Toronto - Billiard Tourism North of the Border

From NYC, I rode the Greyhound to Toronto.

I visited two poolrooms in Toronto.

Le Spot Billiard Lounge

4531 Sheppard Avenue East
Second Floor
Scarborough, Ontario, Canada | M1S 1V3
416.298.2888

 This is the home room of Alex Pagulayan - many of his trophies are hanging up on the walls, as well as countless pictures. The room was not particularly photogenic, so I will not post any pics of it.

The place was difficult to reach. The last subway stop got me to about 8km away from the poolroom. It was Good Friday, a national holiday in Canada, and the bus stop sign in front of the subway station stated that the bus did not run on Holidays. 

So I walked.

And walked,

And walked.

View from the free BBQ roof party at the hostel

Then I saw a bus - THE bus actually. I tried to flag him down but since I wasn't at an actual stop, he just went on. So I kept walking until I reached the next bus stop, waited a half hour, and did get to do the last couple of kilometers while sitting down, which was nice.  

When I got there at 3pm, the room was already packed : no tables available.

One guy was shooting by himself, a Pakistani Canadian - we played some 9-ball races. Intelligent, interesting guy. A charming penchant for simplicity. After we were done, he kindly offered me a ride back to a subway station , which I accepted with enthusiasm.

I got off at the wrong stop. I misread my map scale, wound up walking over 1.5 hours to get back to town. You learn.

For my first night I had arranged to couchsurf - if you don't know what that is, I highly recommend it. Check out www.couchsurfing.org. My host  for that night was great, and I learned many things from his uncommon perspectives and life experiences. For my second night, I found a fantastic hostel right downtown which was clean, cheap, "green" and full of travelers from everywhere, particularly Germans and French 

youngsters looking for temporary work/travel arrangements.

Now, off to one of the places I was most excited to visit on my North American vagabondery :

 

The Academy of Spherical Arts

 1 Snooker St // For real  ---->

Toronto, ON

 (416)532-2782

http://www.sphericalarts.com/index.php

Twitter : @SphericalArts

Tip : 

Check in on Foursquare to get 1 free hour of pool - $20 value here ;)

From the website :  (anything in purple is directly from the website)

A BRIEF HISTORY of the Academy of Spherical Arts and the building that houses it reads like an outline for a short story.

In 1890 the 38 Hanna Avenue (now #1 Snooker Street) address was assigned to the original four-story building. Over the years, space was added and in 1905 the Brunswick Balke Collender Company bought the building and began manufacturing billiard tables, cues, balls and all manner of accessories (can you see it coming?).

In 1910 the company bought Canada's oldest and largest manufacturer of billiard tables, the Samuel May Company, making them the undisputed king of Canadian billiards. In 1959 the company moved its operations to Cooksville, Ontario, and the building lay fallow until its rescue in the late 1980's.

Serious collection of whisky

In September of 1991, the Academy of Spherical Arts opened with what is now the Samuel May Room. The facility was expanded in 1995 with the John Brunswick Room, and again in 1997 with the Georges Chenier Room. As a millennium project, in the fall of 1999, the Academy undertook the construction of our newest addition, La Belle Époque. Today, the Academy occupies 20,000 square feet, approximately one sixth of the old factory.

It is a poetic and comforting thought to know that many of the billiard tables, cues, balls and scoreboards that were handcrafted here decades ago have returned at long last to their place of birth.

All's right with the world.

The Samuel May Room :

Part of the Samuel May room

Our current bar, built in 1998, is fashioned from steel, copper and wood. This bar was custom designed by Rick using British Columbia fir shipped to Ontario in the 1920's. It was stored in a barn near Glen Williams, Ontario for some seventy years before being used to hold the vast array of Academy libations.

One of the Samuel May tables

Four of the billiard tables you see in this room are original Samuel May and Co. tables; they range in age from 100 - 130 years old. They are fine examples of Samuel May's Manufacturing excellence and keep Canada's billiard heritage alive.

