Atari? Yes please. A Bar? Absolutely.
Atari + A Bar = Heck Yeah!
After getting a late start on the third annual Fall Arcade Road Trip, Rob and I knew that we couldn’t make it all the way to Pittsburgh and still visit an arcade on the first night. So we looked for a cool place on the way to visit. Bartari in Scranton, PA had been on my radar for a while. I almost stopped by there after the recent Kalahari arcade auction but we ran out of time. So it made sense to make this the waypoint en route to Pittsburgh
Rob is a logistics wizard, so he managed to find us a reasonably priced hotel literally directly across the street from Bartari. Immediately upon entering the location I was really impressed with the huge number of arcade games and pinball machines it had. There was waaaay more games than I had expected. I was actually shocked by how awesome this place was. Check out this pinball lineup:
AC/DC (Pro) (Stern, 2012)
The Addams Family (Bally, 1992)
Aerosmith (Pro) (Stern, 2017)
Baywatch (Sega, 1995)
Harley-Davidson (2nd Edition) (Stern, 2002)
Houdini: Master of Mystery (American, 2017)
Judge Dredd (Bally, 1993)
The Mandalorian (Pro) (Stern, 2021)
Maverick (Data East, 1994)
NASCAR (Stern, 2005)
Revenge from Mars (Bally, 1999)
The Sopranos (Stern, 2005)
South Park (Sega, 1999)
Stargate (Gottlieb, 1995)
Tales from the Crypt (Data East, 1993)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Premium) (Stern, 2020)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (Williams, 1991)
Theatre of Magic (Bally, 1995)
Twilight Zone (Bally, 1993)
Beyond these awesome pins, Bartari had just about every major classic arcade cabinet anyone could want…Asteroids, Pac-Man, Turtles, Centipede, Big Buck, and on and on.
So, with such an amazing lineup how was this place not more on my radar? I think that has a lot to do with how the website “Pinball Map” works. Pinball Map is an amazing resource that people can use to find locations that have pinball. Every inch of the country is searchable on there, but the website breaks the state of Pennsylvania into three main areas on its front page: Central PA, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Scranton and Bartari don’t show up in any of them. So from my perspective, it sort of fell through the cracks.
Most of the games played great. All of the newer Stern pins like Mandalorian Pro and Turtles Premium (I had only played the Pro version so that was a treat) played perfectly. A few of the older pins, particularly Sopranos had some issues. The same went for the vids. Most of them were in very good shape, but a few of them had monitors that were replaced with LCDs, etc. I’d give Bartari a sold B for game condition, which is still great and more than that after I’ve had a few beers.
Speaking of which, Bartari had a very good beer selection. As an added bonus, it had food. On this trip where every waking hour was spent either at or traveling to an arcade food was a HUGE plus. Let’s just say that my eating habits last weekend left a lot to be desired. So being able to kick the trip off with a meal, not just a meal but a good one was a major plus. The food at Bartari was excellent and oh by the way our bartender who served us both drinks and our food was a really cool guy. The service was excellent.
For a place that ended up being an add on to our main trip, Bartari in Scranton, PA was an excellent stop. I absolutely would go back there some day. Maybe I’ll try to hit it up again next summer in conjunction with a minor league baseball game. The AAA team for my beloved Yankees plays in the Scranton area.
That's it for the first stop on the trip. I already discussed Stop 2, the fantastic Kickback Pinball Cafe. Stop 3 brought us to a Pinball Brewery on league night. More on that to come. Here's a ton of pictures a short video of Bartati. Make sure to bookmark and check back at KnappArcade.org often for lots of updates. Thanks for reading everyone!