The Quarter Barrel

I really want to like this place, barcades are a super cool concept. Honestly I think it would work better if it was adults only and the food were more traditional bar fare. Personally I don’t like gourmet style food portions I ordered the falafel slider and expected it would be multiple sliders like other places serve but it was just one and although it was good I was still hungry. It is a plus that they have vegan and vegetarian options though. The atmosphere could use some work as well, it was far too minimal and didn’t give me that nostalgic feeling of a classic arcade and a barcade is basically trading on nostalgia, so why not play up that angle a bit more? The game selection could use some work too, they have some good 80’s offerings but why not dip into the 90’s a bit more, bring in games like Street Fighter 2, T2 arcade game or even Time Crisis.

Great beer. Great games. Great pizza! A must stop. We had the shrimp Alfredo pizza, blueberry BBQ pizza, and shiitake mushroom pizza and they were all great. 3 pizzas were good for our 4 member family. They had a couple of games set for free play which was awesome.

As it turns out, I’m really bad at arcade games. So bad that I really don’t like playing them at all — I could be spending those quarters on something else. That doesn’t mean I can’t have a great time at Quarter Barrel!
They have a good selection of beers, local and otherwise, and are now brewing their own. I was very impressed with the food; their interesting, inventive pizza combinations are quite tasty. The pizzas are small, though — definitely single serve, don’t plan on sharing.
There were a few new business kinks that they seem to be working through. I’ve never had a bad experience — service may be a little slower at busy times, but that’s to be expected. I will say that the times I have been there I have noticed a lot of kids. I understand that it’s a restaurant and arcade, but it’s also a bar and doesn’t really seem like it should be a family friendly establishment.

Y’all like old school arcade games and pinball? What about craft beer? How about pizza that tastes pretty good? Get yo self to Quarter Barrel. Don’t forget to bring your round metal money.
Huzzah!

Blah! I’ve lived east/​west coast, Midwest and south. I know something about pizza in the U.S., including artisan, chain, & every «style» of pizza there is, so I feel confident when I say, the pizza here won’t bring me back. I’d rather go to Zoey’s or Tomaso’s (and I’m not from Cedar Rapids, so it’s not related to loyalty). The pile of romaine lettuce is lost on me, it primarily detracts from the pizza. The frickles «fried pickles» were good and customer service was good. Arcades where you dump coins into a machine have lost their entertainment value with the invention of home entertainment systems. I hope they can make it work because Cedar Rapids could always use more variety, but if I’m going downtown the Lost Cuban gets my business.

What a great concept! I was in town visiting friends and they recommended we stop in since they had read such good things about this place. Where else can you grab a (good) beer and relive your 80’s childhood with pinball? I would highly recommend this place for anyone who wants a chill atmosphere and good craft beer.

Went here one weekend and had a great time! Good pizza, beer, vibe and the owner was very nice and accommodating. Will def go back!
Oh and there’s games!

My boyfriend and I stopped in at the QB for the first time and we really enjoyed ourselves. They have a great beer selection and the food is on point — the tomato soup with grilled cheese croutons was awesome! My boyfriend had one of their pizzas and said it was great, too.
We also had a blast playing the video games! They’re classic arcade games that have that quintessential vintage feel, making them all the more fun.
It’s a brand new bar, so they’re still working out some of the kinks. But that’s to be expected and won’t deter us from coming back. All in all, we had a great time and will definitely be revisiting for more fun and outstanding house-​made brews!

So allow me to start out by saying I had some very high hopes for this place.
First strike: the problem here is that they have a fundamental lack of understanding of how to make that quintessential beercade environment. Like others have reported, there are LOADS of kids — in a restaurant that has a very prominent bar, and when I visited did not have a working kitchen.
Second strike: they have (or had) no tap beer, and if I’m going to drink from a bottle it’d better be really cool or in my own home these were rare craft beers they were slinging. So in light of this, I asked if the had a wine list. Bartender gestures to some open wine bottles behind him and says «we’ve got red or white» YIKES. I honestly wish I’d walked out then.
Third strike: the machines. Half of them were out of commission in one way or another. I get it, game consoles like this and pinball machines are expensive. But they’d been open for about a week or two when I went. How could they have let them lapse into disrepair already? Additionally, the other beercades I’ve been to don’t make you pay individually with quarters: they run on a tab basis. That means that you open a tab and then you can play games. If you don’t meet the minimum tab requirement, you have to pay for your games. But that would require the design to be a bit more ordered.
I really hope that they’re able to shape up a bit as they adjust to being open. I know starting a business is hard, I will definitely give this place another try, but I was seriously disappointed.

Just wasn’t feeling it. The beer selection was kinda poor but still pricy and the games were very overly outdated with many having various faults which made things worse. Most pinball machine flippers were highly unresponsive, the guns in the shooting games didn’t aim correctly, the buttons on many of the games were gummy or not working, the space was poorly set up and there were no cup holders on the games making things more uneasy and hard to work with. I want to see the place work, I really do, but the way it is now I don’t think it will. I want to be wrong, but I was really disappointed in the place.

