The Fort Sanders Yacht Club, commonly referred to as the “Barcade,” is looking to diversify.
    
Sitting where 17th Street intersects with Cumberland Avenue directly behind Chipotle, the Yacht Club is a laid back community bar featuring a variety of arcade and retro Nintendo games that has persevered amid the Mesozoic competition of the strip.
    
“Since we opened our doors Feb. 29, 2008, we’ve outlasted Guthrie’s, Sawyer’s, McDougals’s, Magic Sushi, Chili’s, Banditos, Trino’s, Bar Knoxville, Ho Ho, Pita Pit,  Loser’s, Yama Tora, Falafel Hut, Legacy and Caribbean Vibe, among others, most of which opened around the same time or after us,” said John Haas, FSYC owner and proprietor.
    
And it has lasted this long being beer only.
    
“We’re aiming at being more assessable during the daytime hours,” Haas said. “We never designed this place around being in a college town, but we want this to be somewhere people can kill time between classes, get coffee and use some free high-speed Wi-Fi.”
    
No concrete plans yet on how much earlier the Barcade might be opening its doors, but some changes have already taken place, like the clearing of a few arcade machines, leaving a total of six.
    
When questioned whether they would continue to downsize the arcade section, co-owner David Shirly assured the number of machines would not dip under six.
    
“We’re installing extra bar seating on the arcade wall, as well as a coffee table that’ll connect the Nintendo bench with the seating in the wall,” Shirly said. “We’ll also probably put a table above the TV near the entrance.”
    
A variety of coffees and espresso are just some of the new items being offered to patrons, as are bagels and hot dogs.
    
While all of these additions are scheduled for some time in the near future, The Yacht Club is still in the process of obtaining a liquor license, a rather ambitious addition for such a compact floor plan.
    
“Tennessee law requires 75 seats for an establishment to serve liquor, a number that goes down with cross-board appeal,” Shirly said. “When we get the coffee, hot dogs and pastries going, the requirement will drop to 30.”
    
Unfortunately, it’s still too early to speculate on things like prices and daily deals, like the bar already has for its array of beer in bottle and draft.
    
In addition to consumables, the Barcade intends to refine its console gaming experience.
    
The Yacht Club boasts a fine selection of original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) games, including all the original Marios. But some patrons desire more.
    
“I don’t think the changes will alter the atmosphere of the bar much at all, and the prospect of being able to sip Jameson and game is pretty exciting,” said Tyler Meier, UT Business School graduate and Yacht Club patron. “But the game area has been really disorganized for a while. I come to the Barcade a lot, but would come that much more if it were easier to switch between consoles. A Nintendo 64 and Game Cube with enough controllers and multiplayer games like Super Smash Bros would add an incredible amount to the bar.”
    
“We plan on setting up the TV and consoles with things like one-size-fits-all adapters to make the area more user friendly,” Shirly said. “And for games, we were thinking of hanging the cartridges to stretching wires, so you could just pull it down and put it in. We were also tossing around the idea of adding a Sega Genesis or Atari, but it does seem like an N64 would resonate a lot more with this generation.”
    
Stop by the Fort Sanders Yacht Club and look for Beacon follow-ups in the coming months for further news.