It’s game over for Barcade, the retro-chic video game bar that helped redefine Jersey City’s burgeoning nightlife.
The popular spot on Newark Avenue announced last week that June 15 will be the last day for its walls of ‘80s and ‘90s arcade cabinets and pinball machines, citing the end of its lease.
It’s also the end of an era, specifically a buzzing early-2010s mystique — which Gen-Z would now call “cringe” — that Barcade so uniquely encapsulated. The bar’s 2011 opening came at the outset of America’s great nostalgia cash-in, monetizing millennials’ longing to stay young — or at least ignore the recession outside its glass doors. Hey, what’s a few more tokens pumped into “The Simpsons” game when you’re already $80,000 deep in student loan debt?
Amid the flashes and plinks of “Burger Time” and “Dig Dug,” men in hipster-folk cosplay dripped suds from their mustaches, pining after women wrapped in infinity scarves and peplum tops. Chalkboards were scrawled with twee and overcomplicated craft beer names — sip a “You Know Nothing Jon Snow New England IPA” while you wait for Pac-Man to open up.
It was Wes Anderson meets “New Girl,” irony becoming the right now, swimming in a soundtrack of Arcade Fire and Animal Collective.
The first Barcade opened, perhaps unsurprisingly, in Brooklyn in 2004, before locations came to Newark (already closed), Philadelphia, Manhattan, Connecticut, Detroit and Los Angeles.
Though I didn’t become a regular until 2014, when I moved to Jersey City. At the time, I didn’t know much about the city, or its nightlife and dining scene. I didn’t know many people who lived there. But I knew there was a Barcade, it’s yellow neon lights a sort of downtown beacon. Also, Williamsburg had a Barcade. If Jersey City had one, it had to be cool, right?
If all else failed and I didn’t fall in love with the city, I knew I could spend my hours getting after some “Tapper” and “Crazy Taxi” high scores, and pounding craft beers I couldn’t find anywhere else in town. I knew that friends from other parts of the state would come visit me in Jersey City, drawn in by the allure of sentimentality and “NBA Jam.”
And so that’s just what I did — like many North Jersey bar-goers of a certain age, I spent more time at Barcade than I care to admit, wearing my own plaid shirts and sweaters, talking to girls about sour beers and Ratatat.
Inside Barcade, the Jersey City arcade bar that is now closing. Amy Kuperinsky | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
I soon learned that arcade bars are actually very anti-social. You’re always going off to play a different game than your friends, inevitably waiting on a long line to play “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.” I also realized that my wallet (and stomach) couldn’t handle drinking all those pricey, high-ABV craft beers. I pivoted to less gimmicky spots like Lucky 7 Tavern, and later Pet Shop (still my No. 1 bar in town). After a while, I pretty much stopped going to Barcade altogether.
Still, I was sad to hear Barcade will close its doors this summer.
Say what you will about the man-child subculture it helped cultivate, or how there are better bars in town. Barcade was, for a while at least, a destination and its arrival was indeed a watershed moment for the city, helping it ascend to its current status as one of New Jersey’s most vibrant dining and nightlife hubs.
Behold, the high scores board.Amy Kuperinsky | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
Do acclaimed restaurants like Razza open if Barcade never came? Does Pet Shop? Barcade also took the leap across the Hudson long before it was common for New York businesses to open Hudson County outposts — this bar proved it could be done. And we’re all better off for it.
So if you catch me at Barcade on a Wednesday when my buddy is behind the bar, your first round is on me. If you can beat me in a game of “Tapper.”
Related coverage:
• Two N.J. bars, city mainstays, announce they’re closing within hours of each other
• The 50 Jersey City bars that matter, ranked worst to best
• The 11 best Jersey City restaurants, ranked, for 2024
• N.J.’s best new restaurant is a masterclass in French-Asian fusion | Review
• I tried N.J.’s ultimate Italian eating experience, hidden in a family’s dining room
Stories by Jeremy Schneider
Looking for more New Jersey food coverage? Subscribe to the free Jersey Eats newsletter here!
Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.
Jeremy Schneider may be reached at jschneider@njadvancemedia.com and followed on Twitter at @J_Schneider and on Instagram at @JeremyIsHungryAgain.