Brawl Proof

Two Keys Public House

A good barroom brawl is the stuff of legend, whether it’s captured in song or on film. Consider the lyric “And then a hush fell over the pool room,” just before an epic showdown between a New York pool hustler and the country boy who comes to get his money back in “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim.” Or, reflect for a moment upon Bull Durham’s wistful Crash Davis, half apologizing for spectacularly shattering the pool hall mirror with a ball, saying only “I have been known to howl at the moon…..”

In short, a pool hall seems like the perfect place to get a little rowdy.

That’s what Mark Keller, owner of Two Keys Public House, conveyed to LS3P when he asked the project team do design a space for his newest establishment. His previous pool hall, he explained, was the kind of place where patrons regularly put fists through the rest room walls, and the finishes and furniture took the brunt of any “gentlemanly disagreements” which occasionally occur at the intersection of competition and alcohol.