Rack N Roll

This place has a lot of potential, but it is lacking in a lot of hours. If you go during Happy Hour, you will get what you pay for. I would recommend this place only if you want to grab a couple of drinks and play pool for free. Otherwise, there isn't much of anything to see here.

I really think this place could be awesome but its just not...

They have 6 beers on tap and none of them are special... Sammy Seasonal being the best.

Most of their pool tables are so unbalanced you either have to play the curve, shoot really hard, or just not care and hope to be lucky.

The food, while not bad, is rarely available.

The TVs are ancient.

They have great specials and weekdays until 9pm pool is free so it's not like there aren't redeeming qualities, but it just seems the owners are lazy, cheap, or simply don't care.  Imagine if they fixed up the tables, got a decent draft list, upgraded the TVs, got a couple sports packages, etc etc... this place would be unreal.  But alas... Rack N' Roll.

After a Friday evening of learning about bees and the Stepford Wives in MiddleOfNowhere, CT, we had to transfer trains in Stamford - finally, a little slice of civilization! Buildings with more than 2 stories!

It was only 10 PM, so we decided to use our time to find a bar. We saw a cluster of bars on the map and started walking toward it. Then this place caught our eyes - it was closer, it was called Rock N Roll and it was a pool hall... what could go wrong...?

Beer on Tap: Sam, Sam, Bud, Bud, Urine, etc.
Cover Charge: $5 (why?)
Pool: $14 per hour
Entertainment: Relatively good (but very loud and out of place) funk band
Patronage: Sparse and menacing
Service: Poor

After paying our cover charge - which as I rule, I don't even pay in NYC - we walked up to a bar that had 2 people sitting at it. We stood awkwardly together for a minute and then decided to divide and conquer. Tara went to one of the pay as you go pool tables and I waited for the bartender, who was hustling around and looking very busy, although I am not sure why, since there wasn't anybody ordering drinks. It took a solid 8 or 9 minutes before he acknowledged me standing there and another 4 minutes before he actually took my order. Price was okay... a bit steep for Stamford.

Next, I walked over to the pool table, where Tara had inserted 2 dollars (that's the price for ONE game of pool) only to have her money eaten. Why not put an out of order sign on a broken pool table? After another 5 minutes of waiting (she's better at making her presence known), she secured her two dollars back as a credit toward an hour on a different table. I wonder how much money they make from people who don't bother to complain about losing their two bucks.

While ordering my second beer, I overheard this brilliant exchange:
Customer: [Muffled complaint]
Bartender: Yea, I'm really sorry, but I am not authorized to do that.
Customer: Can you get the manager?
Bartender: I'll try.
Bartender (to bar back): Can you tell Laura (or some other name for the manager) to come up here?
Bar Back: [walks away silently]
[insert a few awkward moments of me waiting to have my order taken, while the complaining customer and bartender gaze into each others' eyes. The bar back returns]
Bartender: Is Laura coming?
Bar Back: She said she can't.

In fairness, she did arrive at the bar a few minutes later and voided the charge or whatever the problem was.

Anyway, this place has a lot of potential. It is an enormous space. It has about 20 regulation-sized pool tables. It has a stage and dance floor. It has a full circle bar. But as of right now, something is going terribly wrong. If you're stuck in Stamford, walk the extra few blocks to the cluster of bars or just wait it out at the train station.