Jan. 4, 2024

Ms. Pac-Man has eaten up the “junk” in a kitchen storage area at a downtown craft beer bar and helped turn the space into a game room.

Monks Ale House now has a colorful room for the retro video game, plus newer ones like Golden Tee PGA Tour and more than a half-dozen pinball machines.

“We just wanted a fun place to do fun things,” owner Justin Henrichsen said.

Before, Monks had a couple of pinball machines in one of the seating areas.

“The nice thing about moving the game room back here is it’s nice and self-contained,” Henrichsen said. “It also freed up seating space so we’d have more seating in the bar.”

The game room is in part of the former Gandy Dancer Brewing space, which Henrichsen shut down when he bought Monks at 420 E. Eighth St. in 2020.

He built a kitchen in half of the space. “The other half was kitchen storage overflow, just kind of a room where junk got piled in. We put up a wall, did a colorful mural and turned it into a usable space.”

Local artist Les Cotton created a mural that covers part of two walls and an exit door.

“He is such a talented artist,” Henrichsen said. “He’s got his iconic style.”

The bar owner said he likes to give creative control to the people who deserve it.

“I kind of did my thing with an artist like that,” he said. “You do tell them kind of what you want, and then you say, ‘You do you.’”

The Legends of Valhalla pinball machine has been getting a lot of play, Henrichsen said, and the Golden Tee machine is popular — “the golf people are just freaks over it.”

“We’ll always be moving the games in and out to keep it fresh.”

And the same is true with the craft beer on which Monks built its reputation.

“The beer is always flowing,” Henrichsen said. “We still have 50 heavily rotated draft lines.”

Another recent addition to Monks is offering spaces to rent for private gatherings. Reservations can be made for the street-level front room, the room with a stage where bands play or the room where the pinball machines used to be. Pizza buffets are available too.

And while the kitchen crew is known for those pizzas, they crafted a Downtown Burger Battle entry again this year: the Monks Classic Double.

After the competition ends Jan. 31, Monks will start doing more featured pizzas, and “we’re going to start pushing the envelope,” Henrichsen said, noting that his Rapid City venture, Independent Ale House, does “some pretty crazy specialty pizzas.”