Back in the Basement.


Apologies for neglecting nycfoosball.com for so long. I’ve been away from a computer for awhile. But thanks to Luis, Mike S, and John K for the new website, alitle winter down time and AI, it’s got me motivated again. 


So a quick little history…. I moved back to NY in 2003 after living in Colorado for about 13 years for school, work and foosball. Foosball tournaments in NYC were random and sparse at best. There were a few regular players but no real organization. Ken Farum Jr used to run tournaments once every few months and people would come from as far as NJ and Long Island. Long Island probably had the strongest player base at the time with Steve Santos, Brian Guiana, John Back, Brenda Back and Sean L. People would play Jake’s Dilemma on the Upper West Side on Fridays, but it was hit or miss. 


At that point I decided I was going to start running a weekly tournament. Back in Colorado there were probably 2 or 3 tournaments a week, so I knew it could work. I’m not sure why but everybody here was trying to convince me it would never survive. At this point I was obsessed with foosball and I wanted to grow a competitive community so I could grow people to play against. The goal was to introduce and encourage all people to play foosball. 


At the time there were only 2 locations main that had foosball tables, Down the Hatch and Jakes Dilmnea. There were a few other locations but those two were the only active bars.


Sometime in 2004/2005 I started running Tuesday tournaments in a basement bar called Down the Hatch. I wish I still had the data and forum from those days. Looking at the photos we all look like babies. They had 1 table and it was beat. They had a good deal on drinks and food. This is where I met Wil and Henry and that’s when we started evolving foosball. All I can remember from the days of Down the Hatch were that they were the fun days of NYC foosball. 


Sometime in 2006 Wil found a location that would support us with 2 tables. 2 tables!!! I never thought we would ever see 2 tables in NYC. Enter Fat Cat, a billiard hall that was also in the basement. (see the trend). Fat Cat tournaments weren’t as fun as the Down the Hatch tournaments but they were more competitive. People were starting to get better. We had a great relationship with the staff and encouraged them to play. 


Then after COVID, Fat Cat turned into Cellar Dog and we had to find a new location. When Campbell randomly discovered Sour Mouse it was like a sign from the foosball gods. Sour Mouse is really like a younger sibling to Fat Cat. Sour Mouse was another billiard hall in the basement. In the fall of 2023 we started Tuesday tournaments back up. 


Then sometime in 2024 the owners of Sour Mouse opened Sugar Mouse. Sugar Mouse was another billiard hall in the basement, but this time they allowed us to have 3 tables. Having 3 tables at one location in NYC was the dream for me. Although things are in a bit of transition at the moment I’m sure we’ll be constantly evolving. 


Arguably one of the best cities in world, NYC, we are lucky to get visitors from all over the world. We get European Masters play with us all time, usually on there way to a bigger tournament like Vegas or Worlds. Brandon Munoz, Jacob Balcos and Isabelle Stelly played with us at our last holiday party.