The room features Kind Edward's personal snooker table, on which I played for free thanks to Foursquare :

King Edward's personal snooker table

Woodwork worthy of a King's table

The John Brunswick Room :

The billiard tables and accessories found in this room were all manufactured in the building. They have returned home. The bar was built in France at the end of the 19th century, and the stained glass lamps that light the bar are early 20th century.

The George Chenier Room :

zOMG mustard felt

As a billiard factory this area of the building would have been the busiest. It was the loading dock. All finished products came to this area to be shipped across Canada. The external windows in this room were loading doors and under the carpet you will find quarter inch steel plate floors necessary for the movement of slate and heavy table frames.

This room was opened in 1996. The idea was to provide space for smaller groups and create an intimate warm atmosphere. The large interior windows give the room an airy feel and also represent a significant part of Toronto's history. These windows were part of the now demolished Massey Harris factory on King Street at Strachan. Massey Harris was the largest manufacturer of farm tractors and implements in the first half of the 20th century. So in a small way we've brought together work and leisure under one loading dock roof.

Since the first two rooms of the Academy were named after the foremost Canadian manufacturers of billiard tables, it was only appropriate to recognize one of Canada's greatest players, George Chenier.

 There was also a last room called La Belle Epoque, but it was off-limits as they were in the process of renovating it :(

 I leave you with a few more shots from the Academy. The employees at this establishment were very happy to show me around and tell me history and anecdotes about the building, its furniture, and its tables. I highly recommend going to take a tour, shoot on some antique tables, sample some scotch, and have a delicious juicy ribeye with asparagus and gnocchi as I did!

Koalas and 3-cushion Billiards in New York City

Erie, Pennsylvania - one o'clock in the morning. The bus is already 20 minutes late. The station is closed; I'm outside trying to keep warm. A taxi pulls up and drops off a very small man with one suitcase and one backpack. He approaches me and mutters something completely incomprehensible. I pull out a bag of sour cream and onion potato chips, crack it open and offer him some; I mean he was really skinny. He asks something again, and this time I understand a bit better: "What time the bus is?"
I answer in my most neutral traveling English, "Twenty minutes ago".
I'll spare you the impossibly language-barriered exchange and summarize.
 The guy is from Thailand, FOB. His name is Ski. He looks like he is 13 years old but is probably 20 or so. He arrived a couple of weeks before with a visa and a job aligned at a spa somewhere in the vicinity of Erie. He didn't like the job, "boss no good". He quit. He had heard from someone, somewhere that there was a spa in *NO IDEA HOW TO TRANSCRIBE WHAT HE SAID* and another person told him the bus went there, leaving at 1 am from Erie.

 I try to explain to him gently how screwed he is; he seems to get it. You can't buy tickets on the bus. The bus is not going where he needs to go. It's -5 deg. C outside and he has a light jacket. He does not have a place to stay in Erie; he burnt bridges at the previous job; he doesn't have cab fare or any money really to get back to warmth. I started telling him that it's too cold to sleep outside and he could consider calling the police.
After much back and forth, I figure out that he wants to go to a small town in the Pocono Mountains, clear on the other side of the state. He has been grossly misinformed, or there has been a communication failure. The only bus leaving from Erie was the one to Buffalo, which I am taking on my way to NYC. That bus is not going anywhere near his destination. He was hoping to be at work in the morning. He does not have a bus ticket, and the station is closed. He is visibly hungry, and freezing his tiny frame to death in the early April winds of Erie midnights.

