The Royal Palms Shuffleboard Club Has Soft-Opened in Gowanus

January 27, 2014 By Daniel Maurer

(Photos: Daniel Maurer)

Sure, there’s tabletop shuffleboard at The Diamond and Whiskey Brooklyn, but it used to be that if you wanted to play the old-fashioned stand-up variety, you had to venture out to Robert Moses State Park. No longer. The Royal Palms Shuffleboard Club soft-opened in Gowanus over the weekend, and we stopped in Saturday to admire what is definitely going to be everyone’s next birthday destination.

That’s right, no more trekking out to Melody Lanes for Pete’s Specials: in addition to biscuits and tangs (that’d be shufflespeak for pucks and sticks), Royal Palms offers up tropical drinks like a three-rum punch named after the president of the St. Petersburg Shuffleboard Club. The entire place was inspired by the 90-year-old Florida institution, and has the pink-flamingo bathroom wallpaper to prove it. Like the St. Pete’s club, there’s a stage for bands and 10 courts for league play and hourly rentals. There’s also a DJ booth, a parking bay for food trucks (Mexico Blvd. was in the house Saturday, Red Hook Lobster Pound is there tonight), tables with retiree-ready lawn chairs (a bingo night is promised), two long bars, and tented booths that can be reserved for large parties.

Tonight marks the launch of the Monday night league, and there’s a Tuesday night league as well. According to the Web page, official hours of operation are coming soon; we’ll update this post when we hear from the owners on that front. In the meantime, here’s the place in action during its weekend soft opening.