This morning I had to head into Manhattan for my semi-annual appointment with my cardiologist. The traffic was absolutely brutal and going to the doctor isn't exactly fun, so I needed something cool to help offset the suckiness afterwards and pinball was the cure. There's no pinball in Manhattan any more now that Modern Pinball has closed, so after leaving the doctor I headed on over to New York City's best pinball location, Jon Ehrlich's Jackbar.
Located in Brooklyn, NY Jackbar is the quintessential dive bar. It's got a super-cool vibe, lots of awesome beers on tap and of course, the best pinball lineup in NYC. I met up with Jon there and we shot the proverbial shiot for a couple of hours. Great dude.
Jackbar's machines always play perfectly and in the unusual event that they don't Jon is on the issue like a hawk. He was there fixing his Fish Tales when I walked in. Jackbar has a constant rotation of pinball's greatest hits, from OGs like Twilight Zone, Fish Tales and Creature from the Black Lagoon to the newest games around like Stern's Godzilla and Rush and Spooky's Halloween CE. Better yet, Jackbar always gets new releases. It was the first location in the world to have American Pinball's Legends of Valhalla. And Jon has Chicago Gaming's Cactus Canyon Remake and Jersey Jack's brand new Toy Story 4 coming next week!
He literally has a stable of over 100 pinball machines to choose from for his lineup at the bar.
Here's Jackbar's current pinball lineup, courtesy of Pinball Map:
The Avengers (Premium) (Stern, 2012)
Creature from the Black Lagoon (Bally, 1992)
Cyclone (Williams, 1988)
Deadpool (Pro) (Stern, 2018)
Fish Tales (Williams, 1992)
The Getaway: High Speed II (Williams, 1992)
Godzilla (Pro) (Stern, 2021)
Halloween (CE) (Spooky, 2021)
Monster Bash (Remake) (Chicago Gaming, 2018)
Rush (Pro) (Stern, 2022)
Spider-Man (Stern, 2007)
Star Wars (Pro) (Stern, 2017)
Twilight Zone (Bally, 1993)
Located at 143 Havemeyer Street in Brooklyn, NY
I didn’t take a ton of pictures this trip, but I couldn’t leave without taking some to share with everybody. Here you go and if you find yourself in NYC Jackbar is a must visit!
Jackbar’s Bad Yelp Review shirts are amazing!