 An old SUV comes screeching around the corner. A guy in a wifebeater and leather jacket gets out of the driver's seat. He's drinking Pepto-Bismol straight from the bottle. He's in a GREAT mood for some reason. Possibly drunk, but likely some other type of substance abuse. He walks up to check the bus schedules which are posted next to the window. When he sees Ski, he says "You're still here? From this morning?" and Ski mumbles something which I understood to mean "No, I went somewhere but came back when I was told the bus would leave here at 1." The Pepto-Bismol dude, in spite of his confidence and good mood, does not radiate trustworthiness. Rather, just plain weirdness. He gets back in his seat, rolls down the window and says, "Com'on guys, get in my car, warm up for a bit." I ignore him, and Ski notices this. Ski goes back and forth looking at me and Pepto and finally goes and opens the passenger door. He pokes his head in, mumbles something inaudible. Then I hear an incredulous Pepto say very loudly, "What? You want to come sleep at my house..." and then "You don't have any guns do you?" and finally, "Alright hop in". I help him get his luggage in the back and wish both of them luck.
I have no idea how Ski will go forward from there. He's out of money, doesn't know where he is going, probably doesn't really have a job lined up the way he thinks he does. I won't even go into whether his visa is still valid if he just quit his previous job etc.
 So they went on their way, improbably connected. Good luck to you, Ski!

 The rest of the trip was uneventful, with stops in Buffalo and Syracuse in the middle of the night.

My main interest for coming to New York, was to visit two very famous pool rooms.

Carom Café

3402 Linden Pl
Flushing, NY 11354

1 718.358.8585

Located in Queens, this room has housed most of the best American 3-cushion players for the last decade or more.

11 Full size, heated 3-cushion tables
2 Korean 4-ball tables (8')

20 Full size American Pool tables

3 Full size Snooker tables

6 ping-pong tables



This has got to be one of the best places in the world to play 3-cushion. An employee vacuums the table after every game. They are super well-maintained, as you would expect from a place owned (from what I understand) first by Sang Lee, and now by Michael Kang. Regulars include Pedro Piedrabuena, Hugo Patino, Ira Lee, Sonny Cho and many others.

I watched a lot of 3-cushion, in particular Ira Lee and Hugo Patino who are practice buddies.
I played a game of Uniards with Hugo Patino, who had never played the game. It was a blast. He would get all excited about certain shots, saying something like, "Oh, I ALWAYS double kiss THIS one!" Turns out he would play the game by placing an imaginary red ball on the table and figuring out which normal 3-cushion shot would habitually kiss double-kiss the white ball after 3 rails. Interesting. Ira Lee validated that it was the technique he also used when playing Uniards.

Vacuuming the tables after every match

Korean 4-ball table (8', unheated)

Sonny Cho (L) and Michael Kang watching the NCAA finals

Hugo Patino

Ira Lee

--Geological Interlude--


One of the reasons behind my decision to cross the North American continent overland was to be able to observe firsthand some of the most beautiful geology in the world, in particular in the American West. Although you may not think of New York City as being particularly interesting from a geological point of view, I was convinced otherwise by one of my favorite blogs, Friends of the Pleistocene (Twitter : @Geoturn).
The Friends of the Pleistocene explore the interactions of humans with the geological, often in a poetic, artful manner. They did an entire series on New York City - one of my favorite posts explores the geology behind the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. As a member (yes, I am a paying member of fan club of a particular geological time period), I also received a nifty booklet - New York City is a Geological Force.
You can expect more pictures and possibly some stories about geological goodies in future posts.


--End Geological Interlude--

Delicious Manhattan Indian food with fellow traveler and awesome person (hi Lana!)

The following day, it was time to visit Manhattan and meet up with a traveler I had first met on a bus in Norway who had recently moved to the City. We had a great time discussing language, music, food and a myriad of other subjects over some great coffee and then Indian food. After that, I walked to Amsterdam Billiards.

Amsterdam Billiards
110 East 11th Street
New York, New York 10003
Phone: 212-995-0333
http://amsterdambilliardclub.com/

25 Brunswick pool tables
Ping pong, darts, foosball, pinball, and beer pong.

Mika Immonen playing at "home"

Home to Mika Immonen, player of the decade, and to several other touring pros such as Jennifer Baretta and Tony Robles, this room came with high expectations, which... were not met, unfortunately. The space is terribly cluttered, and the low ceilings do not help. I realize this is Manhattan and space is at a premium, but the plethora of support columns, brass barriers and railings, chairs and tables, and tight walking corridors are not my idea of a great place to play or watch pool.

