Barcadia (2600 Travis) is a Midtown bar that will expand to more than 11,000 square feet this summer. It opened less than six months ago, but has already established itself as a Midtown go-to spot.
Larami Culbertson
The giant Jenga puzzles are a popular patio attraction at Barcadia.
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Nothing about the space looks overdone — or underdone, for that matter. The floor is polished, the walls are hung with art and the dining area has the potential to be a dance floor. About the only thing that looks showy or involved is the actual bar, which is sort of the point of a bar.
The owner has an appreciation of pinup-girl culture, evident in the framed original artwork and vintage magazines dating back 60 to 80 years. Even the bartender grrrls look like postmodern pinups.
If you've never been to Barcadia before and didn't know any of that stuff, here's what you likely already did know about it: It's the bar with the video games, all set to free play.
And really, that's perfectly fair. Even Barcadia's Web site makes video game-y blips and bleeps as you navigate it. The bar has built its image around that perception, to great effect.
There always seems to be people around, be it a Wednesday happy-hour crowd of 40 to 60 people or a busy weekend night that tops a couple hundred over the course of an evening.
"It's a good place to go if you're on a date," says Michelle Nguyen, a 23-year-old medical student enjoying her third trip to Barcadia. "You don't really have to talk a lot, but you can still have a good time," she adds, referencing the pixelated characters waiting to be pressed into service.
Fair enough. It is that.
Video games are excellent for any number of reasons, including the unlikely nostalgia of seeing someone's head and spine separated from the rest of their body. But if a few coin-ops were enough for the nightlife community to greet a venue with open arms, there would be a goddamn Street Fighter II machine in every shitty club on the downtown strip.
What really makes Barcadia impossible to resist is how it has all but professionalized, and perfected, the Midtown Neighborhood Bar business model that has been such a successful part of the area's steady resurgence.
What was once the center of a glittery, clubby, posh little universe, which, save for the Continental Club (3700 Main) and The Mink (3718 Main), became a wasteland of sorts while Washington blasted into prominence, is now a veritable hotbed of friendly, unassuming hangout spots.
Consider the renovated dive bar Leon's Lounge (1006 McGowen), the bustling Khon's (2808 Milam), Community Bar (2703 Smith), whose 2008 opening was arguably the trend's starting point, and even the somewhat ostentatious-feeling Nouveau Antique Art Bar (2913 Main).
"We definitely saw that there was a resurgence going on in Midtown, especially among the neighborhood bars," says Barcadia general manager Johanna Fink. "You have housing being built up all around here. That's a big part of the reason of why [the owner] chose here."
Not including traditional housing, there are more than seven proper townhome or apartment complexes within Midtown's borders, as well as six schools, five places of worship and a farmers' market. There will always be nightclubs in Midtown, but the area is undoubtedly a neighborhood now, and neighborhood living means neighborhood bars.
Midtown has officially sprung up from the dead. And this time, it appears it will have a bit more staying power.
Leave it to Dig Dug, et al., to crystallize the idea.
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LAST CALL
Barcadia
Two things didn't quite fit in here. First, be absolutely sure you try the Barcadia Burger. We are generally not qualified to make such food-based judgments, but it tastes like it was seasoned with God's bathwater. Another of Barcadia's draws is its fine selection of draft beers, ranging from Fox Barrel Pear Cider to St. Arnold's Lawnmower. "You can go other places and get the same beer, but it'll taste awful" says David Perez, 32. "As a beer drinker, you just know. We hang out in Midtown and the Montrose area enough to know whose tap is better. This one is good."
