Billiards Gets Some Respect : Once near extinction, pool halls are thriving by promoting themselves as wholesome places. In the past year, five pool halls have opened in the county, mirroring a nationwide boom in the game.

The latest mutation in the evolution of the pool hall has occurred right here in Oxnard with the recent opening of the Hollywood Club, part upscale billiard parlor, part video arcade, and part karaoke bar.

In the old days, pool players had to be wary of the stranger with the customized stick; now, it’s the guy who belts out his own arrangements.

Once near extinction, pool halls are surviving and thriving in the lean ‘90s by diversifying. “You’re not going to make it on pool alone,” says Ron Kaufman, who owns Champion Billiards in Oxnard.

Pools halls have also rebounded from the depths of disrepute, growing into slick, safe and wholesome places. No longer scorned as corrupters of youth and perpetrators of sloth, these modern clubs promote themselves as posh yuppie hangouts or family fun playhouses.

“Parents know they can drop their kids off,” says San Samaniego, owner of Hot Shot Family Billiards in Camarillo.

In the past year, five new pool halls have opened in Ventura County, mirroring a nationwide boom in the up-and-down life cycle of the game. A popular haven for mainstream Americans in the ‘20s, pool halls all but disappeared in the ‘50s, only to be reborn in 1961 with the release of “The Hustler.” Starring Paul Newman as Fast Eddie Felson and Jackie Gleason as Minnesota Fats, the movie romanticized pool for a new generation.

“ ‘The Hustler’ made my life,” says Jerry Matchin, a youth in the ‘60s and now the owner of Stiix Billiards in Ventura. “You can’t imagine the impact it had on me when Paul Newman said, ‘Look at that fat man play.’ ”

Pool went through another downswing in the ‘70s and early ‘80s before once again being resuscitated by Fast Eddie. “The Color of Money,” the 1986 sequel to “The Hustler” with Newman and Tom Cruise, touched off the current craze that has made pool America’s most popular participation sport behind bowling and basketball.

A beneficiary of the latest boom, of course, is the pool hall. Since the movie sequel, the number of pool halls in the country has doubled to an estimated 6,000.

While the concept of family rooms isn’t new--Norm’s Q & 8 was popular in Ventura in the late ‘60s--the upscale pool hall of the ‘90s is a unique development in the history of the game, combining the glitz of Roaring ‘20s billiard parlors with modern sensory stimuli such as CD sound systems and big-screen TV.

The Hollywood Athletic Club set the standard for Southern California when it opened nearly four years ago. A Hollywood landmark with Italianate architecture and cavernous rooms with vaulted ceilings, the old gym underwent a $1.5-million metamorphosis, turning into a 45-table billiard room, piano bar with blues music, stylish grill, and hot spot for the Kiefer Sutherland crowd.

“I’ve made it a first-class place where women could come in on their own and feel comfortable and safe,” Salter says.

Of the five new rooms in the county, four are going after the Sutherland crowd and one caters to serious players: sharks and shooters who wouldn’t be seen dead in a place with pink roses on the bar, cafe au lait on tap and oil paintings on the walls.

Which begs the question: With 11 family-oriented and upscale pool halls now in the county, will the market support the surge?

“We’re going to have over-saturation,” Kaufman says. “There’s only so much demand.”

But that hasn’t happened yet. For now, county players have a lot of diversity and choice. If you’re thinking of a night at the pool hall, here’s a rundown of clubs that will get you off the couch and on the felt:

NICHOLBY’S

Only 8 months old, Nicholby’s has already established itself as the place Sutherland would hang if he ever came to Ventura.

A 5,000-square-foot loft above an antique store, the club is a combination pool hall, pickup bar, night club and art gallery. The darkly lit room is warm and comfortable but raucous, rocking like a fraternity house.

On a recent Friday night, a couple dressed in ‘50s clothing jitterbugged to the rockabilly music of Big Sandy & the Fly-Rite Boys while hordes of young people--in dress ranging from bohemian to punk--were either listening to the band, sampling one of 13 beers on tap, playing video games or checking out the $500 price tag on a painting.

