Enter: The National Videogame Museum
When you think of museums, you probably picture artifacts behind glass and stern “no touching” signs. Not here. This place is 100% hands-on and unapologetically designed to be played. It’s sensory overload in a dizzying pixel-powered euphoria — buzzes, dings and glowing screens with computers and consoles just begging for button-mashing.As you snake through the decades, you’ll pass a life-sized Pong, a full lineup of Ataris and SEGAs, computer setups through the years, a re-created game shop (RIP) and every Nintendo known to man — ending in a vintage arcade that’s an ode to the joystick generation. Your kids will either be amused or completely confused by the unidentifiable analog objects, but either way, they’ll be enthralled. And with tickets just $10-12 a pop, it might just be the cheat code to cheap entertainment while sneakily serving up some hands-on tech history guaranteed to be 100x cooler than your basic mall arcade.
For my fellow millennials, it’s as much a haven for gamers as it is a museum of nostalgia. It was like walking into a time capsule and landing straight in your cousin’s bedroom circa 1986, where we were perfectly content playing Duck Hunt on a bean bag chair with Save Ferris cheering us on.
One chaotic, overly sugared kid proclaimed, “This is my happy place.” And honestly, same.
Table for two? More like player two—these futuristic console tables serve up bytes and bites.
Lauren Durie
Level Up at Nerdvana
You could play all day, but when you need a power-up, keep the fun going just five minutes up the road at Nerdvana, a food and game haven that would make your inner child cry 8-bit tears of joy. Show your wristband for 10% off (we’re full of cheat codes here).You’ve got two and a half hours to hang out (with a $15 per person food/drink minimum), and when seated, you are given the choice between board games from their massive library or rotating video games — just ask the staff which controllers are available. We were given the choice of N64, PlayStation 4 or Switch and messed around with some retro gems.
Every table comes with its own console, and the two-tops even have side-by-side seating so you can stare at a personal screen in what feels like a futuristic gamer pod.
Menu-wise, it’s kid-friendly with playful category names like “Quick Play” and “Multiplayer” for shareables, and a wildly imaginative “Potion” list for the grown-ups. Think: Diamond Butt Station (fluffy lemon meringue unicorn magic in a glass), Fett Dreams of Boba (with elderflower foam) and a boozy caramel Butterbeer shake that was pure wizard magic.
The brisket quesadilla was smoky, melty and satisfyingly crunchy. The shrimp and grits were artfully plated and rich — though a bit too heavy for Dallas’s triple digits, which was fine because the food felt a bit like a side quest, slightly inconvenient right as Jordan’s up for the perfect fadeaway in NBA2K.
There will be a moment of table tension when the plates drop mid-match. Handheld might be the more strategic choice. You’ve been warned.
