An all-ages bar and arcade opening this month in Bristol Borough is packed with pinball machines and gaming consoles collected by a dad leaning into his roots. Visitors can expect to hear plenty of camera flashes and “Boom shaka-lakas” bellowing from the “NBA Jam” cabinet.
Level Up Arcade + Bar opens Nov. 20, taking over the two-story space of the former Naked Brewing Co. taproom at 212 Mill St. Owner Chris Kinsey, a father of three, said he’s been working on the concept for a few years. In reality, it’s a dream that has been incubating for decades.
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“I grew up playing ‘NHL 94,’ ‘Tecmo Bowl’ and ‘Operation Wolf,'” Kinsey, 49, said of his gaming background. “One of my favorite games was ‘Bad Dudes.’ And ‘NBA Jam,’ ‘NFL Blitz.’ My generation spent a lot of time at arcades, and I think just having that retro appeal is back in all sorts of different ways.”
Level Up will host ‘NBA Jam’ tournaments and competitions for other classic arcade games, including ‘NFL Blitz.’
At Level Up, Kinsey has amassed more than 30 pinball machines and arcade cabinets that cover a range of vintage and newer games. They are all coin-operated.
“We have a bunch of driving games. We have a ‘Star Wars’ game. We have basketball. We have some claw machine games,” Kinsey said. “We also have a bunch of cabinets like ‘Pac Man,’ ‘Ms. Pac Man,’ ‘Defender,’ a few four-player gauntlets and other random games.”
The pinball machines at Level Up include ‘Avengers’ and ‘Star Wars’ games.
One nook is dedicated entirely to retro consoles, including NES and SEGA Genesis, with a library of games that can be played for free on an old cathode-ray tube TV. Another back room has a Playstation 5, and Kinsey plans to get Nintendo Switch consoles set up with controllers at Level Up’s bars. The whole place calls back to a golden age of gaming.
“I got some thrift store couches that are from the ’90s, and I put a Randall Cunningham poster up there,” Kinsey said. “It’s supposed to feel homey and cozy. I’m probably going to play old episodes of ‘120 minutes’ from MTV. I used to watch that from my dorm.”
Level Up owner Chris Kinsey hooked up an old TV for people to play retro video game consoles at the bar.
Level Up will be open seven days a week with kid-friendly hours until 9 p.m. each night. After that, it will be restricted to people 21 and older.
The menu features video-game themed appetizers, wagyu smash burgers, buckets of meatballs and an “after-school special” grilled cheese with tomato soup. There’s also a milkshake bar where people can customize their own drinks with candy toppings.
Kinsey is partnering with Conshohocken Brewing Co., Philly’s Space Cadet Brewing Co. and Hatboro’s Concordance Ferments Brewpub for the beer list, which also contains selections from other local brewers. An upstairs bar has 21 taps and the lower level has nine. Wine is on tap from Chaddsford Winery and the bar makes a variety of specialty cocktails, including a “Mortal Kombat”-inspired “Sub Zero” with Stateside vodka, blue curaçao, lemonade and bubbles.
“We’re trying to keep keep everything as local as we can,” Kinsey said.
Most of Kinskey’s career has been in pharmaceutical marketing, and he’ll continue working in that industry as Level Up gets off the ground. As his kids got older, Kinsey found that video games reliably brought the <a href="https://comicvibe.com/spy-x-family-season-4-set-to-hit-in-2027-new-film-on-the-way-too/” title=”Spy x Family Season 4 Set to Hit in 2027; New Film On The Way, Too”>family together. He started researching barcades across the country during vacations to take notes on what makes them work best.
“It’s hard to find options for meeting other parents and other families where everybody can have a good time, and this seemed like a good way to hit all of those things,” Kinsey said. “I just got so into it, doing all the research and writing the business plan.”
The two story barcade in Bristol Borough has several nooks decorated for lounging and playing video games.
Level Up plans to have family movie nights on Saturdays, Tuesday events for table games and PS5 tournaments, and dedicated competition nights for “NBA Jam,” “Mario Kart” and other classic games. The bar also can host parties and special events.
Kinsey is confident Level Up will be a valued edition for Bristol, a quiet riverfront town that’s distinguished as Pennsylvania’s oldest borough, founded in 1681. During the community’s Historic Bristol Day in October, Kinsey previewed Level Up with a free play event that drew about 600 people to the bar.
“Kids love it, and there were people in their 60s in here being like, ‘Oh, this makes me feel like a kid again,'” Kinsey said. “There’s nothing else like this around here.”
Level Up owner Chris Kinsey, 49, has been playing video games since he was a kid. Posters at the bar pay homage to classic titles.
Level Up will be the second independently-owned barcade to open in the Philly region this year. In Delaware County, Battle Royale microbrewery and arcade opened in Springfield Township last month after months of anticipation.
Kinsey thinks these spots can be alternatives to places like Dave & Buster’s, where a corporate feel sometimes stifles any sense of community, he said. The closure of Naked Brewing Co.’s taproom was a loss for Bristol Borough in July, but Kinsey said he pounced on the opportunity to reinvent the space.
“I think it’s a perfect size. It’s just enough space to make it feel personal and not too big,” Kinsey said. “I feel really lucky that things worked out the way they did.”
