The Royal Palms Shuffleboard Club Opening Soon
BUCKTOWN — “It’s really starting to look like something over here,” the owners of The Royal Palms Shuffleboard Club said in a recent Facebook post highlighting the sunny space soon to welcome a new wave of leisure athletes.
Located at 1750 N. Milwaukee Ave. on the border of Bucktown and Wicker Park, the adults-only club will offer walk-in shuffleboard opportunities on 11 courts, for $40/hour on a first-come, first-served basis. Rotating visits by food trucks, plus tropical drinks, beer, board games and DJs will round out the experience.
Though a public opening date has not been determined (final inspections and hiring need to be completed first), co-owners Ashley Albert and Jonathan Schnapp said that they plan to announce RSVP-required soft opening events through the Royal Palms’ Facebook and Instagram pages in early March.
In shuffleboard, two opposing four-player teams use cues to push weighted discs or pucks down a narrow and long court. The goal is to get the weighted discs to rest within a marked scoring area.
One of the 11 courts is on the rooftop of the century-old building and will likely be visible to riders on the Blue Line “L” train that whizzes overhead. Back in August 2016 when the venture was announced, Albert said the rooftop court will “give Chicagoans a chance to experience the game the way it was meant to be played…in the sunshine.”
Both internationally ranked shuffleboard players, Albert and Schnapp opened the first Royal Palms Shuffleboard Club in 2014 in Brooklyn. The venture is “breathing new life into the sport by drawing on Brooklyn’s hip, younger crowd,” Small Business Revolution reported.
For those seeking a more regular relationship with the sport, there will be weekly leagues on Monday and Tuesday nights beginning on April 9.
Registration for teams will open online by Thursday on The Royal Palms Shuffleboard Club website, according to Albert. The cost per team is $500 for a 10-week season and up to 10 people can be on a team, though only four compete at a time.
From Albert’s experience at the Brooklyn flagship, where there are 122 teams and some 800–1000 players, “everybody else usually comes to root their team on and take advantage of the league-only drink specials.”
Albert said most teams have 6–8 regulars and welcome substitute players as needed. Team members participate in a banquet at the end of the season and get a membership card so they can enjoy free court time during the week.
Every week, there will be a different local food truck parked in the indoor food truck bay. A few neighborhood favorites like Tamale Spaceship, Fat Shallot and Big Star have already joined the lineup. There will be eight beers on tap (Half Acre, Lagunitas, Bells, etc.) — no bottles and just one can of cider, Albert said.
Prior to Royal Palms, the warehouse was home to Metro Chicago Florist Delivery Co-Op, a parking garage for flower delivery trucks.
For those looking for jobs, Albert and Schnapp are looking to hire about 30 people in the next few weeks, plus another 10 auxiliary staff for security and cleaning. Email info@RoyalPalmsShuffle.com for more info.
Social media highlights from the buildout:
