WHAT TO DO AFTER DARK : COSTA MESA : Local Pool Halls Rack Up Business

The classic pool hall--filled with chain-smoking, hard-drinking hustlers--has been joined in recent years by swankier establishments that offer club music and an upscale atmosphere.

Take the $1.5-million Shark Club, which has valet parking, a fireplace, candle-lit bar tables, a dance floor and 25 tournament-sized pool tables, each one fitted with a mustard-colored felt playing surface.

The club, which opened three years ago, also has a 2,000-gallon fish tank with two live sharks.

“This place is classy,” Terry Chamberlain said as she prepared to take a shot one night last week at the Baker Street club.

The playing surface of a pool table is usually green felt, but Chamberlain, an apartment complex manager, said she likes the club’s unusual mustard-colored tables. “The green to me looks a little cheap,” she said.

Nothing in the Shark Club looks cheap. But neither is it cheap to play. People rent tables for $12 each hour on the weekends, instead of the 50 or 75 cents it costs to play a game at most bars. There’s also a $5 cover on Friday and Saturday after 10 p.m.

“It’s not the price, it’s the ambience,” said Gary Wilkison, a co-worker and friend of Chamberlain’s. He pointed to a bouquet of flowers near the entrance, and the crackling fire.

“It’s comfortable,” said Wilkison, a regular at the club for the past year. “Price is not really a consideration.”

Chamberlain said she also likes the club because “a group of women can come in here and play pool and not feel threatened.” She said sometimes she gets hassled at bars if she goes to play by herself.

“Women do feel comfortable coming in here,” said manager Stephany Halsey. “It’s not like the typical pool hall.” She estimated that about a third of the club’s customers are women.

But many women also like to play pool at older establishments like the Huddle. At 741 W. Baker St., the bar is only a block away from the Shark Club.

The 27-year-old Huddle has always had pool, owner Jere Lowe said. The game has become more popular with women in the past 10 years, he said.

“In the ‘70s, if a woman walked in unattended, everyone stopped talking,” Lowe said. “Now, no one thinks anything about it.” Lowe said he had been going to the bar for 15 years before he bought it three years ago.

The Huddle has five coin-operated eight-foot pool tables, with standard green felt. A game costs 75 cents.

Unlike the Shark Club, there is no way to rent a table for the night. When the bar is crowded, the winner of a game stays on the table and the challenger pays. The loser of a game leaves the table and has to get in line again.

“I like to have that challenge,” said pool player Barbara Rieber. “It’s boring to play the same people over and over again.”

Rieber, a credit analyst who is considered one of the best players at the Huddle, said she comes to the bar at least four nights a week.

“This place is cheap,” said Joe Simolo, a telephone technician who played pool at the Huddle with two co-workers. “A blue-collar guy like me can come in here.”