The Emporium Sports Bar, located on Taft Hill and West Elizabeth Street, is a cute little pool hall based off of the Emporium Pool Hall in the 1993 film “Dazed and Confused.” My first impression after pulling up to the building was that it was fun! The logo was made out of painted pool balls and they had a bunch of art all over the windows and different posters showing different items that they had to offer.
After walking in at about 1:00 pm, an hour after they opened, it wasn’t busy at all. We were the only ones in the building outside of the one bartender who waved and kindly welcomed us into the building. We walked up to the bar area and the bartender asked if we had ever been there before and after we responded with no, she explained how everything works in great detail. She offered us different options to rent out a pool table and explained how much each choice cost. After we told her our choice to play until 6:00 pm, she asked if we would like anything to start us off. We ordered Pepsis and the bartender got the drinks quickly, efficiently and kindly. My first impression of the staff was phenomenal. She was kind, funny, quick, and very helpful.
Once we had our drinks and our pool balls/chalk, Sofie and I walked over to the pool table that the bartender gave to us. We set everything up and grabbed our pool cues, which were very nice and none of them seemed to be bent or broken as far as I could tell. They keep their items very nice and clean. Also, speaking of cleanliness, the bar seemed to be very clean especially for being a bar. The floor was shiny and never sticky in a spot, the tables and chairs were wiped down from head to toe, and the bathrooms were surprisingly clean for being bar bathrooms.
Eventually, everything was set up and we took a minute to look around at the decor that was plastered all over the walls and spewed across the floor. The decor was fun with murals located on almost every wall in sight. They had posters almost everywhere; dart boards were located along the back wall, and they also had a tapestry from the movie the bar was based on. They also had a pinball machine, foosball table, skeeball, and a jukebox which was playing a station with almost every kind of music imaginable.
Finally, about a half hour after we came in, another group of people walked in and many more continued to come and go for the next couple of hours that we were there for. Everyone who walked in seemed to be extremely friendly people and they all appeared to know the bartender that was working and seemed like they were regulars at the pool hall. Also, about 45 minutes after we walked into the hall, we decided to order food. We walked up to the bar and the bartender walked over almost immediately and asked what she could do for us and was extremely kind. We decided to order a cheese pizza and cheese curds which was $8.00 for a ten inch pizza and $10.00 for the Wisconsin cheese curds.
About ten minutes later, our food came out nice and hot and the bartender handed it to us with a big smile and told us to let her know if we needed anything else at any point. For me, the pizza was really good. It had a very nice cheese to sauce to crust ratio and was extremely hot and fresh. The seasoning on the pizza was very nice and not overwhelming and the crust was very light and fluffy. The cheese was extremely melty and wasn’t overpowering the crust. The pizza also wasn’t super greasy, but not not too dry either. Overall, I really enjoyed the pizza, and I don’t think I have any complaints about it. However, the cheese curds I wasn’t as excited about. They were very greasy and the grease sort of pooled at the bottom of the tray they were served in and I wish they had a little more crispiness to them, but other than that they were delicious. The cheese was super good and a decent amount of curds were in the tray. They were also extremely hot and fresh and the cheese was very delicious.
Overall, I believe that the Emporium Sports Bar is a great place to hangout with friends, whether you’re there to play pool, darts, or just to hangout and talk, it’s an awesome place. After ordering two Pepsis, one Mountain Dew, a ten-inch cheese pizza, cheese curds, and four hours of pool, the total came to just under $45.00. I definitely recommend this place to anybody who loves the 1970’s, the film “Dazed and Confused,” pool, and delicious food. I will definitely be returning very soon and I hope that you will check it out soon as well!
