A new player has entered the game: playful hospitality spaces designed for gamers of all ages and eras

More than just the styled decor and quirky cocktail names of a themed bar, these games-loving bars, cafés and restaurants appeal to both drinkers and non-drinkers by asking them out to play.

By Paul Burnham Architect, Triopton Architects, helsinkizurich and

April 23, 2023 | 10:00 pm CUT

Button Mash, on LA’s Sunset Boulevard, centres shared bench seating in between rows of room-facing arcade games and pinball machines, spreading nostalgia in the social setting. Photo: Laure Joliet

The main purpose of public houses and eateries is to provide customers – both individuals and groups – with an environment and an atmosphere in which to release the stresses of their day or week so far, either with a quiet drink in a quiet corner, or in larger, more social groups.

Even before COVID brought with it more permanent closing times, the rise of on-demand TV and food delivery services meant that staying ‘in-in’ – with the comforting embrace of their pillow just a short hike up the wooden hill to Bedfordshire – was becoming a more popular choice. Perhaps it’s no surprise, then, to see the growing emergence of establishments that offer more active entertainments than a quiz night and karaoke box. Here are five examples of bars and restaurants designed for life’s players.

The arcade-game café takes a variety of material, colour and decorative references from 80s and 90s inspirations including two-tone upholstery (top) and custom wallpaper (middle). Photos: Laure Joliet

Button Mash in Los Angeles, California, US, by Design, Bitches

A strong sense of nostalgia begins with the 80s and 90s material and colour choices in Button Mash, an arcade game café and bar in LA’s Echo Park neighbourhood. Inspirations and influences from both real and fictional sources combine in a fitting mash-up of post-modern design and pop culture. Marmoleum flooring and camel-coloured vinyl are added to vermilion powder-coated steel over wood panelling, two-tone upholstery and dense, custom-illustrated wallpaper from artist Joseph Harmon.

Both nostalgic visitors and those experiencing gaming for the first time round can bond while competing for an elusive top score

The bar’s real draw, however, are the classic arcade game units and pinball machines that take permanent residence alongside shared bench seating. Encouraging ‘interaction, exchange and shared experiences,’ as the architects, Design, Bitches, put it, the environment allows both nostalgic visitors and those experiencing gaming for the first time round, to bond while competing for an elusive top score.

The Alaloum Board Café combines functional furniture choices such as wide tables and comfortable-backed seating with childhood-referencing decorative surfaces. Photos: Dimitris Kleanthis

Alaloum Board Game Café in Athens, Greece, by Triopton Architects

With more time spent at home, board games are a fantastic way to get players of all ages, backgrounds and interests around a table in friendly, good-natured competition. While many pubs and bars keep dusty Scrabble bags at the top of a bookshelf, a growing number are dedicating themselves to the revived pastime, and with up to two- or three- hours playing time, a lot of modern games provide establishments with a way to keep locals on-site for longer.

A prominent 5.5-metre games library encourages visitors to play and stay at the Alaloum Board Game Café by Triopton Architects, while considered bespoke task lighting for each of its smooth-surfaced wide and stable tables and comfortable backed seating make the café a comfortable spot to game away the hours.

The Blackbox bar energises traditional pub games like darts, snooker and skittles by transporting visitors into a retro-futuristic environment to play them

Blackbox in Timișoara, Romania, by Parasite Studio

On the subject of passing time, meanwhile, Parasite Studio’s brief, when designing the interior of the games club Blackbox, was ‘to obtain a space with a completely controlled atmosphere with no relation to the outside world, in which you are not aware of the time passing,’ introduce the architects. Unable to hide or ignore the existing environment’s technical areas and crisscrossing steel structure, the architects chose instead to duplicate it with a strong graphical concept and ultraviolet lighting scheme. Together, these two elements combine to juxtapose centuries-old pub games like darts, snooker and skittles (of the ten-pin variety), with decor seemingly inspired by the retrofuturistic period stylings of Tron.

Balboa Bar & Gym makes no effort to hide its underground training gym in famously-neutral Switzerland, visually connecting the space with natural light from a large skylight. Photos: Jochen Splett

Balboa Bar & Gym in Zürich, Switzerland, by helsinkizurich

Although traditional pub games go back longer than written historical records, when people and alcohol mix, the more likely resulting pub sport of ‘fighting’ probably goes back even further. So the concept of a bar that’s also a training gym brings to mind underground fighting clubs where beer-spilling punters are invited to ‘take it downstairs’ instead of outside. Thankfully there’s no need to break the first rule of fight club, however, as the Balboa Bar & Gym in Zürich, Switzerland, is no such place. ‘Generous roughly cut openings allow for visual connections between the two floors and their partly differing clientele – and also bring natural light into the basement,’ explain the architects helsinkizurich, claiming that both this gym and bar are open and accommodating to all.

Clancy’s Fish Bar City Beach features colourful Adirondack chairs looking out to sea (top), combined with a distracting children’s play area with games painted on the floor (middle). Photos: Jody D’Arcy

Clancy’s Fish Bar City Beach in Perth, Australia, by Paul Burnham Architect

In what is, perhaps, the biggest opposite to a combined bar and training gym, Clancy’s Fish Bar City Beach in Perth, Australia is a colourful, family-friendly seafood restaurant. With a beach-front pavilion set directly on the white sand dunes of City Beach and with views of the clear blue Indian Ocean on the menu, the environment requires no distractions for customers awaiting their meals and drinks.

By complementing the restaurant’s vibrant palette of colourful fabrics and seating with a concrete floor painted with patterns, mermaids and children’s games, however, architects Paul Burnham Architect has created an engaging play area. For the parents of bored children, attempting to enjoy the relaxed sun-dipped landscape, all help is gratefully received.

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