Juliet Cafe Bar & Billiards

My heart was broken when my fiance & I saw their previous location had closed, but then we drove down the street and tada-a brand new one had appeared!!! Just as awesome, if not, better than the old  location. They have a full bar, tons of food, and, of course, pool tables! The service is great, and they're open really late, which is always appreciated. Even though I suck at pool, I love playing, and their prices are very reasonable, too. We LOVE this place and look forward to heading here again, soon. Very, very soon.

Weirdly enough, I have never been to Juliet's for the pool.  But I appreciate its divey-ness and the fact that it is a pool hall, and back when my school had serious plans to turn it into a giant, unnecessary Barnes and Noble (and maybe still has post-recession-recovery plans?), I signed the petition that hundreds of others signed as well.

Juliet's holds a small, small place in my heart for two reasons, though.  One is the fact that on Memorial Day of 2008, while I was hungry at Vassar, they were the only thing around that I could walk to that was also open.  The second reason is the hard ice cream bar they have.  I love rainbow sherbet and they have it!

Let me put a disclaimer here first before I write the actual review - there really are no other pool halls in the greater Poughkeepsie area other than this one. The ones that used to exist (Sky High in Hopewell - RIP 2003 or so and the shady pool hall by Splashdown that changed hands a million times) are long since gone and really weren't reliable and convenient as this venue.
 With that being said, you have to love Juliet's for the reliable, late-night borderline 'dive' that it is. I've been frequenting this place since 1999 (more sporadically in recent years) and the decor hasn't changed a bit. Sometimes I feel that the floors and the light fixtures haven't been cleaned since then either (it certainly seems that way). Because of this, it has a very vintage feel to it and a lot of the decor is stained because nothing has changed since smoking was allowed indoors (and when it was, the haze inside was worse than a thick foggy spring morning). The pool tables are even and not well worn, however, which is important if you're going there to actually play a game of decent pool.
My suggestion to anyone who plays billards and slightly knows what they are doing to get your own pool cue and bring it here. Pool cues are really cheap and the cues here are pretty unreliable and super greasy (which I can't play with - but I've had my own cue for years :) )
The food is okay for the venue - the pizza and calzones are fabulous (that's what they are known for). They have really stepped up their food game - they have frequent dinner specials and they even offer breakfast to the early billiard birds. But what everyone else is saying here is true - I was just there last night and they charged me 5 bucks for a bowl of easy mac (when I specifically asked if it was easy mac and the overworked waitress [8 tables per 1 waitress in a pool hall? C'mon] and she had told me no). Some of their food is too greasy for words....but not everything.

No word on them converting this place into a bookstore - I think they won the battle to stay because I haven't heard those rumors since early 2009. I'm sure this is not a great billiard hall when compared to others (does anyone remember Boston Billiards in Danbury, CT? Yea this doesn't even compare to what that was), but it is the best in the area. And if you grew up around here, the nostalgia alone is worth a visit....and 4 stars.