By Chelsea Smiley Gray skies and rain currently occupy our little town of Bellingham, but local restaurant and arcade Best Buds offers food, fun and beer to provide entertainment. As soon as you walk in the front door, sculptures of an iconic TV family, The Simpsons, greet you. It’s pretty hard not to feel nostalgic. Located in downtown Fairhaven on McKenzie Avenue, Best Buds offers more than 2,000 console games on 22 different platforms. The space is filled with televisions from wall to wall, with options for single-player and multiplayer games. Best Buds is helping to bring back social gaming. Instead of sitting alone at home, the gaming lounge provides a place to meet others with the same interests and compete, with snack food offered to boot. It brings you back to the days before the Internet and cell phones became so popular. At 7 p.m., “Adult Hour” starts turning this all-ages gaming lounge into an exclusive bar for adults 18 and older. As long as you continue to drink (21-plus), eat or pay a $5 cover you will have unlimited access to all the games and consoles set up for that evening. At 8 p.m. all customers under 21 are asked to leave and come back tomorrow. There menu of “Junk Food Delicacies” includes mac & cheese bites, Tator Tots, chicken strips and pizza sticks perfect for eating and gaming at the same time. “We tried to pick what was the best stereotypical gamer food,” co-owner Alex Newmark said, “junk food with the balance of not being super greasy as far as junk food goes.” Best Buds’ rotating tap incorporates beers from local breweries such as Kulshan, Aslan and Iluminati. They also offer canned beer, cider, wine and soda. Best Buds offer memberships for $45 a month You can also buy a day pass for $15 or play hourly for $5. Hours of Operation: Monday-Friday: 1 p.m. - 1 a.m. Saturday: 12 p.m. - 1 a.m. Sunday: 12 - 8 p.m.
