Review: Tilted Arcade Bar

Tilted Arcade Bar has beers on tap, liquor, snacks, and a myriad of classic arcade games and pinball machines. Tilted is a new gem in Jackson, Michigan.

Located at 146 West Michigan Ave. Jackson, MI 49201, Tilted Arcade Bar is open late every day of the week, providing a space for night owls to have a quick bite and drink, and spend some quarters on some fun.

The arcade bar is a uber-clean, well-lit, spacious and rarely busy joint in Jackson, MI. Tilted provides a venue for both young and old. This is where classic arcade traditions are kept alive, with two pool tables, the classic machines and many of the well-known pinball tables. Here, Tilted provides a unique cheap activity for Jackson County.

The bar remains quiet, even in the middle of a long conversation about food that eventually seeps into religion, like all late-night conversations do. It is well stocked, with three TVs showing University of Michigan Basketball (losing to Louisville) and Michigan State Basketball (losing to Duke). The bar’s wide selection of cans and bottles includes six taps as well.

Tonight, the taps featured Saugatuck Brewing Peanut Butter Porter, BrewDog’s Hazy Jane, Leinenkugel Snowdrift Porter, Alaskan Amber Ale, Blue Moon, and a special new cider by Blake’s Cider Mill called Wild Nova – featuring powerful raspberry flavor.

The bar also has 23 can varietals (from Pabst Blue Ribbon at $1.50 to Old Nation M-43 16 oz at $6.00) and 15 bottles (from Coors Lite at $3.00 to Heineken at $4.00). Tilted also keeps a stocked bar.

Staff is engaging. On the three occasions I have hung out for an evening at Tilted, the staff has chatted just the right amount, keeping me engaged and interested and sharing some Jackson Michigan tips and tricks. It has already become the regular haunt of some, and may become mine as well.

A blackboard features the high scores of the most popular machines, from Mario Brothers to Ghostbusters pinball, and many in between. Some scores have been updated a few times, but some have stood the test of time.

I spent my Tuesday night playing Harley Davidson pinball, reaching 130,057,860 – still plenty off the high score on my third night of play. The high score for the Harley Davidson machine is 322,501,960.

The vibes are great, clean black bar, a couple of change machines that can exchange up to $20 bills, Keno play, and an ATM.

I have not tried any snacks, but other customers have been chowing on large plates of nachos and the tacos, though extremely simple, are well-priced and what you’d expect from an arcade-first attitude.

The Crowd

…is young, mostly early twenty-something guys in jeans and flannels, a few plain beanies. On Tuesday is it a chill crowd, a place for curious players – perhaps no regular record-setters, though the blackboard seems unreachable after three intense practice sessions.

After my play, I sat at the bar sipping some prohibition rye by Jim Beam watching the Big Ten-ACC Challenge. I appreciated the individuality of the space as I admired the life-size Spiderman statue looming over three guys playing Super Chexx table hockey. Tilted’s Facebook Page calls him the “friendly neighborhood Spiderman.” I feel like it makes a friendly neighborhood bar – wishing I lived closer.

The bartender is on her phone, but the moment my drink is empty she’ll ask if I’m ready for another. Later, she would chat me up about this blog and about Jackson secrets, recommending I keep an eye out for the 2020 opening of Ogma Brewing around the corner, and the new Ramshackle Brewing in Jonesville, Michigan.

Two middle-aged women came in wearing camo hoodies, asking if Tilted is in the location of the old strip club. It is, read here for the story in MLive. The younger tells “granny” about painting her son’s room to a Fortnite theme, using glow-in-the-dark paint and black lights. A couple more young guys walk in, get some PBR and head to the pool table. A slow, but steady Tuesday night. Those that came in stayed for at least an hour.

About Tilted Arcade Bar

Tilted Arcade Bar has the same owners as The Dirty Bird and The Chase Sports Bar, perhaps the premier wing joint downtown Jackson, so carry some birds over and enjoy at a high top between games at the pinball tables.

Being a Food Warrior

It’s been a few days of blog posts. I realized why I want to write about food today, as I headed to Tilted. Food is new and evolving and natural and connected. I feel like I have something to say about food because it is a consumable for me and for everyone. It is not unapproachable in all settings – though it is, perhaps, in some. Every person has some experience, some standard, with which they approach food.

When understanding increases through travel, listening, tasting, questions, confusion, mixing, building… it is a wonderful thing.

This blog, Valhalla’s Table, is supposed to be an extension of my food diary, my thoughts and confusion and search for the place of food in our lives. It is my wrestling match with what makes food so vital to our experience – vital beyond nutrition and sustenance.

My thoughts today say that food is vital because it is nourishment and art form. Food is easier to observe in its sourcing. Ingredients have a clear origin story when they are sound and whole. It is easier to notice the range of styles, even to an untrained eye, than visual or musical art, and it is clear in the decision to try something “new.” The true food experience is always a consumption of place, of product, and of creation (of tenderness, love, care, and tradition). Do you eat to learn?

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• Review: Tilted Arcade Bar