The 10 pool tables were in use, green islands in the darkness. It’s hard enough to talk amid the audio overload, let alone concentrate on banking in the 8 ball, as Ventura geologist David Ortiz learned when his game-ending attempt caromed wide, allowing advertising executive Cathy Cluff to come back and beat him on a fluke shot.

“Slop counts at Nicholby’s,” Ortiz said as he racked ‘em.

Is Nicholby’s a real pool hall? Of course not. It’s a social venue for pool duffers and proud of it. “We needed something like this in Ventura,” Ortiz says. “There was nothing like it when we grew up.”

Connected with the espresso bar downstairs, the pool hall offers designer coffees and hopes to provide food in the near future.

One warning about Nicholby’s: When a band plays, there is a cover charge, even if you only want to play pool. You can make up for the extra charge by taking advantage of the free pool hour from 6 to 7 p.m. during the week.

NICHOLBY’S--404 E. Main St., Ventura. 6 p.m. to midnight Sundays through Thursdays, 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. Fridays through Saturdays. $7.50 an hour. Beer and wine. 21 and over. 653-2320.

STIIX BILLIARDS

Looking for a real pool hall? Stiix is the place.

“Shooters I send to Stiix,” says Champion Billiard’s Ron Kaufman.

Like Nicholby’s, Stiix is on Main Street in Ventura, but farther east, in a quiet part of town. Inside a storefront window, a dozen players are awash in white fluorescent, shooting pool on 14 top-of-the-line, well-maintained Brunswick Gold Crown tables. A Red Corvette is parked on the street.

The room is clean, basic. Jukebox music playing softly doesn’t overpower the clacking of pool balls. Original “Hustler” movie posters adorn the walls. Bud Lite is on tap.

Owner Jerry Matchin watches a man in his early 20s enter from the alley. As soon he reaches the desk, he reverses his baseball cap, which was on backward. Matchin smiles.

“People know I don’t allow hats on backward,” says Matchin, who opened Stiix in November. “People know I run a serious room.”

Nearly every night, the best player in the county plays at Stiix. That would be Matchin. “I don’t want to brag, but I’m the best around,” he says. “I’m a professional billiard player.”

Better than local pool standouts Ron Marshall and Billy Houck? “Ron Marshall and I go at it all the time,” says Matchin, who instructs at his club. “The difference is that he thinks he’s the best; I know I’m the best. Billy is a very good player. All three of us could win at any time.”

STIIX BILLIARDS--2520 E. Main St., Ventura. 11 a.m. to midnight Sundays through Thursdays, 11 to 2 a.m. Fridays through Saturdays. $4.80 an hour until 7 p.m. and $6.90 after. Beer. 18 or over or adult supervision. 641-2020.

THE Q CLUB

No chance of passersby mistaking this snazzy pool hall for a barbecue joint. The 23 flying saucer halogen lights floating above the 10 tables and the bar are bright enough for an operating room, practically requiring sunglasses. Neon art adds to the glare.

In contrast to the stark setting, the employees are friendly, one of the gang types who flip beer mugs behind their backs and get to know your name. A bartender named Angel, wearing a tux shirt, offers you wine or one of 40 different beers. You try to carry on a conversation with the Stones blasting from a CD jukebox. Except for a guy at the end of the bar laughing like a hyena, the atmosphere is cheerful. Troublemakers are rare.

“You’re paying $8 an hour to play, so you’re not going to screw around,” assistant manager Stacey Jolls says.

The club has been open about a year--”We were the first upscale room in this area,” Jolls says--and has become a popular date destination, with waiting lists for tables on weekends and sometimes during the week.

“What I love about this place is that it attracts every nationality,” assistant manager Ronnie Marin says. “White, black, Mexican, Asian, Filipino. Everybody has an equal opportunity to have fun.”

