SPiN Milwaukee

I'm not in Evansvillle for this story. This is one of those things that you would never see in Evansville...which is really too bad.

We arrived in Wisconsin on Friday afternoon for the baby shower that my mom and sister were hosting for Leandra. I had no intention of attending and made alternative plans to attend SPiN Milwaukee.

SPiN Milwaukee is a table tennis club/restaurant/sports bar. I found out about this venue after reading a story about it in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The main room hold 12 tables with an additional center table, complete with scoring table and bleachers, used for feature matches and tournaments. There is a dining area, a bar and flat screen TVs mounted throughout the space.

SPiN Milwaukee is located in the Third Ward Historical District just outside of the downtown area I came in with my niece's dad (while mom and niece were at a baby shower) and planned to meet two other people while we were there. We got there around 12:30 and ordered lunch before we reserved our table. With a burger, fries and a cold bottle of Sprecher Root Beer polished off, it was time to pick up some paddles and balls and get our table.

For non-club members, tables can be rented for $16/hour during the day. You are provided a bucket of balls that are constantly refilled by someone picking up all the stray balls on the floor. That's right...you don't need to pick up the balls that fly off your table. A guy walks around with a net who scoops the balls off the floor and refills the buckets. Pretty cool, although it took a couple of turns to remember that we didn't have to chase down every ball that went astray.

Our table was kind of unique. It had a "chalkboard" set-up with messages written on it. The net was kind of like a mini-chain link fence which made for some interesting play. All of the balls were orange with the SPiN Milwaukee logo on them.

I'm pretty sure we held our table for more than an hour, but no extra charges were tacked on. By the time we left, the place was hopping with most tables being used and two "studs" playing at the center table. There was a VIP room that was being used that day for a fundraiser tournament. Apparently, the evening was booked with nothing available to reserve until the next day.

The one other plus to the venue is that it is smoke-free. Of course, the entire state of Wisconsin is smoke free, but I would think that this place wouldn't want smoking because of the semi-athletic nature of the place.

This place was a lot of fun. While the weekends bring in more competitive players, there were many families at the tables playing casual games alongside those who were trying put as much spin and speed on the ball during each rally.

We spent about two and a half hours there between lunch and playing. We could have spent much more if I didn't have other places to be. I did get a nice t-shirt for my wife that says "Balls Are My Business." (Yeah, I couldn't resist...heh, heh!) I can't wait to get back to Milwaukee. This is on my "must-go list."