PORTAGE PARK — Two avid pinball players have taken over a Northwest Side pool hall with hopes of also making it a local hub for the beloved arcade game.
Kate and Mark Porter, and Rachel and Rob Karlic bought Chicago Billiard Cafe at 5935 W. Irving Park Road in the spring. The pool hall has been in Portage Park since 1982 and attracts a lot of regular players with its 16 pool tables, Kate Porter said.
The couples have spent the past few months sprucing up the space, repainting the walls, replacing the floors, getting a liquor license and adding eight pinball machines.
Chicago Billiard Cafe is hosting its first pinball tournament 6 p.m. Sunday to bring the bar into the city’s growing pinball scene. Entry is free, all ages and skill levels are welcome.
Flashing lights, buzzers and bells is exactly what Kate Porter and Rachel Karlic envisioned when they first saw the space. Owning a bar/pinball arcade has “always been the dream,” Karlic said. So when they saw the business was for sale, they jumped at the opportunity.
“We’re very passionate about how bar gaming is just, awesome,” she said.
In the mid-2000’s, Kate Porter and Rachel Karlic kept a spreadsheet of which Chicago bars had pinball machines because it was hard to find a bar with more than a few machines and even harder to find specific games.
However, there’s been a pinball resurgence over the past decade. Streamers such as Chicago-based Hot Nudge and home pinball machines have helped repopularize the game, Porter said. There are now more than 270 machines at over 70 locations in the Chicago area, according to the website Pinball Map.
Chicago has long been a pinball epicenter. Throughout the 1900s, the city was home to many of the largest pinball manufacturing companies. Stern Pinball recently opened a new factory near O’Hare and is currently the largest pinball machine manufacturer in the world.
Stern has seen year-over-year growth since 2010, Zachary Sharpe, the company’s director of marketing told WTTW in January.
Porter and Karlic often were some of the only women playing when they started entering open pinball tournaments more than a decade ago. As pinball has regained popularity, the game has also become more inclusive, they said.
“I remember I would go to tournaments, and they would be surprised that I was actually good,” Porter said.
In 2017, the duo founded the Chicago chapter of Bells and Chimes, an international network of women’s pinball leagues that started in California in 2013. The Chicago chapter now has about 60 members, and there are other chapters in suburban Chicago and Peoria.
“I wanted to create a gateway to get more women into open tournaments,” Porter said.
Bells and Chimes will continue to operate out of the Logan Arcade. The Chicago Billiard Cafe will host co-ed tournaments, and the Pinball Chicago league team, Much Ado About Nudging, also will be based out of the Billiard Cafe.
The Billiard Cafe’s current pinball machine collection includes Dolly, Bad Girls, James Bond, Pulp Fiction and more. Porter said they hope to grow the collection over time.
While the owners are adding pinball, Chicago Billiard Cafe is still primarily a pool hall. The owners have retained all the staff members, who have been teaching Porter and Karlic about pool. The space has 16 pool tables across its two levels, plus a side room with pinball machines and a couple of tables.
The owners want to start showing art in the pool hall’s mezzanine. Porter’s husband is an exhibition coordinator at Columbia College and has a lot of connections to local artists, she said. This fall, a colorful, pool-themed mural will also be added to the walls.
The menu is filled with “guilty pleasure bar foods” such as pizza, fries, pretzels, candy and more, Karlic said.
After years of being some of the only women in pinball leagues, Porter and Karlic said they’re proud to claim a women-owned pool hall and pinball hall in Chicago.
Chicago Billiard Cafe is open noon-midnight every day and noon-2 a.m. Saturdays. To stay updated on latest events, checkout their Facebook here.
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