Cluttered space, low ceilings... not my favorite type of poolroom

Redeeming quality - 3 pinball machines!

  I left Amsterdam Billiards a bit underwhelmed but with awesome plans to go see my favorite DJ in a concept art gallery/concert performance in Brooklyn :)



Kid Koala
www.kidkoala.com

Melodic Turntablist
Artist, sculptor, cartoonist
One of the most creative people in the world
My favorite living musician





As part of a launch series for his new comic and soundtrack, Space Cadet, Kid Koala happened to be performing in Brooklyn while I was there. I had seen Kid Koala in concert many times before, in Baltimore, New York City, Tennessee, and probably other places too.
Kid Koala is not your traditional disk jockey. He is the only person I know that can create a jazz trumpet solo by changing the speed of records, juggling 4 turntables live with a signature, mature yet lighthearted sound.

PvP Pinball!

The show started with a cocktail/gaming hour on the upper level, overlooking the stage. He and his wife had created many arcade-type games that guests were invited to play in order to try to win lottery tickets used to enter drawings for free stuff during the concert. Games included PvP pinball, "turn your face into an asteroid", and plenty of other little creative installations. There was also lots of art and sculptures, including an intriguing little garden of alien flowers, and various electronic music creation instrument hybrids such as a voicepiano and TVurntables.

After some sangria (made by Kid Koala himself), guests were invited to go downstairs and don wireless headphones - this concert was played at your own volume. It was actually interesting to remove the headphones during the concert and observe a dead silent theater full of hip young concert goers sitting on giant beanbag rolls, rocking out calmly to the best DJ in the world.

The giant beanbag roll concert pit, seen from the art/gaming gallery

Kid Koala spinning in his koala suit, as he does.

I had won a few tickets playing the games, and sure enough one of my numbers got called during the show and I won a copy of the new Space Cadet comic w00t. 


Next stop, Toronto. Stay tuned.

Erie, Pennsylvania - Gold Crown Billiards

Erie sits on the very northwestern corner of Pennsylvania, sandwiched between the states of Ohio and New York. This is where I went to college, many years back, at Penn State University, the Behrend College. I still have many friends there and it was nice to visit them and also to see my old biology and jazz professors who somehow had not forgotten me. Many thanks to Dr. V for the free lunch with the chamber orchestra!
I spent 4 days in the area, also stopping by Meadville a little further south to meet up with a fellow jazz musician with whom I had worked in the past... now, Joe has a huge studio full of instruments and recording equipment, we had a blast there and at the Italian Civic Club to which he belongs.

Joe (R) and his jazz trio

One of my favorite beers - did not expect to find it in a Wegmann's

I found some time to get out to Gold Crown Billiards, Erie's top poolroom. I had been there about 12 years ago, before the pool bug had sunken its proboscis deep into my brain.
Gold Crown Billiards is a very nice room, opened in 1978. It has two bars attached, Andy's and the Bullfrog Bar (I had some great food at Andy's).
Unfortunately, they did not let me take pictures of the inside of the pool room - but the website has a good picture tour where you can see the different tables and layout.
There was a lot of nine-ball and eight-ball going on, as well as some 3-cushion, although the table did not have a heated slate, there were pretty good billiards players there.
I met a few good people there, Ben sticks out as a great storyteller who took some money from me playing 9-ball, and Brett who was happy to have someone around that shot one-pocket. And also took my money.

Getting around this part of the world without a car can be a frustrating experience. I had to get out of Crown Billiards on time to meet a friend a few miles up the road - there was a bus, but I had to wait in the cold rain and wind for 30min before it finally came.

From Erie, the next stop was New York City. I had booked an overnight Greyhound bus leaving at 12:40 am, going through Buffalo and Syracuse... Funny story about that in the next post! Stay tuned!

