Entry No. 27 — the Providence file — filed under: arcade
PLAY Arcade Bar & Restaurant
Lauren and Adam Katz — the Fairhaven couple also behind Mass Axes — took over the old Slainte Irish Pub space on Union Street and filled it with more than forty vintage arcade cabinets, a full-service bar, and a kitchen doing craft drinks and real food. The rooftop deck looks straight over New Bedford's working waterfront, all fishing boats and diesel at golden hour. Katz keeps a standing policy of feeding anyone who comes in hungry, paying or not, no questions asked. Every night at 8pm the whole place goes 21+ and the median haircut gets noticeably more Gen X.
→ Three at a time, never the same twice — explore weird Providence
The story
The room at 34 Union Street was Slainte Irish Pub. Lauren and Adam Katz, of Fairhaven, took the lease and New Bedford Guide reported the change in March 2020: a kitchen, a bar, two function rooms seating fifty apiece, sidewalk tables and the rooftop deck they inherited from the pub. They were aiming at a Memorial Day opening pending licensing, and construction started roughly two weeks before COVID arrived. Working with Bit Bar out of Salem, they opened with 25 retro cabinets and a plan for 45; the arcade now advertises more than forty.
Adam Katz took an unusually long route to a Pac-Man cabinet. Fairhaven High in 1993, a fine-art sculpture degree from UMass Dartmouth, then Los Angeles for stunt work and set building - he doubled Robert De Niro on Men of Honor and turned up on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Sliders and The X-Files. After a glass-sculpture outfit in Vancouver he came home, ran a construction business with his brother, and served as an on-call firefighter for four years in Mattapoisett and sixteen in Fairhaven. A health scare ended the construction work; axe-throwing events came next; and when he complained that there was nothing to do around here, Lauren told him to do something about it.
There has been a standing rule since the doors opened: "If someone ever comes in and needs food, we feed them, whether they have the money or not." Katz kept it quiet for years and only posted it publicly in October 2025, as local families faced losing SNAP access. "You don't have to explain. You don't have to prove anything. If you need a meal, you will get one." He credits J.B. Blau of Sharkey's on Martha's Vineyard for the idea - his reaction was "I'm stealing this" - and steers anyone with money to spare toward the food pantries instead.
What it's like
Doors are 5 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and noon on weekends, in downtown New Bedford's whaling district, with street parking and a walk of a block or two. The ground floor is forty-plus eighties cabinets, a full bar and a kitchen, loud in the way a room full of attract modes is loud. Take a drink up to the roof and you are looking at a genuinely working waterfront: draggers, ice house, diesel. Wednesday is trivia from 7 to 9, Thursday is karaoke from 8 to midnight. The hard edge on the evening is 8 p.m., when the whole building turns 21-plus every night without exception, so a family visit is an early one - and on Sunday the place shuts at 9 regardless.
The move: Leave Providence around 6, take I-195 east 35 minutes, split dinner and trade high scores on the cabinets downstairs, then carry drinks up to the rooftop for sunset over the harbor — stay past 8 when it turns 21+ and the kids clear out.
📍 Before you go Closed Monday and Tuesday; doors at 5pm Wednesday-Friday, noon on weekends, and Sunday wraps at 9pm. 21+ after 8pm every night, no exceptions. Street parking in downtown New Bedford's whaling district; about 35 minutes from Providence via I-195.
- 📍 New Bedford
- 💸 $
- ⚡ Big night
- 🌗 Indoors
Where: 34 Union St, New Bedford, MA 02740
Hours: Added 2026-08-25 — confirm current hours before you go.
Pair it with
- Charles Whipple Greene Museum — Free, in Warren, and open Wednesday afternoons 2 to 4 - whaling logs, scrimshaw and sextants upstairs at the library, then straight on to New Bedford's whaling district in time for PLAY's 5 p.m. Wednesday doors and 7 p.m. trivia.
- Green Jacket Shoal Ship Graveyard at Bold Point Park — The first stop out of town on the way east: twenty-nine wrecked hulls breaking the surface at low tide, which is a useful thing to have looked at before you spend the evening drinking above a waterfront that still works.
- Electromagnetic Pinball Museum and Restoration — The opposite treatment of the same nostalgia - $10 buys all-day freeplay in a Pawtucket repair shop with no bar, no rooftop and no 8 p.m. curfew.
More weird in Providence
Good to know
How do I get there from Providence?
I-195 east, roughly 35 minutes to 34 Union St in downtown New Bedford. It is street parking in the whaling district; leaving Providence around 6 puts you on the roof for sunset with time to spare before the 8 p.m. cutoff.
What are the hours?
Closed Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday through Friday 5 p.m. to midnight, Saturday noon to midnight, Sunday noon to 9 p.m. Phone is (774) 202-7358.
How strict is the 21-plus rule?
It is 21-plus after 8 p.m. every night, stated flatly and without exception. If anyone in your group is under 21, build the visit around a weekend afternoon or an early Sunday - Sunday closes at 9 anyway.
Is there anything scheduled, or do you just show up and play?
Both. Trivia runs Wednesdays 7 to 9 p.m. and karaoke Thursdays 8 to midnight; the rest of the week is the forty-odd vintage cabinets, the bar and the kitchen on their own terms.
Is it expensive?
It is a bar and a kitchen with an arcade attached rather than a ticketed attraction, and the standing house rule is that anyone who needs a meal gets one regardless of what they can pay. If you have the money, Katz's own suggestion is to spend some of it at a local food pantry.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: Official site · newbedfordguide.com · wbsm.com
last checked: 2026-08-25