Geoff Dawson
Pool hall and bar builder. Founder of Dawson Bars. The Bar Playbook's expert on opening and running bars.
About Geoff
Geoff Dawson has spent more than 30 years designing, building and running bars, many of them built around pool tables and bar games. Born and raised in Washington, DC, he was working as a residential contractor in 1992 when he designed, built and opened Bedrock Billiards, a 7-table pool hall in the basement of the Adams Morgan apartment building where he lived. It's still thriving, it's still his sentimental favorite, and today it has more than 3,000 members.
Since then he has designed, built or operated about 40 bars and nightlife venues in DC, Northern Virginia, Maryland, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Austin, Nashville and New Orleans. His company, Dawson Bars, builds neighborhood places where locals feel at home seven nights a week, and he mentors other bar and hospitality entrepreneurs.
A life in pool rooms
- Bedrock Billiards (Adams Morgan, DC): the 7-table basement pool hall where it all started in 1992.
- Atomic Billiards (Cleveland Park, DC): a 6-table neighborhood pool bar in the space where Geoff played pinball as a 10-year-old.
- Buffalo Billiards: opened with 31 tables, two bars and private party rooms, his first giant venue, and grew to Austin, Nashville and Philadelphia.
- Carpool (Ballston, VA): a pool bar in a former car dealership, and a home run.
- Plus Franklin Hall, Penn Social, Astro Beer Hall, Quincy Hall, Lost & Found, 1969 Bar, and many more.
Lessons from the ones that didn't work
Not every bar wins, and Geoff is candid about it. A 20,000-square-foot venue inside DC's new arena in 2004 lasted only a year; he came back and opened four successful bars within two blocks of it. A Baltimore expansion lost everything in two years. Those lessons shape what he looks for in a great room, and what he'll tell you before you open one.
What Geoff looks for in a pool room
"You can tell a lot about a pool place by how they maintain not just the room, but the tables themselves."
- Lighting: you can tell in 10 seconds whether they've figured out how to light the tables.
- Room to shoot: enough space around every table, with no obstructions.
- Care: clean, fresh cloth, level tables, and cues that get re-tipped and replaced.
- Equipment: Diamond and Brunswick at the top, with Rasson and Olhausen close behind.
- Atmosphere: background music, not a wall of noise, and a friendly front desk that welcomes new players.
- Getting a table: enough tables, reservations for groups, and fair pricing (about $2 to $5 a game coin-op, around $20 an hour split between players).
Watch Geoff tell the stories
Geoff shares the stories behind his bars on his YouTube channel, Dawson Bars.