Game on! ‘Barcade’ nightspot headed for downtown San Jose
miniBoss is slated to open sometime this summer
The long- dormant Toons nightclub in downtown San Jose is being revived as a “barcade” nightspot by entrepreneurs who are encouraged by what they perceive as big improvements in the urban core of the Bay Area’s largest city.
The name of the new arcade and bar is miniBoss, which the owners hope to open this summer.
“The look and feel we are trying to achieve will be like the 1980s and 1990s, but it will also have a modern look to it,” said George Lahlouh, who co- owns the barcade.
The new nightspot drew its inspiration from Barcade in Manhattan, as well as similarly themed spots in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
“It will be loud and vibrant, noisy just like the old arcade machines,” Lahlouh said. “We will have tasty cocktails and draft beers. We will also have a super good kitchen with walk-up counter service.”
The name mini Boss springs fromthe challenges that confront players in the latter stages of an arcade or video game. Typically, the final level — and winning the game— obliges the player to defeat a super villain known to gamers as a “boss.” But before encountering the “boss” ultimate challenge, players usually must vanquish a tough “mini boss” that serves as a kind of warm-up act to the final obstacle.
“They will have a ton of awesome, legit old- school arcade games and pinball machines,” said Kim Walesh, San Jose’s city director of economic development.
Additional ventures such as this can be expected in downtown San Jose, predicted David Taxin, a partner with Meacham Op-
penheimer, a commercial realty brokerage that specializes in the retail sector.
“We are getting a tremendous increase in action in downtown San Jose because of the talk of a Google village,” he said. “You are going to seemore of this kind of activity like this new venture.”
Mountain View- based Google has proposed development of a transit- oriented community of office towers and other ameni- ties near the Diridon train station, where 15,000 to 20,000 of the search giant’s employees could work in 6 million to 8 million square feet of offices.
Adobe Systems intends to expand its three-building downtown San Jose headquarters campus by adding a fourth office tower on a lot adjacent to the tech company’s existing complex.
miniBoss could bolster a revitalization of a part of the downtown along East Santa Clara Street that has struggled with sluggish activity.
“This is how to start, even if the block isn’t in great shape,” Taxin said. “You have to begin to chip away, use these old buildings and improve things.”
City and business leaders hope for more nightlife and entertainment venues in downtown San Jose akin to what’s going on in San Pedro Square and on First and Second streets south of Santa Clara Street.
“Private ef forts to achieve a stronger mix of evening and late-night uses downtown that promote a vibrant, 24- hour city center” are among the ventures the city’s general plan envisions for downtown, according to a city memo about the barcade. “The project would provide a late night restaurant and arcade that would add to the existingmix of evening and late night uses downtown.”
Lahlouh believes the barcade could arrive at a propitious time for the downtown.
“We are seeing more of a thriving, urban atmosphere downtown,” Lahlouh said. “It’s all moving in the right direction.”