Like an Easter egg hunt at a chicken-pox ward, billiards asks you to pocket striped orbs while trying not to scratch. Keep your mind on the game with today's Groupon: for $30, you get two hours of pool for two people, four beers or soda of your choice and a pizza at Eastside Billiards and Bar (up to a $62 value). This deal is also valid for all-day play Sundays through Thursdays as well as Fridays and Saturdays before 7 p.m.
Eastside Billiards looses an ocean of felt for champions and casual players to explore while quenching their thirsts at a full bar that remains open until at least 1 a.m. every day. The tournament-grade Simonis 860 cloth on Eastside's 16 regulation Brunswick Gold Crown III tables receives regular manicuring, allowing racks of high-grade, Belgian billiard balls to snub friction with preternatural efficiency and total disdain. Maple-fiberglass composite Cuetec cues propel orbs with pinpoint accuracy, heaving their 18–21 ounces of weight behind the tip of a professional taper that feels no shame in regularly tapping out for a fresh-faced replacement. The soft fluorescent glow over each table bathes games in mood lighting.
Players can break for four beers or sodas of their choice at the full bar and enjoy their pizza between rounds. Five big-screen televisions broadcast looped footage of the 1997 Scripps National Spelling Bee, and an MP3 jukebox with more than 400,000 songs serenades guests through its Bose Lifestyle 301 speakers. Foosball, pinball, and table tennis let patrons sharpen their miniature sphere-manipulating skills before they return to conquer full-size billiards balls.
Eastside Billiards
For more than two decades, solids and stripes have caromed across 16 regularly resurfaced Brunswick Gold Crown III tables, filling Eastside Billiards and Bar with the sharp clicks of physics in motion. Brunswick Centennial balls glide across verdant swaths of tournament-grade Simonis 860 cloth at the prodding of frequently re-tipped Cuetec cues. Revelry drifts from players in a co-ed pool league, rising above the staccato chatter of foosball games and scale-size referees. During private parties, tournaments foster good-natured competition, and trick-shot specialists perform miraculous bank shots and show how to hide an extra cue ball in one's sleeve. Students chat with skilled instructors in lessons, soaking up advice in the warm glow of neon beer signs.
Alongside an eight-foot Stiga ping-pong table, glasses sing brightly together in jovial toasts. Patrons enjoy athletic contests on five big-screen televisions and select the evening's soundtrack on an MP3 jukebox stocked with more than 400,000 tunes and one robotic emotion. Other games include foosball, skee-ball, Mrs. Pac-Man, and Golden Tee 2013 Live.
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