Pool halls are traditionally shady places. Watching any action movie will teach you that billiard rooms are full of the darkest forms of villainy. Whenever the hero needs information, there’s a thug with an arm connected which must be twisted to obtain it. Further, have you ever noticed, in such films, that the only customers of such an establishment are enormous, angry men?
This harkens back to Christmas Eve, if you’ll believe it. Picture me with my mother, in a car, in the wilderness outside of Syracuse. We’re hungry. Very hungry. After driving for at least a half hour and finding nothing open, we happen upon a pool hall. It’s dark. There are large men loitering in front. Even approaching starvation, my mother didn’t want to stop. So we didn’t. We finally found a Denny’s hours later. Never has Denny’s been so absolutely delicious.
I tell you all of that to explain what Diamond Eight Billiards isn’t. It’s not shady. Its customers are a mix of both men and women of a variety of sizes. It’s clean and comfortable with plenty of windows to allow passing police officers to look inside. My mother would go there.
The main room of the hall contains seventeen standard pool tables. A flat hourly fee of $4.50 per person is charged for each person at a table. The tables are in good shape, individually lit, and periodically maintained to operate in top condition. They are also spaced far enough apart so you are not jabbing other players when you take a shot.
Of course, they serve alcohol. There is an elevated bar area in the back corner with a standard bar facing televisions and a counter facing the pool tables. The view is actually rather cool, though it does get very busy at night. The place opens at noon everyday with weekday afternoon table specials, so it might be best to do your nuncheon (it’s a word—look it up) and game playing here.
There is also a dart pit with three machines and a game area including pinball. In fact, if I may brag for a moment, I once played this particular pinball machine for hours at an arcade, thanks to earning free games. That place closed down soon after. I can only take partial credit for putting it out of business.
Rounding out the game offerings, there is a billiard table with no pockets. I’m the curious sort, so I inquired of the proprietor what the heck someone would do with such a table. He informed me that it is for “three cushion” or “carom” billiards. The game is played with three balls. They are generally colored white, yellow, and red. One player uses the white ball as a cue ball, the other uses the yellow. The object of the game is to hit three rails and both of the other balls in one shot to score a point. It’s slightly more complicated than that, but I suspect an RPI engineer would possess the natural trigonometric insight to become quite skilled at carom billiards without further assistance.
Diamond Eight Billiards is located at 9 Johnson Road in Latham. Take Hoosick Street down the hill to Route 7 West. Follow the middle lanes for Route 9/Latham. At the traffic light, go straight onto Route 9R and through one more light, then bear right at the next light onto Johnson Road. Take the first entrance into the strip mall, and the pool hall is on your left. The establishment is open from noon to 1 am every day and until 2 am on Mondays, Fridays, and Saturdays. There is also a kitchen open fairly late, serving sandwiches, salads, appetizers, and absolutely delicious hot pretzels.
