Game bar to open Friday in Westport — country bar, dog park on the way?
Brett Allred owns three bars in Westport: the Latin nightclub Lotus, the hip-hop nightclub Bridger’s and the sports-oriented Johnny Kaw’s Yard Bar.
On Friday, he’ll open a fourth: Bar Rec, at 4120 Pennsylvania Ave.
“It’s a game bar,” Allred said. “We’ve got 50-plus games and 100 different beers.”
That includes a variety of vintage arcade systems (Galaga, Donkey Kong, two big-screen TVs hooked up to Super Nintendos) as well as shuffleboard, pop-a-shot, indoor cornhole, skee ball and pingpong. There are two bars inside as well.
Bar Rec has taken over space previously occupied by three businesses: Shot Stop (an Allred bar that he closed last year), Murray’s Ice Cream & Cookies, and the massage and reflexology studio Imperial Foot Care. When Shot Stop closed, they knocked down some walls and combined all three spaces.
Allred said the plan is to open at 5 p.m. on weekdays, 11 a.m. on the weekends. Bar Rec’s tavern license allows it to stay open until 1:30 a.m.
Allred also owns the circle-drive parking lot south of the bar and the 12,000-square foot space at 4124 Pennsylvania, formerly home to Californos. He said he hopes to have The Horseshoe, a country bar, open there by St. Patrick’s Day.
“It’s a really pretty building,” Allred said. “We’re putting a stage in, so we’ll have live music — sort of like what PBR (Big Sky, in the Power & Light District) does.”
He also said they’re considering turning the circle drive into a dog park.
“Parking could be an issue, but if things go well here, I think that’d be a cool thing to have in Westport,” Allred said. “But we don’t have any firm plans yet.”
