The second season trailer for “Twincadia,” Twincade’s YouTube show, warns that things are going to “get real” in 2018.
As dramatic music swells in the background, there’s an almost-kiss between two coworkers, one of whom shouts that she’s married and runs screaming from the room; another is found smushed underneath a video game in storage, after which chaos ensues. Still another “slices his finger off” while chopping up jalapenos, ketchup obviously squirting from the knuckle he’s bent to fake the amputation.
In a place that pulls together as many pop-culture artifacts from the ’80s-on-up as possible, staffers filming a Bravo TV style show about life at the Griffith-based bar with an arcade (or arcade with a bar) makes complete sense. Its goal, from employees to patrons, is having fun, said general manager Shane Rowlands. Through video game tournaments, live-band karaoke, themed trivia nights and even just someplace for the kids to hang out, Twincade is truly a place that has something for everyone.
Now entering its second year of operation, Twincade came to be when Munster residents Phil and Patricia Sidener wanted to share their love of video games and home brewing. Phil started collecting video consoles shortly after his mom died; his first one, Patricia said, was Dragon’s Lair, a game first made popular in 1983.
“When his mom passed, it was so sudden, and he just kind of got nostalgic and wanted to get back to his childhood,” she said. “So one game became many games. It was either that or therapy.”
But once the idea formed, it became just as important to Patricia. The two had moved back to Northwest Indiana from Chicago so they and their children could be close to her parents, and while they gained the help that comes with family, Patricia lost a crucial part of her life: the mom community she had in the city.
“It was huge and a lot of fun. I loved being able to get together with a group of moms at a place and have a beer or two with our kids, and we don’t have that here,” she said.
So, after choosing the old Sherwin-Williams paint store at the corner of Broad and Main Streets, the Sideners gave the gigantic space a somewhat dark, arcade-of-yore vibe — doing much of the work themselves — and moved in some 40 stand-alone consoles made by Chicago-based Midway Games as well as pinball machines — lots and lots of pinball machines. Then Patricia, who Rowlands calls “the brains of the operation,” set out to make the menu and bring in craft beers from all over, and Northwest Indiana in particular, Rowlands said.
“Yeah, Phil’s the catalyst, but I make it happen. For me, it’s go big or go home,” Patricia said, laughing. “But really, it’s a passion for me to create things from start to finish. It just thrills me to make new cocktails or food.”
Twincade has a full bar, but the beers share center stage with the games. The taps change weekly, and they’ve gotten their hands on some pretty wild selections, like Bell’s Hopslam, a favorite out of Michigan, and No Rules, a barrel-aged Vietnamese Porter with a 15 percent alcohol content out of Pennsylvania.
One time, they were lucky to get their hands on a keg of Founder’s CBS (Canadian Breakfast Stout). It lasted less than two hours, Rowlands said.
“We get some crazy, expensive beers,” he said.
And the menu keeps up with the beer in terms of change, thanks to Patricia.
“She’s just amazing with food,” Rowlands said. “We have a lot of vegan options, and one day, she was like, ‘I want vegan chicken wings. How do we do it?’ So she took some buckwheat flour and (other ingredients), and then there were wings. Another time, she wanted vegan cheese for nachos, and she came up with that, too. I’m not sure what her magic is.
“We have a lot of beer people who come to see what we have on tap, but then we have people who come for the games and others who come to eat. Some people treat (Twincade) like a restaurant instead of an arcade.”
Adults and kids sharing the spot isn’t the problem one might envision, Rowlands said. Everyone under 21 is allowed to hang until 9 p.m., when either Phil or, on the weekends, security, checks IDs. There’s never been an issue with kids drinking, he said, but still, Twincade’s a bar, and them’s the rules.
Patricia Sidener remembers when the idea of allowing kids in the space was met with skepticism.
“We had a lot of haters: ‘You shouldn’t have kids in a bar,'” she said. “It took about five months before people got what we were trying to do.”
Family events are a different matter and, at least to Patricia, the best thing Twincade does. She never expected kids’ birthday parties would be such a big part of their business, and nothing makes them happier than to see families gathered in the space.
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“It’s really cool to see a bunch of 12-year-olds hanging out and playing the games while their parents come and have a beer or two and play with the games with the kids,” she said.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
Twincade
Activity: Old-school arcade and pinball games
Where: 108 N. Broad St., Griffith
Hours: 2 p.m.-2 a.m. Mondays-Wednesdays; 2 p.m.-3 a.m. Thursdays and Fridays; 11:30 a.m.-3 a.m. Saturdays; and 11:30 a.m.-2 a.m. Sunday. Kids allowed until 9 p.m. Kitchen open to 1 a.m. daily
Tickets: Tokens are 25 cents for all games
Information: 219-237-9980; www.twincade.com/