Combining 16-Bit and Pins Mechanical with restaurant is the new mega-concept for Columbus company Rise.

Rise Brands is going big.

The parent company of Pins Mechanical, 16-Bit, No Soliciting and a soon-to-be-revealed quick-service restaurant, is going all in on what can only be called a mega-concept.

At Bridge Park in Dublin, its latest 16-Bit, a 7,000-square-foot space full of arcade games, game consoles, big squashy chairs and couches, not to mention a bar with more than 20 taps, is set to open this week. Next door is the more than 14,000-square foot Pins Mechanical, which opened last year. A pair of garage doors connects the two hangouts, and the corridor between will house the company's new restaurant.

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It's basically a city block armed with video games, pinball machines, skee ball, miniature bowling lanes and dozens of beer taps. It's a hipster haven, a millennial milieu, a Gen-X jamboree.

"We want to take the bar-arcade to the next level," Rise founder Troy Allen said.

The mega-concept in Dublin is not a one-off affair. The company will open Pins and 16-Bit combos, with a restaurant attached, next year in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Nashville, Tennessee. Indianapolis will also get something similar, with a Pins and 16-Bit in the same city block, but not physically joined. Cincinnati will have standalone stores.

A second combo unit is planned for central Ohio at a new development at Easton that will break ground next year, Allen said. That unit will be even bigger, at more than 30,000 square feet across two floors.

When Pins opened in Dublin last year, it wasn't expected to be a home run. Allen thought of Pins and 16-Bit as urban concepts and was building units in downtown neighborhoods — hence the first Pins and 16-Bit on North 4th Street and the one in Cincinnati in Over-the-Rhine.

Dublin changed the company's outlook.

"It was a test, but it performed just as well as the one Downtown," Allen said.

With the success of a suburban location, though Bridge Park also has something of a quasi-urban setting, Allen saw a new path to growth for his company.

"We can do hub and spoke," he said. "Open in the urban core to get a foothold, then pop out into the suburbs."

That strategy gives the concepts a lot more real estate to look at as it establishes operations in the cores of Nashville and Charlotte next year.

The bar-plus-arcade concept is not new. There are a slew of them across the U.S., from Ground Kontrol in Portland, Oregon, to Barcade in Brooklyn. Barcade opened its first location in 2004. Others are even older, but most are small, regional concepts. The format is gaining notice though. Punch Bowl Social, a Denver-based company, has 14 stores in 10 states, including one in Cleveland's Flats.

Punch Bowl Social has been one of the darlings of the restaurant industry, being named to Nation's Restaurant News' Hot Concepts list this year. Punch Bowl and the Pins/16-Bit combo have a lot in common, like games, drinks and big footprints — a Punch Bowl is about 25,000 square feet — but Punch Bowl is a bit more of a restaurant than a bar, offering a fairly large menu.

Tim Powell, a restaurant industry analyst and vice president of consulting at Q1 in Chicago, sees the "eatertainment" concept as an up-and-comer.

"They are a blossoming segment," Powell said. "It’s like a Chuck E. Cheese, but without the kids and with the addition of alcohol.

"Adults, especially millennials, have flocked to these types of concepts. They provide a social setting where it’s easy to spend an entire afternoon or evening. If you get bored with one game, there are dozens more to move on to."

The one weakness of Pins and 16-Bit was food, Powell said. The average guest stays a little more than two hours, Allen said, but the addition of food will help the stores keep people longer.

"Including a quick-service restaurant with it is the smartest thing they can do," Powell said. "Keep all the revenue in-house, give people no reason to leave the building."

Size also helps. Bigger spaces can fit more games, a bigger bar and more people. The new 16-Bit in Dublin is almost three times the size of the original Downtown. The aesthetic is cleaner and better matches the Pins next door. Guests could walk from one to the other without feeling like they were entering a different store. In fact, they aren't; a tab opened at Pins in Dublin can be continued at 16-Bit.

Allen said one of the reasons the 16-Bit format grew was that groups, corporate and otherwise, have flocked to the locations for outings. The 16-Bit in Cincinnati is bigger than the original in Columbus, and it has paid off.

"You can see it in the revenue numbers," Allen said.

Allen, a marketing and advertising executive before delving into bar ownership, has enjoyed watching his concepts evolve the last five years. The Bridge Park mega-concept is the culmination of the journey and a glimpse at what comes next.

"We've learned a lot," he said. "This was our baby, it's how we started. It's been fun to redesign it."

jmalone@dispatch.com

@j_d_malone