The Quarter
By floor9 on May 5, 2006 in Downtown
Well, after what seems like a decade of waiting, The Quarter is finally open in downtown Harrisburg. Mostly open, anyway; two of the five levels are still having their finishing touches applied. From what I hear, the third-floor dancefloor is opening May 25th, and the rooftop deck will be open any day now (where have I heard that before). Pictures are posted in my Flickr gallery (click “image gallery”, below and to the right).
The Quarter promises to bring five floors of nightlife goodness to downtown Harrisburg. The basement is a stone-walled, speakeasy-themed jazz-club-like room with small booths, a pub table or two, a faux brick bar, and a fake distillery. It looks like the place to go when you want to actually have a conversation and/or get away from the commotion upstairs. Definitely my kind of floor.
The ground floor and second floor are very sports-bar like, in that they’re brightly lit and loud. The ground floor empties out onto a fenced-in area on the sidewalk, and also hosts The Quarter’s kitchen. The second floor is pretty much the same, but the outdoor seating is replaced with a windowed-in balcony, and the kitchen is replaced with seven or eight pool tables. For those of you who have been complaining that there’s no place to shoot pool downtown: Enjoy.
The third floor, which isn’t open yet, is supposed to be a dancefloor. The rooftop deck, which also isn’t open, will be substantially smaller than the rest of the building, but still gets points for being a first in downtown Harrisburg.
Operationally, the place was a success, although the lights from the garage door openers kept turning on for no apparent reason. The service was as good as one could expect, especially considering that they just opened. The prices, however, were way out of line for downtown Harrisburg. Want a beer? $3 for a domestic bottle, $4 for that fancy stuff. Mixed drink? $6 for a 7&7. $9 for a Stoli & Red Bull. And I suppose now would be as good of a time as any to mention the food. I managed to find something edible on their seafood-dominated menu (I’m lethally allergic to seafood) — a plate of fries for $8. A plate of french fries for eight dollars. So figure for two drinks, an appetizer, an entree, and dessert, you’re easily going to clear the $50 mark (per person). Definitely the kind of place where you’re paying for the atmosphere.
One strange thing I noticed was the lack of any security. Not only was nobody at the door checking IDs, but there didn’t seem to be anyone around to handle fights. If this were a single-level sports bar like KoKoMo’s, I could see skimping out on the bouncers. But even Fisaga has security, and The Quarter is MUCH bigger. What happens when it goes down at the far end of the pool tables?
Since the place is so new, it’s hard to give any decent insight into what it will be like. I’ll do a more insightful update once all five floors are open. It’s definitely worth going out of your way to check out this weekend, though you should pack in an extra $20 or so. I think we may have another downtown success on our hands. Only time will tell.
I was downtown Wednesday night and said “let’s give it a whirl”. Everyone agrees that it’s bright. Too bright. But we had a good time. I like the way they are planning to combine a regular bar with an “underground bar” downstairs and a dance club upstairs. I think they’ll do just fine.
kangarooBob | May 5, 2006 | Reply
was down with my girlfriend and her friends last night, could this be the new fisaga?
burgi | May 5, 2006 | Reply
Why is it that when The Quarter installs pool tables you call it a success, but when any other owner installs pool tables you call it a failure?
Downtown | May 5, 2006 | Reply
I agree that it is too bright. The garage door openers’ lights turning on and off all night is also quite annoying. The basement is bangin’ and I may actually hang out there… if they get real on the drink prices. $8 kettel on rocks is just too much.
mak | May 6, 2006 | Reply
KangarooBob & Burgi, that’s pretty much the reaction I get from everyone. They need to tone down the lighting intensity (at least on the ground floor) and they’ll be ok. If they want to leave the second floor open as an uber-bright sportsbar, well, so be it.
Downtown, I assume you’re referring to South Street Tavern. I never said they were a failure because of the pool tables. I don’t like SST because it’s boring. It’s a bar. Rather than fix what was once a unique lounge, they tore Mars out and threw in a pool table. That’s not a formula for success, and it’s not a help to downtown Harrisburg.
Mak, yes, I forgot to mention the garage door lights. They need to get on that, and they also need to lighten up on those prices. My summary judgement on The Quarter as it stands now is that it will be a success, but watering down the prices as much as they water down the drinks will be the only way they’ll make it to next summer.
floor-9 | May 6, 2006 | Reply
My company took us out to the baseball game yesterday and then to the Quarter where we rocked it all afternoon. It’s a great place to hang out, especially with groups of people. I had no idea what the drink prices were since we were running a tab into the thousands of dollars, but I did review some of the appetizers in the Forum of my site.
Mike | May 11, 2006 | Reply
i dig the down down underground portion of the quarter, very dark and musty with hidden hallways that could lead to getting purposefully lost in case your stalker shows up (that would’ve helped at dragonfly last night). the main floor is cool, fairly basic. it was nice on a weekday, i’m sure it’s dense on a weekend. the second floor is cool, but the billiards area is kind of a joke. the tables are TINY and thespace between them almost ensures an uncomfortable shot. my man flip pointed out that all the tables are laid out so the break is facing towards the windows overlooking a parking lot - bad idea as you know one of those are going to be broken in the first month.
i like it, i’m actually surprised by how well put together it all is considering the time it took to get it running. they seem to have done it right. i’m waiting for the third floor and rooftop, obviously where my real interest lies…
cosby | May 11, 2006 | Reply
I was back in Harrisburg to meet with friends this evening. When I lived in HBG this place was still not completed (I was only in HBG for a mere 27.5 years, exactly how long it took the Quarter to finish ;) ) so we decided to meet up there. Nice atmosphere, okay decor, terrible prices and TERRIBLE service! Well let me make that a little more clear: the waitresses were okay (and I mean just okay, nothing more), it was how freakin’ long it took the kitchen to make our food that was the issue! We had very basic meals and we started dinner at 6:30. We did not get all of our meals until almost 9:00! 10 people in our party, and about 5 people got their food in about an hour. The rest took another 1.5-2 hours to complete?!?!?!? When they finally did arrive, things weren’t correct, which added insult to injury as you would imagine. Luckily we had no other place to be and we were there more for a social gathering than for dinner so we rolled with it all and made light of the situation. But trust me folks, they were not that busy at all, and certainly not busy enough to warrant a wait like that!!!
We complained in a nice way and the waitress did what she could for us, which ended up being free desserts for all (and we actually were quiet about it all until the waitress pointed out how long it took for us and how she just wouldn’t accept that if she were us; she then went to her mgr. who gave her the go ahead for the desserts). But I have to say that with the high prices, the terribly slow kitchen and the menus on copy paper (which after doing some research, I found that this has been the case since it has opened weeks ago?!?) I can guarantee you there are now 10 people who will never set foot in the place for dinner again.
Like many things in Harrisburg (unfortunately) I would say that the Quarter was a great idea in theory, but not so great in practice. They REALLY need to rethink their entire business strategy if they want to be successful IMO, and I fear this will be another one of those places that burns out rather quickly…
Dave | May 23, 2006 | Reply