Easy Street Billiards was founded in October, 1998 by Michael Stansbury, an antique clock repairman of questionable character who liked to play pool. He had some strong ideas about how a poolroom should look, should operate, and perhaps most of all, should feel. He started with the earthly remains of the bankrupt BowTie Billiards in downtown Monterey and built his dream poolroom. It took a lot of time and money. It also took a lot of determination.
It started with alcohol sales. Everyone in the pool business said that alcohol was the key to making a profit. The Billiard Congress of America ran a nationwide survey of poolrooms and discovered that the poolrooms that served alcohol did fifty percent or more of their business in alcohol sales. But Stansbury knew that he didn't want to own a bar with some pool tables. So there is no hard liquor. No pitchers of beer. No seats at the bar. No happy hour. No scantily-clad barmaids pushing drinks on customers. If you would like to play some pool and have a couple of beers, you are an Easy Street customer. If you want to get drunk, go to a nightclub like The Mucky Duck--you'll feel right at home there.
BowTie Billiards had devoted about one-sixth of its floor space to a video arcade. The conventional wisdom was that a poolroom needed the extra income that video games could provide. The arcade attracted the very worst of Monterey's young people, and was a constant target of theft and vandalism. Stansbury removed the video games and knocked down the wall that separated the arcade from the rest of the poolroom. He didn't want those people in his place.
BowTie Billiards had stuffed fourteen tournament-sized tables onto the floor in order to make the most possible money. The drawback was that there was no place to stand when not shooting--the tables were so close together that everyone was always in somebody's way. If a player backed up to let another player shoot, he would usually bump into a third player on a nearby table who was shooting a critical shot. It wasn't conducive to a pleasant experience, so Stansbury moved one of the tables into the ex-video arcade, and removed another two altogether. Then he rearranged the remaining twelve tables to give a feeling of space and calm. One can play pool and breathe at the same time.
Everyone agreed that televisions were critical to a poolroom's success. There needed to be a TV tuned to every football game, baseball game, soccer match, and curling meet during every hour of the day and night. There needed to be signed jerseys from all the great local NFL and MLB players on the walls, and maybe some footballs lying around for the customers to play catch. Stansbury didn't want a sports bar, regardless of whether it made lots of money, so there is only one big-screen television, and no jerseys, shuffleboards, darts, or footballs. Easy Street is for pool.
People who don't play much pool aren't particularly sensitive to the table lighting, or lack thereof. They could happily play by candlelight, and in many poolrooms, that's what they get. But pool players notice, and good pool requires good lighting. BowTie Billiards had purchased very attractive brass lighting fixtures that looked great hanging over the tables, but were nearly worthless as sources of illumination. The best pool table lights in the world are made by REBCO in Fresno, and they cost $600 each. Stansbury bought twelve.
To its credit, BowTie Billiards never allowed smoking inside, even when it was legal in California. But the smokers needed to smoke, so they congregated outside in front of the entrance. Eventually street people, the homeless, runaway teenagers, pimps, and other bored citizens noticed that there was a crowd standing around in front of the pool hall, and decided to make it into a party. Sometimes the excitement outside was more interesting than the action inside. In order to keep the customers in Easy Street and the street people out, Stansbury designed and built a redwood smoking deck in the back with tables and chairs, but no outside entrance.
The BowTie influence lives on at Easy Street, because the people who did the interior design of BowTie had much better taste than Stansbury. The beautiful antique bar, the faux-marble wall, and the unusual color scheme are unchanged from the original. Stansbury at least had the sense not to tamper with what worked well.