If interest in pool has dwindled in some circles, though, it is going strong in others. Kim proudly pointed out, they have an Internet-enabled jukebox. The Kims, for their part, hope to convert a room that is now a video arcade, complete with a Pac-Man game, into a restaurant serving hot food - though work on that project is on hold while they pursue their liquor “They transformed it from a serious pool room, for serious players, to a Studio 54 The same man lamented the fate of another, even larger club, a legendary room in the borough that had recently had a makeover. There never was one before, a regular explained, with some finality, “because we had pool players here.” The place, in fact, only got its first jukebox a couple of years ago. “Even during those nights, you couldn’t come in here without a collar,” Mr. Pat Cotillo, a customer for 40 years, recalled that famed players like Willie Mosconi, who holds the record for the most consecutive balls sunk with 526,ĭuring a straight pool exhibition, would sometimes come in and put on a show, drawing crowds just to watch. Whereas decades ago, people were serious about their pool, and acted that way. Poolroom patrons these daysĪre looking for more of an entertainment-oriented, nightclub-style experience, they said. That certainly was the undertone of the conversation with the old-timers there this week. It’s gonna be another 99-cent store.”Įven with Hermes open for business, the glory days of pool halls in the area may well have passed. All these empty places, and they’re going to ruin these people. Said, glancing toward several locked storefronts. Richard Byrnes, whose family owns a business nearby, pointed out the door toward Jamaica Avenue, under the elevated J and Z trains. Not unexpectedly, there was some anger among the regulars over the problems the new owners - Jason and Sunnie Kim and their son, Aaron - are having with opening a pool hall in a space that has been I visited Hermes Billiards on Tuesday to talk with the owners and customers there for the Dispatches feature in Sunday’s City section. Largely because that previous establishment had recently had its license revoked at the same address. The establishment, which opened in March in a space that had previously been occupied by a pool hall called Rack Em Up, was denied a liquor license in April. Now, only Hermes, at 102nd, remains - and barely. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, devotees at the Hermesīilliards Cafe recalled this week, there were halls at 111th, 102nd, 98th and 90th Streets in the neighborhood. There was a time, locals say, when you could not walk more than a few blocks on Jamaica Avenue, in Richmond Hill, Queens, without coming across a pool hall. For a pool hall, a liquor license is not a trivial matter.
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