Arcades and bars are a thing. As a generation that has grown on up on video games – and have normalized them as part of adulthood – has became part of the drinking scene, places have popped up more and more to serve them.
The latest entry is Ready Player One, in the basement of the historic Globe Building near Greektown. The bar, restaurant and fun zone boasts right around 40 machines, with a quarter of them being pinball.
The menu has a variety of bar favorites with twists. So, it’s a butternut mac and cheese.
There are meatloaf sliders.
The drinks are inspired by video games, obviously. There’s the Crash Bandicoot that has a pretty awesome blueberry-infused gin by New Holland, and the Yoshi-rinha, a take on a the popular caipirinha (above). There are also Michigan draft beers.
The prices are nice (as you can see in the “beta” menu above — prices are still getting tweaked) and reinforce what owners Mohamed Badaoui and Wael Gharbie say they’re going for, and that’s accessible.
The murals are great, too. What nerdy place in Detroit is complete without RoboCop, after all?
Here’s an interview from our latest Daily Detroit News Byte podcast with the owners.
If you like the show, subscribe for free in Apple Podcasts.
Ready Player One is located at 407 E. Fort Street in Detroit.