This place is completely ridiculous. Poorly staffed would be an understatement. Good luck trying to get a drink, even after standing at the bar for 30 minutes. Employees standing around ignoring everyone, sitting at a table with no one acknowledging you — don’t expect much other than poorly maintained games and bad attitudes. If I could give it zero stars I would. It’s sad, because Cedar Rapids needed a place like this.

So tonight I ventured out to downtown Cedar Rapids to check out something I had been looking forward to since I first heard about them. The Quarter Barrel. A Barcade. Or in layman terms, a bar and an arcade all in one.
First appearances I wasn’t overly impressed but I figured that they were new and just recently opened. So no worries. I was happy to see the abundant amount of arcade games. Took me back to my childhood in a sense. So I bellied up to the bar and got a beer. It was pretty good. No complaints there. I grabbed my change and got myself some quarters and moved over to the arcade section.
Needless to say, at this point I was pretty excited. I played a few games and got more disappointed. The lights on the headers of all the games weren’t on. The sound wasn’t really turned up that much and many of the joysticks and buttons didn’t have that original feel and felt mixed and matched. The pinball machines were probably the thing that disappointed me the most. Mainly because the flippers and bumpers played like a 20+ year old pinball machine. This wouldn’t be bad if it was back in the corner of a bowling alley, but the video games and pinball machines are the reason that the x-​gen would be going there. I personally expected more from the video games.
Now I hope that they repair all of the games and get them on point. I’d love for this place to do well. I didn’t try the food but a turn off for me was being able to see the kitchen area and a guy back there sitting on a cooler playing with his phone. Not too professional if you ask me. I mean it was late and he wasn’t getting any orders but that’s not the point.
Like I said, I’d like for this place to succeed but with the short attention span of this town and the x-​gen who likes things spot on the first time to keep coming back, the Quarter Barrel needs to get things moving in the right direction fast or it may just be another one of those in and out bars.
I give it an A for concept and a D for execution so far. I really had higher hopes and still do. If you want that old skool feel, stop in. I’d like to try the food so I’ll probably go back at least one more time. Maybe the food will change my mind.

A bit disappointed by this place. The environment was a bunch of little kids with their parents. I know arcades rarely exist these days, but a barcade shouldnt have little kids. The pizza was very tasty so props on that. The beer really is average at best. The games really bummed me out though. I was hoping for mario, mortal kombat 1 and street fighter 2. Mk2 was the only game i even bothered with outside of pinball. Btw 2 of their pp games were not working

As many people were, I was super excited to experience this place. What could be better then a bar, vintage arcade, and pizza place all wrapped into one, right??? Well, unfortunately my experience was far from stellar. I took my managing staff out for a late dinner meeting to the Quarter Barrel and they weren’t very busy, yet I still had to venture to the bar to order our drinks and food because no one came to our table after the initial hello and welcome. The other issue for me is that their food menu does not in an way fit the atmosphere. When I think bar, vintage arcade, and food I am thinking fun apps, juicy burgers, and choices of sizes and toppings for pizza. It is far from that let me tell you. There is a big disconnect with their atmosphere and their food. The most alarming issues for us, however, was the lack of sanitary discipline their bar tender had and this is the reason why I will never set foot in their again, nor recommend this place to anyone until this issue is addressed and eliminated. On one occasion we saw the bar tender sneeze in his hands towards the tap beer turn around and promptly serve 2 beers to customers and never once washed his hands. The other occasion was that one of the people in our group was in the restroom and clearly noticed the bar tender come out of the stall, not once did he wash his hands, and went back to work? That was enough for us to not order anymore, pay our bill, and leave.

Great concept. Cool, minimalist interior, tons of 80s video games, good beer and pizza are all things that I am a fan of. I am not a fan of a 5 minute wait, unacknowledged, in front of the «please wait to be seated» sign. Our party of 3 was seated at a 2 top. After patiently waiting, then flagging down a server (I saw 2 of them for 20+ tables) we were able to order. The food was okay (ordered apps, not pizza) but I’ll withhold opinions on the food until I’ve tried their main offering. If they can’t get their staffing/​service issues sorted out this joint can at best be described as a nostalgic arcade with some food. I reallyreallyreally hope this place makes it. This is my 3^rd trip here with a similar experience, I am hoping that they figure it out.

First stop in the Quarter Barrel tonight and will definitely be back again. When I came I was hesitant to order food, because the place was packed, but I am sure glad I did! My Pesto Alfredo pizza came out fast and was delicious. I loved the fresh ingredients and that the pizza wasn’t drowning in grease and cheese. The in-​house brewed porter was delicious and a great pair After the food, I hit up the arcade games and was happy that my $.25 got me 3 lives. Not much can go wrong with good beer, pizza and tunes. Can’t wait to bring more of my friends here.

This joint has major potential for being a rad spot in CR! I stopped in the night before their grand opening and glad I did. 90’s Alternative music instantly hit my ears and I went into full ADHD mode when I eyed the crazy amount of games they had. It was impossible to NOT be in a good mood at this point. I enjoyed one of their in-​house brewed beers and salivated over the pizzas I saw pumping out. The energy was sublime and numerous laughs and smiles could be seen and heard. Anxious to return to actually try the food and more!