Arcademie — Restaurant in Evansville

There is nothing like this place in Evansville. Take a step into any major market location around the globe. From the street, you’ll first notice the architecturally attuned facade renovation - or you won’t: that’s the whole point. It looks as if it has always been there. It has. Months of the prism glass transom being rebuilt by stained glass artisans speaks to the fact that this project took the time to make it, and do it, and be the one thing: the right way.

Step inside, and your attention is drawn upward, with perhaps the highest ceilings of a restaurant or bar in downtown. The wall to the left preserved in a state of decay, juxtaposes the newly deep colored wall to the right. Custom wooden tables, made from maple stud walls (yes, stud walls framed from maple) removed from the building, provide a rich texture for sturdy seating options. The bar stools each weigh 674lbs.

A veritable sea of architectural salvage and reuse awaits you. Bars and bar backs from storied local taverns. An early 20th century flower cooler rises above a custom steel frame behind the main bar, drawing your attention to the space’s ability to capture height. Upstairs, an art decor bar back contrasts the bar made from a salvaged church altar - hallelujah!

An impressive vintage game collection - complete with the sit down Star Wars X-wing fighter from my glory days in 1985 at Showbiz Pizza and the not-vintage Killer Queen from my glory days of last week at the Thursday night Killer Queen nights - rocks the back space beneath industrial skylights fabricated in Denmark, and the space is divided from the front bar area by a custom sliding curtain wall of industrial window casements. Upstairs, a cocktail lounge and salon with west facing roof deck and beer garden tables from Austria’s 2019 Octoberfest completes the experience. Look down on the pinballs below through the skylights. For one more week, look up to the 420 building before its implosion.

With a kitchen soon to crank out Evansville’s bestest and most beloved tacos from La Campirana; to the bathrooms with high tank pull chain toilets, a 500lb porcelain throne of a urinal, and custom artwork from the lead singer of Echo & the Bunnymen; the custom fabricated antique vacuum housings crafted into sconce and pendant lighting like some George Lucas droid looking steam punk jet pack style perfection; and the impressive rotating 12 draft beer bar and custom cocktails including drinks made from locally harvested hickory bark syrup and garden grown pepper oils… the Arcademie is certainly ready to - as they say -...

Came here, with a couple of teenagers, on a recommendation 2 hours before a concert across the street at The Victory Theater.

First impressions: Humid, quirky, dark space. If it had been a truly hot day I'm not sure we would have stayed. Not a huge menu. Frankly, they have about 10 Mexican dishes made fresh in-house. A fair amount of the approximately 30 games were out of order.

But...we had a great time. All games are on free play. The food was delicious. And, they had a nice assortment of drinks and beer on tap. My daughter discovered a love of pinball games and spent the majority of her time playing her favorite. Service was excellent and the bartenders took good care of us. We will all be going back, albeit probably not on any days where it's 90+ degrees outside.

And, you can't beat the location if going to a concert. We parked right on the street in front of here, directly across the street from The...

Arcademie it's the kind of place you can trust for multiple types of events. If you have something to celebrate, or to cry about, or you just want to sit in silence and scroll on your phone with a nice drink, this is the place for that. It has one of the best bartenders in all Evansville, and in my opinion the best I've ever encountered in this continent. The food is just brilliant, it's so good that it has no business being pub food, but it just makes sense to have excellent food to go with such exquisite craft cocktails menu. The people working here are also 10/10, the service is as fast as possible while ensuring excellent quality, you can tell they love...