Yinz play any one-pocket?

Breaker's Billiards and Lounge - Pittsburgh, PA



15 Diamond/Gold Crown Tables
1 Chevillotte Heated Slate Carom Billiards Table


Breaker's is not in the center of the city, but you can get to it easily by using the subway. It's only a 1 minute walk from the Potomac subway stop on the red line.

I showed up around 2:30pm. There were about 15 people in the room all included. Ten were matched up playing one-pocket, 3 were betting on the rail, and a couple of people were doing drills.
This room is owned by Paul Mottey who completely renovated it in 2003 when he bought the place.
Paul himself, as well as his son were there when I walked in. Paul was giving someone 10-7 and I think the bet was $50/rack.
One thing I really liked is the "Lounge".
It is separate from the poolroom, but when you sit at the bar, the back wall of the bar is windows into the poolroom - you can sit there with your rail-betting pals, drink, and watch and discuss the match out loud without bothering the players, who can't hear you.
Paul Jr. told me that these guys come in basically everyday to play one-pocket. They leave at about 6pm. The evening crowd is variable, but sometimes they get quite busy. They do run some big tournaments, including the PA State Championship from a couple of weeks ago.

 View from the "Lounge" - the back wall of the bar is just windows into the poolroom. 

Here from inside the poolroom, you can see the "lounge" and a Railbirdus  pittsburghiensis in its natural habitat

 Paul Mottey - He no longer makes cues, but he still plays one-pocket all the time. Here he is giving up 10-7 in a high-quality 1-hole match. 

Unfortunately, I did not get any direct pictures of the 10' heated slate Chevillotte 3-cushion table (although you can see it in the background of the Paul Mottey pic), but I did get to play (and win!) on it and it was basically perfect.


I liked this room a lot and the people there were friendly enough.

My ratings :

Location : 7/10
Character : 8/10
Tables : 9/10
Action : 8/10

Super Billiards Expo 2012

Landing in Philadelphia

After 8 months of galivantery around Europe, Africa, Asia and Europe again, it was time to return to one of my two lands of my roots. The stars and planets lined up perfectly (for real) and I would make it to Philadelphia on time to attend the largest pool expo in the world, the Allen Hopkins Super Billiards Expo. I bought in to the Amateur Open, a gigantic affair topping out at 984 players. Single elimination, two sets of race to 5 of 9-ball on barbox. I did not play well at all, losing 5-4 5-4 in the first round. After roughly 12 hours of anger and self-loathing I was back in the pool mood.

Billiards Show!

                                                                     


My entry fee to the open included access to the expo on all 4 days, and I was planning on taking full advantage of that. The last time I had been to expo, I did not follow pool very closely. This time, I knew much more about the pool world, had some very interesting people to meet, some old friends to see again and plenty of time to spend.

    Mixed feelings about the new venue. It was a bit further into the middle of nowhere than the Valley Forge expo center, although still quite close. The problem with that is that there are fewer hotels within walking distance, complicating transportation and partying logistics. On the other hand, everything was on one floor, and although this meant easier access and flow throughout the expo, I missed the awesome feeling of seeing the pool tables roll out endlessly as you made your way down the stairs. 

Pedro Piedrabuena, pondering the last shot of the 3-cushion tournament

The 3-cushion invitational and the trickshot competition were held right by the amateur open and TAP events - this surely brought some increased visibility to these cue sports which are too often forgotten. In fact, I watched quite a bit of 3-cushion and with the knowledge of the game that I acquired in Germany, this was very enjoyable. 

The last match, between Pedro Piedrabuena and Hugo Patino was quite amazing. Pedro was up 33-24 on the race to 35, and Hugo ran a 7 to get to 33-31. Pedro made one more to get to 34, and Hugo made two to get the match to 34-33. Pictured above, Pedro playing white on what turned out to be the last shot of the tournament. If you know about 3-cushion, and some of you do, you can immediately see the difficulty in this layout. Since the three balls are aligned, and the two object balls are far from each other, the options are very limited. Pedro went off the yellow for a difficult short-long-short, executed perfectly for the win.

