Thursday, November 10, 2005

Linbrook Family Billiards

Back in the mid-1980s, during my college days, my best friend Greg and I would ride our motorcycles to Linbrook Family Billiards.

It was located in Anaheim, just off the corner of Brookhurst and Lincoln (I think, or maybe Ball). Anyways, it was billed as "family billiards" but it was no place where you'd want to take a family to.

We'd go there on weekend nights and shoot pool. You used to be able to get a table for $3.00 an hour. There'd be groups of folks from all walks of life. Punk rockers, vietnamese, bikers, folks wearing suits, everyone. You'd even see a prostitute hanging around. The patronage was diverse enough that anyone could go there and not feel out of place. I think that's why we went there.

We never saw any rough stuff there, however. For the most part everyone was cordial, and often times other folks would challenge us to a few games. Greg and I were both slightly-above-average pool players, and we'd win half the games when we played others. It was never for money though.

I don't know if Linbrook Family Billiards is still there.

These days I either play on the pool table I have at home, or some friends and I will go down to the High Society Billiards in Temecula. Still, I'll never forget playing at Linbrook.

10 comments:

  1. Linbrook is still there; its a bowling alley! Here's their website...

    http://www.linbrookbowl.com/

    ReplyDelete
  2. Alex, the bowling alley is a separate entity. It's on Brookhurst. The billiard hall is/was on Lincoln, around the corner, on the south side of the street, east of Brookhurst. I don't remember if it's still there. I haven't been that way for years.
    I used to go there in the late 60s, and you really could call it a family place then. Oh well. Everything changes.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I believe it's still there, just on the other side of the bowling alley. I played there a few times two or three years ago. It's pretty much the same as described in the original post. It's called Linbrook after the cross streets, Lincoln and Brookhurst.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Linbrook bowling ally and Linbrook Billiards were two different places. They were on different sides of the same corner.. LINcoln and BROOKhurst.
    Get it lin-brook? There was also a Linbrook hardware store. It closed decades ago. Remember Gemco, Zody's and E tickets?

    ReplyDelete
  5. I SOOOO Remember my grandpa taking me to Linbrook hardware when i was tiny! I lived two blocks from there. Now it's the autoparts store..all good things must come to an end. Linbrook Billiards is still there. I drive by it when i go see my family.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Both the bowling alley and pool hall are still there. The pool hall is now a great place to practice Spanish. High school kids during the day... with Savanna down the street.

    ReplyDelete
  7. In like 1967 my dad Vincent Boles was the general manager of Lin-Brook Hardware! My mom and dad weres eperated, but every Sat he would pick us up and we would spend the day there hanging out. It was a big place for the day.

    ReplyDelete
  8. WOW i remember Lin-Brook hardware. They had a huge Christmas display there every year.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Did anybody ever paly pool at the Garden Grove Billards on GG Blvd next to Taco Lita?

    ReplyDelete
  10. In the 70s, we used to hang out at the family billiard place at Orangewood & Euclid right on the Anaheim/Garden Grove line. I think a guy named Russ ran the place. Played a lot of foosball there.

    ReplyDelete

Custom Search