Two pool halls with professional grade Diamond tables opening in Pierce County

The owner of two pool halls in the South Sound, all equipped with professional-caliber Diamond tables, has opened a third and will add a fourth later this year.

The first of the pair, Breakroom Pizza and Billiards, recently reopened at Lakewood Cinema Plaza on 84th Street.

Owner Mike Deoskey said the former tenant, Green Pup Sports Bar, closed in late 2019. With the help of fiancee Rhian Johnson, he tore down the wall with the neighboring business, remodeling both spaces in time for an early 2020 opening, delayed due to the pandemic. As they continue to hire enough staff to accommodate a full-capacity bar and restaurant — a tall task for most every hospitality business right now — Breakroom is quietly open for food, drinks and, of course, pool.

Then last August, Louie G’s Pizzeria, which doubled as an all-ages music venue, closed after 13 years in Fife. Deoskey had been considering a fourth location, and it’s not every day that a sizable spot becomes available.

“I had been in there once or twice and remembered it was pretty big,” he said. “We need pretty good sized places to do what we do.”

While Breakroom is 21-and-up, Scratch Pizza and Billiards will be all ages, aside from a bar area separated from the pool hall and dining room. Deoskey hopes to open in August, barring construction and permitting.

Louie G’s regulars won’t find a particularly recognizable interior, as an auction left it completely gutted — down to the kitchen hood, he said.

A menu focused on pizza and pub food will mirror the offerings at his other two locations: 15th Street Bar and Grill in Auburn, which Deoskey opened about four years ago, and The Clubhouse Bar and Grill in Kent.

The important theme at all of Deoskey’s bars, though, are the Diamond pool tables, manufactured since 1987 in Jeffersonville, Indiana.

Starting around $7,000, they are far more expensive than the few hundred dollars one could spend on an amateur table, but they are the preferred brand of professionals and “the best pool table you can play on,” said Deoskey. “We set ourselves aside that way. It’s a professional pool scene.”

The Kent and Auburn locations regularly host regional league play, and Lakewood and Fife will welcome them, too.

Each of Deoskey’s pool halls is arranged precisely with professional play — or an optimal amateur experience for us laypeople — at top of mind.

“Pool tables take up a lot of space,” he said. “It’s a certain design that we do: There’s enough space to shoot your game between pool tables, there’s enough room for everyone to sit and view it, at the right angles. Teams have enough seating.”

His foray into owning a mini pool hall empire began, he explained, at a dive bar in Kent. Following a few trying years, toying with karaoke nights to help the bar stand out, he discovered the Diamond brand, “and just took a huge risk and bought five of them.”

From there, everything fell into place, he said: “It was the right fit for us and it really worked.”

They determined they needed bigger digs — and more tables — so he moved The Clubhouse to its current location in Kent and bought more Diamonds.

With Breakroom and Scratch, Deoskey will have just shy of 60 tables ready for play in the South Sound. You pay by the hour, in 15-minute increments, and can use a credit card — no quarters.

SCRATCH PIZZA & BILLIARDS

▪ 5219 Pacific Highway E, Fife

▪ Details: professional-quality pool hall, plus pizza and pub food; targeting August 2021 opening

BREAKROOM PIZZA & BILLIARDS

▪ 2510 S. 84th St., Lakewood (at Lakewood Cinema Plaza), 253-584-9210

▪ Details: bar and pool hall soft-open now

This story was originally published June 11, 2021 at 5:00 AM.