Pool Cube paraphernalia

The very open layout of the expo also meant that you were constantly bumping in to pros and pool personalities going about their billiardly business.

I particularly enjoyed watching Ralf Souquet and Mika Immonen play Pool Cube, a variation with elements of backgammon. The setting sun was shining in through windows near the roof, and I got to take some rare pictures of pool pros playing in natural lighting - see the shadows projected by the balls? 

Ralf "The Kaiser" Souquet

Ralf Eckert trying his hand at the 14.1 challenge. He made the called 11 in the corner on this choochoo train combo.

One-Ball One-Pocket, Dominican rules

No trip to Super Billiards Expo would be complete without losing a few bucks betting on the rail at the action tables. This year, there was a contingent of Dominican players quite successfully introducing their game of choice : Dominican rules one-ball one-pocket. Each player gets a diagonally opposed corner pocket, and must make the ball in their pocket to win. Scratches don't "count", you simply get ball in hand behind the line. Making the object ball in the "wrong" pocket is loss of game. I watched a good bit of this game, and it seems particularly well adapted to railbird infested barbox action.

I had the pleasure to watch some of the pro action along with some knowledgeable friends. The pro arena was separate from the rest of the venue, and the silence in there brought a nice relief from the loud main area.

Darren Appleton

Shane Van Boening

I watched the whole final match, Stevie Moore vs. Shane Van Boening - this was not a "true" double elimination, they just increased the race to 13 from 10. Shane plays unbelievably well, And Stevie really didn't make many mistakes but was still down 8-0 at one point. In alternate break format, that is really impressive. Even being down by that much with a $13,000 swing on the line, Stevie kept his composure and did manage to stage a comeback while Shane was on the hill. Stevie got from 12-2 to 12-6, never losing his confidence. Shane did make a couple of mistakes at this point. Finally, Stevie missed a two ball entirely trying to thin it for a safe, and Shane got out for the win.

Stevie Moore during the finals

Shane Van Boening and Stevie Moore at the trophy ceremony. $20,000 for Shane, $7000 for Stevie. 

I had a blast, thanks to friends old and new, to good food, and to the heavy dose of pool radiation I absorbed all week long. Who knows where they will hold this event next year, and where I will be by then... This was sort of a homecoming for me, after being out of the country for so long and having acquired so much new knowledge of the game and its characters. I'm now off for some American adventures, heading across the continent in what could be a circuitous journey. I'm taking suggestions for pool rooms to come visit so please let me know if you would like me to stop by yours. 

Quotes from the rail :

"I got up there and played the game the way it's supposed to be played, and he didn't like that" - Earl Strickland to Stevie Moore, at the next table over in the pizza joint

"The moral of the story is, don't ever let your wife talk you into getting fixed" - One-handed 9-ball bandit

"Inconceivable!" - Hypothetical livestream commentary for the yet-to-happen Princess Bride 10-Ball Invitational Battle of Wits

SPECIAL THANKS! --

Pros :

Michael Kang

Pedro Piedrabuena

Nachito Block

Sarah Rousey 

Robin Dodson

Ralf Souquet

Rob Saez

Shane Van Boening

Earl Strickland

Stevie Moore

Hunter Lombardo

Brandon Shuff

Allen Hopkins

Not-so-average pool nuts :

Hung N. 

Jason B.

Angel L.

Abdel

Rick S.

Tony C.

Jill R.
Brian P.

Zack N. 

Rob P.

Christine P.
JimboArmy

Cue Makers :

Joss Cues - thanks for the free joint protectors!

Eric Crisp - SugarTree Cues

Murray Tucker - Tucker Cue Works

Dennis Dieckman

Marine biologists :

OMGWTF