Starting the Journey

Welcome to the Road to Reload.

 We invite you to join us on our journey as we set up Canberra's own gaming & esports bar.

 

The bar is called Reload Bar & Games and will be located in the Sydney building, at 38 Northbourne Ave. Some of you may be familiar with the premises as the NV Nightclub, and prior to that as Mercury Bar.

 

Reload will be a console gaming bar with a dual purpose as a dedicated venue for spectating esports. We want to make the venue as 'moddable' as possible so that we have the capacity to bring in PCs, arcade machines, card and board games, or whatever else we want, as we want it. This will allow us to cater to a wide range of events and community demands. 

 

The Barracks LAN Games & Internet Cafe will be moving to the space upstairs and will be heavily integrated with Reload. We plan to run many events from TB and broadcast them both online and directly to Reload. It will be something completely new for Canberra. The Barracks will be getting an complete reboot, with new PCs, chairs, peripherals and style.

 

 I rocked up with my camera today and took some photos of both premises as we begin our project. We will keep posting so you can watch the bar develop as we work towards a planned opening in November of this year!

 

-Jim

 

If you are reading this there is a pretty good chance you know what I look like. This is my new business partner, Ravi. Ravi and I are very excited about our upcoming venture. We have been meeting weekly for a few months planning out the project, and have finally chosen a location.

This is the front of the bar. This area will feature a big screen(s) to draw in passers-by, a console station or two, and some tables and seating. As you can see the front windows open right up, bringing in a lot of light and fresh air.

View from the front towards the rear. So much room for activities! The shelf running along the left wall is pretty much perfect for setting up some console stations.

We plan on installing the consoles under the shelving, with the screens mounted on the wall. We reckon we can fit two stations in each of these areas. It might be a bit cosy but hey, it's going to be a friendly place.

Plenty of room for punters to set their drinks down while they get to gaming.

Right side of the bar. There are two beer taps currently installed, and lots of under-bench fridges.

Left side of the bar. There is a big stainless steel area here with a sink, good for a food service area.

The bar in its entirety. It's quite big! We hope to put in some nifty neon strip lighting or something to give a bit of a Tron feel.

There is already a projector installed at the front of house, but we haven't fired it up yet and don't know if the quality will be as high as we want.

The projector mounted on the ceiling.

View from rear to front.We are pretty confident that this will be the largest such establishment in Australia.

The current DJ Booth. We are considering turning this into a VIP area where the high rollers can play without mixing with hoi-polloi. It can double as a shoutcaster platform for big events. Alternatively we may just rip the whole thing out to get more floor space.

DJ booth interior. If we go the VIP route we will tear the interior out and put in some nice lounges. Or maybe we will extend it and turn it into a VR station!

View from the DJ booth. Commanding.

Right corner at the front of house. The black door is an internal door; it connects to the staircase that leads to where The Barracks 2.0 will be. This will allow us to provide an alcohol service to Barracks patrons. The nasty Shark tables will go.

The door on the right leads upstairs to Rax 2.0 . Reload is on the left.

Q. What's up the stairs?

A. The Men's room! It's on the landing. Quirky.

The Ladies' is at the top of the stairs. Note the classy old-world charm of the light switches.

View from the stairs to the top. The glass paneling could be from the original 1930's fit out!

View of Room 1 through the glass panels. We will probably remove some of the panels on the left and site the desk here, with a 'bank teller' style service window.

Room 1 has a couple of cool nooks where we can site PCs or gaming tables. We want to get 10-15 PCs in this room, plus the front desk and saleable items such as food, drink and gaming gear.

The two nooks connect to each other and look out over Northbourne Ave.

This is Room 2. We plan to site another 15 PCs in here, and have the room licensed so that we can serve drinks from the bar to this room. If it is licensed no minors will be allowed in this room.

Room 2 looking towards Room 1 and the hallway. Both rooms have good natural light. No more vitamin D deficiency!

A much nicer view than from the current Barracks.

This window offers good protection and a decent field of fire, which will be an asset in the event of zombie apocalypse or similar societal meltdown.

That's all for now! As you can see there is a long road ahead of us. We are eager to hear your thoughts on what you would like to see happen in these spaces. Layout, fitout, colour scheme, games and platforms, and any other ideas you might have - don't be shy.

Reload on Facebook 
The Barracks on Facebook