About Pixels Arcade Taproom

Pixels Arcade Taproom is the brainchild of Rob Simmons. Rob cut his teeth in food & beverage at the age of 18 when he joined the Coast Guard as a chef. Later he served in both back and front-of-the-house roles for companies as diverse as Hard Rock Cafe, Hyatt and more. He also had a background in retail at various points, selling everything from cars to furniture and architectural supplies.

But it was his 20+ year career as an animator, game designer, multimedia artist and art director that saw him combine these talents which would one day become Pixels. Rob worked on 4 releases of NBA2K, the celebrated basketball console title, as well as the first online Pokémon game, Pokémon TCGO. His love of gaming goes back to the days of going to local arcades in the Boston-area like The Dream Machine — sometimes cutting classes (sorry, mom!) — to rack up the high score on Galaga (one day forming a pop culture-themed cover band called, you guessed it, Kid Galaga).

Having wanted to go into business for himself since the early 2000s — and to open a bar that would feature pop culture elements like gaming, kitschy animation and live music — he decided to pare the concept back and focus on what he knew best: gaming. But rather than create the dark arcades with geometric carpeting and black light he knew as a teenager he opted to go lighter, using pastel and neon colors from the 1980s along with artwork inspired by Patrick Nagel (and that famous Duran Duran ‘Rio’ cover), as well as fun lighting and callouts to the films and cultural moments he still loves (Star Wars, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure among them).

And now, Pixels is here for you to enjoy as your place to play — we just don’t think you should cut classes to do so! Enjoy yourself — and game on!