Serious shooters are referred to Stiix. “We don’t care about winning or losing here,” Marin says.

THE Q CLUB--4711 Telephone Road, Ventura. Noon to midnight Sundays through Thursdays and noon to 2 a.m. Fridays through Saturdays. $4 for single player weekdays, $5 an hour for two players or more before 7 p.m. and $8 after. Beer and wine. 21 and over. 644-1231.

THE HOLLYWOOD CLUB

Karaoke aside, the club is a shining jewel of a pool hall, with 30 gleaming tables, brass lights and a soothing green carpet. But it’s also unconventional: water cascades inside a glass contraption in the lobby, a 70-foot strand of blue neon runs along a wall, and the tables are covered with blue felt.

Opened in March by Sung Ho Park of Los Angeles, the Oxnard club is in a remodeled thrift store near Heritage Square. Aimed at families, the club has security guards on the premises and doesn’t serve alcohol. Players under 18 are restricted to the video arcade unless they have permission from their parents to shoot pool. Smoking is not allowed on the main floor.

The karaoke room is upstairs along with a smoking area with six tables.

“We see the club as like a bowling alley where people can come in and not spend a lot of money,” manager Ike Hwang says.

THE HOLLYWOOD CLUB--658 S. A St., Oxnard. 10 a.m. to 1 a.m. $6 an hour. No alcohol. 18 and younger need parents’ permission to shoot pool. 487-8967.

HOT SHOT FAMILY BILLIARDS

The fifth new club in the county, open eight months, Hot Shot is a family room with no smoking and no alcohol. Set in a corner of a Camarillo shopping center, the airy club with large windows provides eight tables and views of nearby hills.

Sam Samaniego, by day a federal quality-control expert who oversees the Rockwell space shuttle, owns and runs the club with his wife, Solly. “I like playing pool,” Sam says. “But the only place I could shoot was in a bar. I don’t drink and I don’t smoke, so I thought, ‘How about opening a pool hall?’ ”

HOT SHOT FAMILY BILLIARDS--4481 Las Posas Road, Suite C, Camarillo. 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays and 11 a.m. to midnight Fridays through Saturdays. $6 an hour before 6 p.m. and $7.20 after. No alcohol. All ages. 383-7210.

RACK ‘N’ ROLL BILLIARDS

An example of how respectable pool halls have become, Rack ‘n’ Roll is situated just a block east of the Civic Arts Plaza, the soon-to-open cultural fortress in Thousand Oaks.

Easily the most clubby room in the county, the 2-year-old establishment features 13 oak pool tables, burnished oak paneling, soft couches and brass railings. Attracting a young, yuppie crowd, the club is known for a party hearty atmosphere fueled by draught beer.

The $9-an-hour table charge, one of the stiffest in the county, keeps out the riffraff but doesn’t preclude a packed house on the weekend.

“We refuse service to rowdy people,” employee Justin Brewer says. “We don’t want big-time drinkers. We’re trying to be a classy pool hall.”

RACK ‘N’ ROLL BILLIARDS--2322 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd., Thousand Oaks. 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. daily. $6 an hour before 7 p.m. and $9 after. Beer. All ages. 495-7679.

THE BENT CUE FAMILY BILLIARDS

Facing the Ventura Freeway in a Newbury Park strip mall, the 2-year-old club is a neat, clean family room that appeals to shooters because of its 12 Brunswick Gold Crown tables. But it also serves as a hangout for Cal Lutheran students and as a baby-sitter for local children.

The Fritzges kids--Mariah, 13, Rebecca, 11, Cliff, 8--were playing quietly at a corner table after school.

“My mom checked this place out and likes it,” Mariah says. “She sometimes comes here herself.”

THE BENT CUE FAMILY BILLIARDS--1620 Newbury Road, Newbury Park. 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. daily. Before 6 p.m., $4 an hour for one player, $6 for two or more; after 6 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays, $5.50 for one and $8 for two or more; after 6 p.m. Fridays through Saturdays, $10 an hour for two or more. Beer. All ages. 499-4555.

