Arcade, bar to open in Plaza
A two-year wait is over and Up-Down, a vintage arcade bar and pizzeria, is set to open as a new anchor for the Plaza District.
Up- Down is a concept that started six years ago in Des Moines and has since expanded to St. Louis, Minneapolis and Milwaukee. The Plaza District location will open 3 p. m. Friday and will feature more than 70 arcade games from the `80s and `90s, pinball machines, four classic Skee-Ball alleys,
Nintendo 64 console gaming, life-size Jenga and Connect Four.
The Plaza District is not typically known as an entertainment district, but rather as a small neighborhood arts community populated with local restaurants, quirky shops and anchored by Lyric Theater. But that's exactly what Up- Down managing partner Josh Ivey looks for.
“We have been looking to expand into Oklahoma for years, but from my first visit to OKC I knew that the Plaza District was the perfect
neighborhood for us,” Ivey said. “The eclectic and diverse neighborhood was ideal for the concept that has been described as ` a bar for people who are over the traditional bar scene.'"
The Oklahoma City location at 1629 NW 16 will span 4,000 square feet on two floors with a second floor patio overlooking NW 16.
“This is about in the middle,” spokesman David Hayden said. “In talking to neighbors early on we determined a 9,000-square-feet bar doesn't fit in the neighborhood. So we tried to right- size the space for that neighborhood.”
In addition to SkeeBall and the vintage arcade, Hayden said Up-Down draws inspiration from the days when college kids would get together and play Nintendo 64 or when a difficult choice was whether to eat a slice of pizza at Pizza Hut or play the arcade games.
“The Nintendo 64 came at a real unique time for gaming,” Hayden said. “It came with four controllers which was new at the time. It created a new gaming experience where you could bring your friends over and play Mario Kart. We run those on big projector screens and run all the classics from the turn of the century.
Hayden said the solution to the Pizza Hut dilemma is to only serve pizza by the slice to ensure it won't interfere with playing and drinking.
“The pizza will be
what your parents would have fed you,” Hayden said. “We'll have chili dog pizza, mac and cheese pizza, and jalapeno pizza.”
Hayden said games will cost 25 cents, using quarters or tokens.
“We encourage tokens
because we offer daily specials," Hayden said. "Thursday they are 10 cents each, and on Saturdays they are two for one until 9 p.m.”
Hayden said games are rotated based on what they see visitors playing the most with
400 arcade games kept in a warehouse for the chain's five locations ( a sixth is planned in Nashville).
Hayden said that while Up-Down is designed as a social gathering place, they also are taking precautions to address concerns prompted by the COVID- 19 pandemic.
“We started looking at this back in February, when news first broke,” Hayden said. “We didn't know in February what we know now. It's been a process. All the cities we are currently operating in we are working with the health departments and experts.”
He said they also looked at best practices taken by gyms and bowling alleys that have reopened.
“We have sanitation stations around the bar, and surface sanitizer like you find in a gym, so you can wipe down a game,” Hayden said. “We will have dedicated employees going around the bar wiping down games.”