Next Round Social opens August 10 at 4391 Dorchester Road, and it is not a bar with a dartboard in the corner.
Arcade, duckpin bowling, axe throwing, mini golf, full restaurant and full bar, all under one roof in the Dorchester Square Shopping Center.
Owners Erica and Mike Garriss got the idea the way most good ideas arrive now. Their son showed them a video of gamified mini golf in Atlanta.
"A fun, easy experience," is how Erica Garriss described the goal to the Post & Courier.
Easy is the operative word, and it is doing more work than it looks like.
The games
Connect Four Basketball and Down the Clown anchor the arcade, alongside interactive Jurassic Park and Fast and the Furious cabinets rebuilt with updated scoring.
That last detail matters more than it sounds. Updated scoring is what turns an arcade game into a competition, and competition is what keeps a group of adults in a room for three hours instead of forty minutes.
Duckpin bowling does the same job. Smaller balls, no finger holes, low barrier. Nobody has to be good at it, which is exactly the point.
The food and the bar
Hand-breaded chicken tenders, which is a small thing that signals a kitchen actually cooking rather than reheating.
Then the pretzel grazing board, a charcuterie board built on top of a giant Bavarian pretzel. It is engineered for a table of six and a phone camera, and it will do exactly what it was designed to do.
The bar runs mixed-drink pitchers and something called an iceberg, a beer with a frozen margarita floating on top. Order one and you understand the whole business model in about four seconds.
The look
South Beach Art Deco, pulled straight from Miami. Pastels, curves, neon energy.
On Dorchester Road, that is a real swing. This stretch is not where anyone expects a design point of view, and the Garrisses are betting the contrast works in their favor.
Here is the read. North Charleston has been getting new places to eat for a while now. What it has not had is a place to spend four hours with a group that does not require a reservation, a special occasion, or a drive over a bridge.
Birthday parties, work outings, a Saturday with kids who are tired of the beach. That is the calendar this thing is built for, and it is a big one.
August 10. Bring people who lose gracefully.
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