Winni Bar & Billiards' big break

LACONIA — In its first month of operation, Winni Bar & Billiards is already cued up for success, according to owner Shawn Feaster.

Located in the front corner of the Village at Paugus Bay, Winni Bar & Billiards features 12 pool tables, 10 of them 9-foot regulation tables and two 7-foot tables. It is open seven days a week until 11:30 p.m. and has organized play — a mix of leagues and open entry — six nights a week. 

Feaster and co-owner Eric Walsh opened Winni Bar and Billiards with two convictions — that there is a high number of pool players in the region who are thirsty for a centrally located and polished place to play, and that there are not enough bars open late throughout the season in the Lakes Region. The amount of traffic that has been through so far has affirmed those beliefs. 

Walsh, also a Gilford High graduate, agrees. 

“Living here my whole life, there’s not a lot to do socially” in all seasons, he said. 

While meeting those needs, Feaster and Walsh aim to create a more approachable and polished environment than the traditional pool hall, which is often rougher around the edges.

All new pool tables, a comfortable bar and ample televisions were part of that, and Winni Bar & Billiards so far has succeeded, Feaster said, at attracting an array of customer types, from dedicated players, to families, to people just wanting to watch a football game over a pint.

Feaster, a fellow Gilford High graduate who moved back to the Lakes Region in 2009, first found his passion for pool in high school, playing at a candlepin bowling alley on the Weirs strip.

What he has always liked about the game is its adaptability.

“Anyone can play it,” Feaster said. “And there’s so many different games you can play.”

Walsh, by comparison, has not had a lifelong love of the game, but leaped at the idea to join an opportunity to create a welcoming nighttime gathering place.

The goal was for the space to match the sport’s flexibility, and to be inviting to people of all ages and skill levels, he said.

And while they “see new faces every weekend,” and, Feaster described, quickly attracted the attention of regional pool players, that seems to be only the beginning. There is talk of some top-tier regional tournaments to be hosted there, according to Feaster, and they are just a few signups away from launching their first women’s league. 

The bar has already hosted multiple tournaments, and Feaster noted that a recent champion was in his early 80s.

“There are a lot of people around here who play,” he said. “There really is a need.”