Game Over for Montreal's First Retro Arcade Bar?

Montreal's Kafkaesque, intransigent permit system loves to play the killjoy. The Gazette reports that a retro arcade bar—think New York's Barcade—has a red tape problem: "By virtue of having more than three arcade machines in their space, the business would be designated as an amusement hall. Any establishment permitted to sell alcoholic beverages needs to be at least 25 metres away from an amusement hall, so it’s not possible to have have both coexisting in the same room under current guidelines."

The principals behind the project will now have to seek a derogation from the rules, and have even gone so far as to contact Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre. "If he can do it for food trucks, maybe he can do it for arcades," partner Dominic Bourret told the Gazette. "This is Montreal — we’re supposed to be a gaming metropolis."