(watering)holes - Barcade Part 3 - the Interview

the Taps; Newark and Barrow

With a very busy opening weekend still on many minds and more than 1500 Facebook friends to chat about it, Barcade JC has certainly made its presence known. Touting 24 brilliant taps, joysticks a step away and enough space to stretch out the sudden hand cramp, Barcade JC is a good reason to let your game-geek show over some great beer. If you've been following my blog you know that I've attempted to use this platform to get a "press pass." It worked. Paul Kermizian, co-owner and director of the documentary American Beer, took a few minutes out of his wild schedule to answer some of my questions. If on main page click read more just below.


I have already tasted and thoroughly enjoyed the Dogfish Head World Wide Stout, Coney Island Mermaid and Stone Highway 78, to name but a few. With so many great beers to choose from, one begins to wonder how will the beer rotation work?
"We rotate just about all of our tap lines so the changes happen daily," Kermizian explains. "I'd suggest that people be open to trying everything. There's lots of amazing craft beer being brewed in this country. We want to serve all of it."
Besides having a brilliant selection of beer and video games, the tunes have been consistently rocking and the space, much to my excitement, is void of flat screen TVs. I asked Paul if there's ever pressure to jump on the flat screen every 5 inches bandwagon. "It's just not what we do. Anyone who wants to watch a flat screen can go to any of those other bars."

Tapper; Barcade JC

My first time at Barcade was this past Friday. I was expecting a crowd since it was the official opening, so I went at 5pm in hopes of missing the craziness and scoring some personal time with Qbert and BurgerTime. While I managed to get in some serious gaming I was a bit surprised by the size of the crowd that had already begun to gather. I bounced around 7pm to leave enough time to catch a gig in the city. On my way back from the concert, around 1am, I walked past a queue forming outside the bar. A bar line on Newark Avenue? Wild.

Beer Queue; Friday @ Barcade

Opening weekend was - "very busy. We never have a line in Brooklyn and so we were a little slow to start one on Friday. Unfortunately for those waiting, it was necessary. Hopefully that was just a product of it being opening weekend and won't be a regular thing. Other than that, our change machine broke the first night," he exclaims! "I think 5 games are broken now as well. We must have Gremlins." The change machine and games have since been fixed. Though I must admit I had a sudden free run of games on BurgerTime. Damn that was fun and too good to be true.

Finally, if you've been paying attention to the roller coaster ride that was getting Barcade open to the public, then you're aware of the dealings with the city. "We got through it," he says. "A year from start to finish isn't so bad... I guess." My friends, the local scene and I thoroughly appreciate and respect their patience.