat nights.

The tables are a bit closer together in the back room, where all the 8 footers are located. All the 9's and pro8's in the main room are very roomy.

Tbeaux, in Pic #2 those are actually posts with light switches that activate the Martini glass light up above. This is the paging mechanism for your waitress to come by and attend to whatever you need. Pretty slick.

IMO, the best table is the first one by the main entrance. It is situated far enough from the other tables.

One problem with that tho, is during the afternoon when it is sunny out, sunlight will escape into the room through the crack of the shades at the corner windows. That and a small rectangular vertical window on the south wall has no shade. This can make for a glaring and eye-squinting experience.

The 9' tables in the main room are spacious but I wish they were a bit farther apart with respect to end-to-end. They are a little closer end-to-end then they are at Dr. Cue's, for example.

Otherwise, a very nice place. The female servers have on interesting outfits. Grey vests in the front, that open up in the back, leaving little to the imagination. The collars of the vests are up, giving the impression that the servers are training in the field of S&M, or are interested in auditioning for Chippendales.

It is a over-21 club. Indeed, so concerned they are about enforcing that rule, they asked for the ID of a guy who was over 50. (It was Toshi they ID'd, for those of you in the Seattle area.)

The tables have fast felt; you can have a crappy stroke and still draw the CB the length of the table. The pockets are about 5-1/4" (or so it seems). No beads or counters in the tables, so if you want to do races, bring two coins.

A classy place. I've spent $75 in two days on that place in table fees.

Edit: Forgot to say that on that first table, the light switch paging mechanism is on the far side of the pillar, towards the entrance, and so servers will never see the light being on.

-- Paul

 

[Williebetmore]

Minor clarifications. ...-- Paul

UG,
Welcome to the board, sounds like you will fit right in this group of pool fanatics.

I'm assuming your screenname is a really cool Pink Floyd double album which I still have in vinyl; still play about once a month - very cool transitional Floyd. Have you seen the BBC television special in the early 70's - just aerial photography set to this music, many believe it was the first "music video".

 

[5ballcharlie]

Parlor Billiards opened Tuesday this week in my hometown of Bellevue, Washington, and I am thrilled that we finally have a room of this caliber in the Seattle area.

20,000 square feet & 44 tables large, with the main floor composed of all black Brunswick 9' & Pro 8 Gold Crown 4's, with Brunswick Metro 8 footers on a separated floorspace that will be reserved for league play. Additionally, there are three private rooms, one of which is pictured below, & heated Billiard and Snooker tables.
The food and drinks were great. We had Antipasta, Bacon Wrapped Prawns, and a Pepperoni, Mushroom, and Sausage Pizza after a few rounds and many racks.

To top it all off, Dan Louie is the house pro. Dave Lauer, who owns Emerald City Cue Repair, is the Pro Shop Manager; His cue repair work is fantastic. The staff is plentiful, attractive (meow) and well dressed, showing each new table renter how to properly use the Sardo and how to use the waitress paging at each table...on and on. Talk about firing on all cylinders!

Check out the photo's. Pictured are Scott Leach, A fellow team captain and Gene Birkelund, our league operator here in Seattle, who I shall say played pretty sporty tonight! ...but still ended up paying

If you live nearby or get up to the Seattle area soon be sure to check it out:

Entrance

Looking down the length of the main room:

Main bar of the two bars. Notice the white iced drink channel down the length of the bar to set your beer or cocktail on:

Back Room and League area w/ Snooker table in back:

One of the private rooms. Off to the right there is a nice sitting area with a big Plasma T.V.:

Scott and Gene:

I can see your excitement that is a very nice room. I am curious how much is table time there.

 

[Ummagumma]

UG,
Welcome to the board, sounds like you will fit right in this group of pool fanatics.

I'm assuming your screenname is a really cool Pink Floyd double album which I still have in vinyl; still play about once a month - very cool transitional Floyd. Have you seen the BBC television special in the early 70's - just aerial photography set to this music, many believe it was the first "music video".

Thanks, Willie. Actually I'm not new. I used to be PaulAlex7000. I quit for a while, came back as CirrusMinor, but that account got broken, so I had to sign up again. (I could have asked Mike for help but it wasn't a problem for me to sign up again.)

Yup, you got it. Ummagumma is classic. Who can forget that famous song "Several Species Of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together In A Cave And Grooving With A Pict." Every time I listen to it, I think of Ewoks (no doubt because of the animal effects).

I haven't seen that BBC TV special. I'll keep my eyes out on it though. Thanks for the tip! There are many PF bootlegs making their way onto DVDs.

 

[Williebetmore]

"Several Species Of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together In A Cave And Grooving With A Pict." .

UG,
Mine says "...Gathered in a Burrow...", but hey whose nitpicking. I have a video of a Stratocaster show where Roger Waters and David Gilmour are together doing "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" (my favorite song on the album), and it is cool beyond belief.

 

[rackmsuckr]

I asked Dan about this. He is interested in qualifying, he just doesn't want to pay the $2,000 entry fee.

He hasn't asked the Parlor owner about the IPT thing because he figured Steve Olson is busy getting situated into the business of things, what with this and that going on. But he said for you to go for it, if you're interested.

-- Paul (formerly PaulAlex and the short-lived CirrusMinor)

P.S. Did Mike give you the IPT DVD that I dropped off at Harvey's? Did it play okay?

Hey Paul, yes I got the DVD. Thanks! It played great. Actually, I have the fear that Danny is not quite the go-getter I am and will not expose Parlor to the opportunities that I would have for tournaments. I am pretty sure the IPT has the qualifiers all locked up by now, as we got an email that said to expect word this week, so we missed it for the NW.

And his lessons...I will have to share with you someday how horrible his lesson with me was, about 25 years ago. He is a genius and a great player, but...

Danny is a millionaire, but won't pony up the $2000 when he has one of the best chances of qualifying. That's pretty funny. He and Bill Grader (another millionaire) once sat outside of a buffet in Vegas, keeping each other company for an hour, because the rates for the buffet went down a couple bucks in an hour. ROFL. Pretty tight, but we love him anyway.

 

[Ummagumma]

UG,
Mine says "...Gathered in a Burrow...", but hey whose nitpicking. I have a video of a Stratocaster show where Roger Waters and David Gilmour are together doing "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" (my favorite song on the album), and it is cool beyond belief.

I would love to go back in time. And be there in person. At the concert.