Tonight’s soundtrack — a bright string of poppy club songs — has many of the bar-goers at The Quarters in Hadley nodding their heads. Those who aren’t bopping along to the beat have their eyes fixed on whatever vintage arcade game they’ve decided to drop a few coins into.
The arcade bar, on the Norwottuck Rail Trail right off Route 9 in Hadley, has more than 20 arcade games. This past Sunday night, owners George Myers and Greg Stutsman threw a private one-year anniversary party. They wanted to say thanks to the friends and supporters who came out in 2014 to drink good beer, snack on hot dogs ‘n’ burgers, and settle into a few rounds of Galaga, Rampage, Ms. Pac-Man, or Space Invaders.
By 9 p.m., about 30 guests have gathered. Over by the front door I spot co-founders George Myers and Greg Stutsman leaning against the wall by the front door and watching everyone enjoy themselves. The two friends and business partners, both 33, are taking a moment to relax and catch their breath after an exciting, exhausting first year of operations.
Mixing games with alcohol is nothing new, says Stutsman. “But we weren’t seeing many places try to broaden it beyond that. We make good food, and we have a more family-friendly atmosphere. There wasn’t anything like that in the area.”
The Quarters is equidistant from each of the five colleges, and visitors are mostly in their 20s and 30s. Although increasingly, Myers says, they are getting visitors coming up from Chicopee, Springfield, and Hartford.
To Stutsman’s eye, modern arcade bars are often designed to feel dark, stripped-down, and industrial. The Quarters, by contrast, is an eye-candy explosion of colors and lights.
At night the adults come out to play. But swing by for one of their daytime events — like Super Cereal Saturday, where kids and adults alike can help themselves to a breakfast cereal buffet and unlimited gameplay — and a fuller picture of this business starts to emerge.
“Unlike a dark bar, you come here to share something with everyone else in the room,” Myers says. “We prefer smaller spaces like this, where people are close to each other. There are more casual, unplanned opportunities for socializing.”
Playing arcade games, often seen as a solitary pursuit, actually encourages sociability in a space like this, Stutsman adds. “It definitely neutralizes a lot of the baggage that people usually bring with them into a bar. When you come in here, you’re immediately in a place of comfort, surrounded by people in a similar mindset.”
“It’s genuinely fun,” says bar regular Jedediah Berry, 37, of Amherst. “They do a good job of creating a feeling of nostalgia. But it’s not just for show. The games here are the real classics, and they’re worth coming back to.”
