AMSTERDAM BILLIARDS NYC DRIVER
AMSTERDAM BILLIARDS NYC PRO

AMSTERDAM BILLIARDS NYC PRO

Earl Strickland, considered one of the best nine-ball players of all time, was the in-house pro from 2011 to 2018, offering lessons and drawing crowds as he drained one shot after another in his afternoon practice sessions. The neighborhood staple has hosted the likes of Efren Reyes, Shane Van Boening and Ronnie O’Sullivan - who, by various measures, currently rank among the sport’s best. According to Mennis, it’s the only pool hall in New York certified to hold tournaments by the Billiards Congress of America - one of the sport’s major governing bodies. Over the decades, Steinway Cafe-Billiards has attracted top talents to this mostly industrial block in western Queens.

“But we’re assuming that the moment that the permits are issued, then maybe we have three months.” Local Legend “We haven’t been told when, and how long they’re gonna give us” to vacate, 37-year-old manager Athena Mennis, who has worked at the pool hall for 22 years, told THE CITY. In the meantime, commercial tenants like Steinway Cafe-Billiards, who occupy spaces where landlords have made purchase option agreements with entities under the development’s consortium of developers - Silverstein Properties, BedRock Real Estate Partners and Kaufman Astoria Studio - are stuck in limbo. Members and sponsors make THE CITY possible. All eyes are now on the neighborhood’s Councilmember, Julie Won - who has so far opposed the plan she says doesn’t provide sufficiently affordable housing - as the council tradition of “member deference” generally means the local member has an effective veto on land use projects in their district. If and when that would happen depends on an imminent City Council vote. Looming over this one-story neighborhood mainstay, along with that court battle, is Innovation QNS - a $2 billion mixed-use, five-block development plan envisioning 2,845 apartments and 200,000 square feet of commercial space and - including a glass tower rising from the land that the pool hall sits on now. These days, the pool hall is open and surviving month to month as a rent dispute case pends in court. And when the city ordered all non-essential operations to halt at the peak of the pandemic in March of 2020, Nikolakakos struggled to make rent.

AMSTERDAM BILLIARDS NYC DRIVER

“We had the idea to open a place with windows on the street level so people can see inside and women can come in,” said Nikolakakos, who worked as a waiter and taxi driver before opening Steinway Cafe-Billiards.īusiness boomed, Nikolakakos recalled, even before it was supposed to officially open, as strangers kept looking in and he simply opened the doors and let them play.īut after the city banned indoor smoking in 2003, traffic got slower. Large street-level windows peer into a room of 26 pool tables, unusual visibility for a pool hall that opened in 1990, when most others were in basements or up a flight of stairs, according to 67-year-old owner Georgios Nikolakakos. Visit the website to sign up or for more detail.A green awning stands out among an inconspicuous strip of car body shops in Astoria: “STEINWAY CAFE-BILLIARDS,” it reads, namesake of the bustling commercial street that anchors the neighborhood. Pool tables at Amsterdam Billiards in New York, NY.Īmsterdam Billiards New York - Billiard InstructionĪmsterdam Billiards Club offers regular pool clinics for a very good price. The Amsterdam Billiards pool room in New York, NY. Ping pong table tops at Amsterdam Billiards in New York, NY. The bar area inside of Amsterdam Billiards in New York, NY. The pool tables inside of Amsterdam Billiards pool room in New York, NY.īilliard tables at Amsterdam Billiards in New York, NY. Pool room at Amsterdam Billiards in New York, NY. Some of the pool tables at Amsterdam Billiards in New York, NY. Shooting some pool at Amsterdam Billiards in New York, NY. Playing pool at Amsterdam Billiards in New York, NY.Ī pool player shooting pool inside of Amsterdam Billiards in New York, NY. The ping pong and table tennis tops at Amsterdam Billiards in New York, NY. Pool tables inside of Amsterdam Billiards in New York, NY. Shooting pool at Amsterdam Billiards in New York, NY. The Amsterdam Billiards Club pool hall in New York, NY. There were always beautiful ladies at the Amsterdam Billiards pool hall in New York, NY. The beer pong table inside of Amsterdam Billiards in New York, NY.

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