LOU BUTERA’S BILLIARDS

Long before Stiix, the no-nonsense Simi Valley club was known as a shooter’s room, thanks to 14 professional Brunswick tables and the presence of Butera, a hall of famer who earned the nickname “Machine Gun Lou” by running 150 balls in 21 minutes during a 1973 world championship match.

Butera, who opened the room in the late ‘70s, lives in Palmdale and doesn’t show up as often as he once did, but his shoes have been amply filled by manager Billy Houck, one of the top players in California.

Remodeled last year, the club survived the Jan. 17 earthquake while the Sears outlet store next door was condemned.

“God likes pool players,” says Debbie Brown, the club’s tournament director.

Despite its serious nature, the pool hall allows parents to drop their kids off on weekends.

“But they’ve got to be potty-trained,” Houck says.

Brown chuckles dryly. “We don’t change diapers.”

LOU BUTERA’S BILLIARDS--2261 Tapo St., Simi Valley. 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. daily. $5 an hour for one player up to $7.75 for four. Beer by the pitcher. No one under 18 admitted before 3 p.m. weekdays. 584-9212.

CHAMPION BILLIARDS AND AMUSEMENT CENTER

An unpretentious room in an old motorcycle shop, Champion caters strictly to youngsters and families in an environment free of alcohol.

“I want to be clean and I want young people to be clean,” says Ron Kaufman, who was recently given a key to the city for his work with Oxnard youth.

The club’s nine tables are only 4 feet by 8 feet, slightly smaller than regulation. “This is not a shooter’s place,” Kaufman says. “If you open a family room, why put in big tables?”

Kaufman also provides the latest video games in addition to air hockey and basketball, but he doesn’t allow teen-agers to loiter.

“If I see them in here and they’re just hanging out, I tell them to go do something constructive,” Kaufman says.

Kaufman, who bought the club three years ago, expects to be around a long time.

“Pool’s like the trendy thing to do,” he says. “But I’m in it for the long haul.”

CHAMPION BILLIARDS AND AMUSEMENT CENTER--1475 S. Oxnard Blvd. 10 a.m. to 1 a.m. daily. $6 an hour. No alcohol. All ages. 483-3855.

FILLMORE BILLIARDS

Welcome to the ‘50s.

Open four years, the Central Avenue club, which has three snooker tables sharing space with six pool tables, is a throwback to another era: A soda fountain serves vanilla shakes and 75-cent pickles, and the hours of business depend on the whim of the employees.

“If we’re busy, we could stay open until 11 p.m.,” manager Colette Arnsdorf says. “We play it by ear.”

The small-town attitude is also evidenced by the posted table fees: $1.50 for each half hour per person, with the second half hour free. Why not just charge $1.50 an hour?

“We thought the other way sounded better,” Arnsdorf says.

Although gang members frequent the pool hall, they don’t cause trouble for the agreeable 20-year-old Arnsdorf. “They come in to play and they leave,” she says. “They’re no problem whatsoever. It’s not like they’re mean to me or anything like that.”

FILLMORE BILLIARDS--320 Central Ave., Fillmore. 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays, 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays through Saturdays. $1.50 for each half hour per person, second half hour free. No alcohol. All ages. 524-0539.

GOLD COAST BILLIARDS

The small, down-home room in Oxnard has been around as long as Butera’s place, with a new owner taking over five months ago.

Dependent on regulars from the neighborhood, the club has an easy-going charm: Mothers with babies watch their husbands shoot pool while pets sit outside the front door, tied to a pole. Although backward caps are abundant, a sign warns customers to avoid “vulgar language.”

The 11 tables include two billiard tables. Smoking is allowed, but alcohol isn’t.

GOLD COAST BILLIARDS--4920 S. C St., Oxnard. Noon to midnight daily. $3 an hour per person. No alcohol. All ages. 486-1898.