For over twenty years, Barley’s Brewing Company has been serving Downtown customers on the ground floor of their building at 467 North High Street, while brewing their beers in the lower level basement. Meanwhile, the second story of the building has been used for nothing but storage for at least the past decade, and the owners of the business are ready to change that this fall.
Enter, Brewcadia — the latest in a recent string of bar-meets-arcade concepts, where customers can busy their hands with vintage arcade and pinball machines while drinking and socializing.
“A few years ago, a good friend of mine started investigating the ‘barcade’ scene around the country and we started our planning,” explains Jason Fabian, General Manager at Barley’s. “Lo and behold, the 16-Bit Bar+Arcade came on the scene, so our project kind of went away for awhile. But when we really got serious about building out the second floor, we wanted to create something that would be a part of Barley’s, but still different. So we kicked around that idea again and it seemed to be best fit.”
Brewcadia will be able to host approximately 100 guests, with around 30 to 35 arcade and pinball games in addition to skeeball, and exactly 40 beers on tap. Six to eight of the beers on tap will be Barley’s originals, with another 32 to 34 guest drafts. The arcade venue will also feature a food menu with a focus on pizza, provided by a new upstairs oven being installed.
While the businesses are related, the entrances will be separated with a new first floor vestibule that is currently under construction. That will allow Barley’s to close the first floor at midnight while keeping Brewcadia open later upstairs.
Fabian said that their goal is to have Brewcadia open by Halloween, but with construction still under way and inspections still pending, they’re officially calling for a “late Fall” opening with a grand opening date to be announced later.
For more information, visit www.facebook.com/brewcadia.
Photos by Walker Evans.
