More Pinball

New Oak Cliff bar slam-tilts Dallas into retro pinball trend

Stand like a statue and become part of the machine.

Retro pinball enters Dallas with Slam Tilt, a pinball bar coming to Oak Cliff from the folks behind Free Play, an arcade chain with locations in Richardson, Arlington, and Denton.

Located at 332 W. Jefferson Blvd., Slam Tilt will have 40 pinball machines with a few arcade games — a reverse of the lineup at Free Play, where pinball machines are a minority, says owner Corey Hyden.

"It's a real pinball bar," Hyden says. "At Free Play, you pay at the door and for your food and drink, but the games are free. This will be the old-style standard arcade where you pay once you're inside."

This is not a bar with the random pinball machine. It's a collection of pinball machines inside a bar. "There aren't many places like this, maybe 10 in the world," Hyden says. "It's not a hugely explored concept yet, and we think we're in a position with the resources of Free Play, to do it better."

Pinball is one facet in a growing trend of adult-playground bars. The pioneer in Dallas was Barcadia, the Henderson Avenue bar from Brooke Humphries, where pinball is part of an entire spectrum of game options. There are now Barcadias in Fort Worth, New Orleans, and Baton Rouge.

Bishop Cider Co. expanded its Dallas brewery in 2017 with an arcade called CiderCade. Meanwhile, a true pinball bar called Craftcade is anticipated to open in Fort Worth before the end of February.

A PinballMap website tracks pinball machines in Dallas-Fort Worth. Pinball machines are not cheap to acquire or maintain.

"Pinballs are $10,000 per table, so if you want to have 40 like we will, you're looking at $400,000," he says. "We happened to find ourselves in a position to get these amazing pinball tables, and probably the best, since we are biggest arcade and pinball buyer in the world."

Hyden, who went to law school in Tulane, says that this will be a "real New Orleans-style" bar.

"There's something about the bars there that capture you," he says. "It can be a world-famous bar but it still feels like a neighborhood bar, it's just a totally different vibe."

And while their Free Play locations are "beer heavy," Slam Tilt will emphasize spirits.

"We're going to do more of an exploration of whiskeys, bourbons, and scotches for a more sophisticated clientele," he says.

Finding the right location was a challenge. They needed a space that was big enough to accommodate a lot of machines but without getting into a building so large that it invited a separate set of regulations. They'll be going into a redeveloped storefront near Texas Theatre, alongside Top Ten Records, another retro-leaning business, and hope to open by the end of 2018.

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Coffee News

East Dallas coffee shop Killer Joe crackles with sharp New York style

Killer Joe

Killer Joe Coffee

A hip new coffee shop is energizing a busy corner in East Dallas: Called Killer Joe, it's a new shop at 108 N. Fitzhugh Ave. right on the northeast corner of Columbia Avenue, next to (and in the same building as) Pupusas To Go.

Killer Joe is from Christine Sweet and Christian Napolitano, who moved from New York to Dallas in 2022 in search of entrepreneurial opportunity.

"We had been wanting to open up a business in New York for a long time," Christine says. “After the pandemic, it was really hard doing business there. We were looking for a good place to move that offered an opportunity to open our business."

Christine previously worked in travel/destination marketing, living in different places around the world. Christian was in hospitality, having worked in high-end restaurants in Manhattan, most recently at Bond Street Sushi in Soho.

Their goal: to bring a little New York culture to Dallas.

“We are more than a coffee shop — we're a place for foodies and musicophiles, we are really into music and rock & roll. Our shop is not a sleepy, quiet coffee shop," Christine says.

They serve notice of their intentions on the exterior with a quirky, personal mural by Anthony Z. Padilla, rendered in taxicab yellow, with elegant line drawings of the Statue of Liberty and highway-style signs that say "Now leaving New York" and "Welcome to Texas."

The interior is casual-chic, with pale wood furniture and an original cement floor that still sports intentional patches of old paint. The walls have a mix of B&W vintage photos and the occasional cowboy hat. The space was for many years a closed-in bar called Los Dos Reales; but now, the building boasts expansive windows that look out on Fitzhugh and create a bright and sunny space.

For their coffee program, they use organic espresso beans and make their drinks in an Italian Sanremo machine. They serve all the classics plus signature drinks such as French Toast Latte, Sea Salt Caramel de Leche, and Caliente Mocha with a hint of cayenne pepper.

Seasonal drinks include a pistachio caramel matcha latte — featuring toasted pistachios like a baklava, but balanced by the earthiness of the matcha. Other specialty drinks include rose water matcha, orange blossom matcha spritz, and cucumber lemonade.

Panini at Killer JoeKiller Joe

They also serve food, including breakfast all day: steak & eggs, avocado toast, and bagels with plain, scallion or vegan cream cheese. The "Spaghetti Western" is a twist on the traditional ham & cheese sandwich with spicy capicola, roasted tomato, Calabrian pepper sauce, and chimichurri on toasted ciabatta.

Bread is from Empire Baking Company and the bagels are from Shug's.

At lunch, they serve an umami tuna melt; a "K-Pop Cuban" with ham and cheese, plus kimchi pickles and wasabi mayo; and The Texican, with soyrizo spicy sausage, cheddar roasted poblano peppers, tomato, and avocado.

Reeves Family Farm in Princeton provides fruits and vegetables, and DiveDWN brings their microgreens. Pastries are baked in house and sauces such as black olive pesto and Killer chipotle sauce are made from scratch.

“We are trying to blend our edgy New York style with a Southern Texas flair," Christine says.

They're open daily from 7am-3 pm, with a late-hour program every second Saturday featuring live DJs; people gather inside and outside the shop for music, food, and drinks.

"This community is just so great, very eclectic, and has really embraced our style," Christine says. In fact, a few customers had a tattoo made at neighbor Franklins Tattoo and Supply with the coffee shop's skull logo.

"I had to follow and get one done too," she says.

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