Foosball Table Buying Guide

Mama Boucher always said, “Foosball? Buncha overgrown monsters man-handlin’ each other… ‘Member when dat man wanted you to play foosball, Bobby?” (The Waterboy). I don’t know how that movie quote is relevant to this buying guide in the slightest, but it does mention foosball. But, I digress. Read the story »

Air Hockey Table Buying Guide

For some reason, air hockey tables and their popularity have waned over the years. Ping pong tables and foosball tables have become the more common in fixture in game rooms, leaving air hockey tables to die and only be found in old, worn down arcades near the beach. Read the story »

Home Bar Supplies

For a classic, fully-stocked bar, you should start with the following:

• Vodka, Tequila, Gin, White Rum, and Bourbon/Scotch Whiskeys
• Mixing ingredients: Rose’s lime juice, dry Vermouth, Grenadine, and Angostura bitters
• Fresh ingredients: Mint leaves and lime/lemons
• For garnishing: Cherries, kosher salt, cocktail onions, and of course, olives
• Mixers: Soft drinks, cranberry/grapefruit juices, club soda, tonic water, and tomato juice

These are some of the materials you’ll need in your bar:

Drink Glasses. You’re serving drinks after all, right? You won’t want to have just one type of drink glass, but rather, you should have many kinds depending on what types of drinks you’ll be serving. A few nice Martini glasses are an absolute must, as are some beer mugs and glasses. How many should you buy? Well, that will depend on how many guests you’ll be entertaining at your bar at any particular time. But it’s pretty much guaranteed that you’ll need at least 2-3 of each kind.

Corkscrew. Opening wine or champagne bottles without a corkscrew is pretty difficult. Even if you don’t “plan” on serving champagne or wine in your home bar, there’s still a chance guests may bring a bottle of wine, so you’re gonna need that corkscrew. There’s a lot of different corkscrews on the market, but you’ll probably want to choose one that has several tools in one. Avoid the cheapest corkscrews, as they’ll often break when you’re trying to open the bottle.

Jigger. If you’ll be mixing drinks, the jigger is essential. It measures alcohol accurately to prevent many common mixing at home mistakes. You have a couple of options as far as what jigger to get. The steel jigger comes in several measuring sizes, while the glass jigger comes in just a 2 tablespoon size.

Bar Spoon. Do you really want to mix that drink with a regular spoon? Of course not, because a regular spoon isn’t very long, and there’s nothing worse than having your finger accidentally dip into the drink you’ve just prepared for your friend. A typical bar spoon is 10 inches long, made of steel, can crush bar ingredients easily and can even be used in lieu of a jigger.

Knife. Making a drink with fresh fruit? You’ll definitely need a good knife, then. You don’t really need to buy a special “bar knife,” as a regular knife will suffice. A couple of long knives and pairing knives are a good purchase.

Mixing Glass. You’ll need a quality mixing glass if you’re planning on making good cocktails served on ice. The mixing glass will adequately stir the cocktails so they turn out good.

Other essential items, but not mandatory:

Electric Blender: Blenders are useful not just for making milkshakes, but also for blending tasty alcohol drinks. The Strawberry Daiquiri, as well as many other drinks, require a lot of mixing, and it’s much easier to just toss the ingredients into a blender than it is to mix it by hand.

Champagne Stopper. If you don’t plan on downing that bottle of champagne or wine all in one night, you’ll definitely want to get a stopper. Stoppers keep wine and champagne from going flat, so you’ll be able to enjoy your opened bottles a bit longer.

Bottle/Can Opener. Even the strongest man or woman may have occasional trouble with opening a can or bottle of beer. A good bottle/can opener isn’t an essential item in your home bar, but it’s certainly a good purchase.

Home Theater Seating

Before you buy that piece of furniture for your home theater, it’s really important to take many things into consideration. In fact, there are six things you absolutely must think about before going ahead with any home theater seating purchase. Read the story »

Inviting Game Rooms

Follow these steps to create a game room that is inviting to all your friends, as well as families. Read the story »

Home Bar Styles

There are a variety of home bar styles for your recreational room that you can choose from.  Do you want your friends to call you Gilligan when you’re serving drinks behind your tropical tiki bar?  Or, do you want to be James Bond serving martinis behind your sleek, modern themed bar? Read the story »

Poker Chips Buying Guide

If life were simple, there would only be one type of poker chips and it wouldn’t be so hard to decide what poker chip to buy for your frequent poker games with your buddies. But there are actually three different kinds of poker chips you can choose from, and each have their advantages. Read the story »

Round NCAA Pub Tables

There is a simple math equation that we like here in South Carolina. It goes like:

Steve Spurrier > Tommy Bowden

These college pub tables rock. They’re built by Olympia and come with a laminated top, a black outer trim and a sturdy black base. The laminated top doesn’t leave any fingerprints and protects the logo from gunk, which is ideal for those that find cleaning less than exciting.

The dimensions are as follows:

• Frame Style: Metal
• Table Height: 40 inches
• Table Diameter: 24 inches

The NCAA pub tables are available in almost all colleges. So unless you’re a fan of the North Dakota Big Truckers (real school?) you’ll be able to find a pub table with your favorite school’s logo. Although, as a South Carolina Gamecock fan, I’d suggest not buying (or liking) the following

Florida Gators Pub Table
Georgia Bulldogs
University of Southern California Trojans
West Virginia Mountaineers
Clemson Tigers
Ohio State Buckeyes

But of course, that’s entirely up to you.

Leather Home Theater Seating

Leather home theater seats are certainly not for the “casual rec rooms.” They have a look and feel that invokes quality and are also the most stylish seating options available — but you must either be really devoted to your rec room or own oil stocks, as leather carries a hefty price tag compared to other fabrics. Read the story »

Classic Video Arcade Games

Before the Wii, before Playstations, and before there were games that required a technical manual to operate existed a simple, extremely entertaining, family-friendly gaming universe. Classic video arcade games like Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man didn’t have the best graphics, nor did they have the most original story lines — but you didn’t have to worry about your kid watching you play. You could play literally for hours taking turns with your friends and/or your family.

It didn’t matter how old you were, the classic video arcade games rocked — and they still do. And unlike games at arcades today, they didn’t take take credit cards — they took what we call “quarters,” physical currency — remember what that was? Read the story »

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