Family Billiards: One Decade in Front of the 8-Ball
Story by Sam Calhoun
Chris Aldridge, co-owner of Family Billiards in Foscoe, has been in front of the 8-ball for one decade.
Surrounded by nine, nine-foot, $8,000 pool tables, a raised wooden bar, comfortable seating, a host of regulars and family, Aldridge has achieved his dream of owning his own pool hall.
Since July 12, 1996, Family Billiards, located at 9021 Highway 105, has offered what few pool halls in the nation do—a non-smoking, alcohol-free, family-friendly environment. And Aldridge has been successful doing it.
“Family Billiards is a family-owned pool room and grill,” said Aldridge. “Pool rooms historically have not been conducive for kids or females, but at our place, everyone feels comfortable. There’s no smoking and no beer.”
Aldridge, 49, owns the business with his wife, Sandra. Their son, Drayton, 17—a senior at Watauga High School—is an employee and two-time junior national pool player.
You could say that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Aldridge was a three-time pool champion while attending ASU.
Born in Asheville in 1957, Aldridge moved to Princeton, New Jersey when he was 5 and stayed in the north until he graduated from high school. At his home in New Jersey, he had a pool table where he honed his skills.
Aldridge’s father grew up in Foscoe, and that helped him decide to attend ASU in 1974. In 1978, he graduated with a degree in psychology. As a Mountaineer, Aldridge won the university’s pool championship multiple times, advancing to the ACUI (pool’s NCAA, according to Aldridge) Regionals on three separate occasions. ASU has since eliminated its pool championship—much to Aldridge’s dismay.
After graduating, Aldridge moved north to Connecticut where he took a job in mental health as a social worker. For the next five years, he first worked in a psychiatric hospital and then worked in the state’s children’s hospital.
Aldridge soon burned out and returned to the mountains in 1985. He sold and repaired golf clubs out of his home. Five years passed and in 1990 he returned to ASU for his MBA, completing the degree in 1992.
“But I always had a dream of opening my own pool room,” added Aldridge, who first considered Boone as a location, “but I couldn’t find any space.” So he settled on Foscoe.
“A lot of people thought it was a long shot having a pool room in Foscoe,” he said.
But Aldridge knew that the building he planned to build would be so nice that he could easily sell it if his business went belly up. So, in fall 1995, he broke ground for the new Family Billiards. In spring 1995 the building was completed.
Aldridge had long dreamed of having his own pool hall, but what he created was much more.
“I never realized how popular the food business was going to be,” said Aldridge, who estimates that 50 to 60 percent of his business is food, 20 percent is from pool table rentals and 20 to 25 percent is from sales of pool tables and pool-related merchandise.
Family Billiards’ grill is open all day with casual entrees and new specials every day of the week, prepared by Aldridge’s head chef Barnett Blair. This constant rotation of culinary offerings is one of the reasons why Aldridge’s lunch crowd frequents the establishment five times per week—even if they don’t play pool.
When he first opened Family Billiards, Aldridge bought nine “very nice” pool tables that he has since replaced with nine of the best pool tables available.
Manufactured by Gabriel’s of Belgium, the tables “are the best you can buy,” said Aldridge. “We’re one of the only places in the USA to have these tables.”
Featuring steel frames and 1.5-inch slate bases (regular pool tables usually have 1-inch thick slate), the pool tables are recognized by professional pool players as some of the very best.
But he doesn’t just promote the sport of playing pool—he sells it as well.
“We’re one of the only pool table dealers up here,” said Aldridge, who said that Sears sells some pool tables, but he is called to set them up.
Averaging 50 table sales per year, Aldridge carries Proline Billiards tables that are produced in Morganton and sell for $2,500 to $5,000, and Drawknife Billiards tables that are produced in Idaho, sell for $6,500 to $12,000 and are rustic tables that are great for log home owners.
But it’s not just pool tables.
“Anything that has to do with pool, period, we carry,” said Aldridge, who also offers home table repairs and moving services, “because pool tables can’t be moved like a piece of furniture.”
Business is good these days for Aldridge, but it didn’t start that way.
“It was a slow start,” said Aldridge. “Nineteen ninety-eight was a bad year—I was starting to wonder if it was going to make it. Pool table sales were down; food sales were down.”
“But ever since then, I’ve had an increase,” he added.
So what’s his secret? He’s got a few.
The first is consistency. Family Billiards is always open. Well, almost always. He’s closed on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Easter and Thanksgiving Day, but for the other 360 days of the year, you’ll find Aldridge and his ten employees doing what they do best.
His food is also consistent—prepared fresh every day by his four chefs and served with a smile by his six waitresses, most of whom are the children of his regulars.
The second secret is the fact that he keeps his establishment clean and comfortable. Because it’s non-smoking, he never opens his windows, using central air conditioning and heat to keep the structure cool in the summer and warm in the winter.
His third secret is his employees. All of them have been with him for a long time—a sure sign of reliability and dedication.
“I’ve had some really good employees over the years. They’ve been amazingly dependable,” said Aldridge, who said that a lot come back and visit regularly after they leave. “Employees and regular customers are what has kept us going—made us successful.”
And then there are the regulars.
Workers from around the area regularly pack into Family Billiards every day for lunch—taking advantage of the specials. Locals frequent the establishment four to five times per week to play pool and eat. Families bring their kids—a phenomenon unusual for pool halls across the nation.
He also has regulars who come every Tuesday and Thursday for the weekly tournaments. Tuesday is 8-ball night and Thursday is 9-ball night—anywhere from 15 to 30 people come on those evenings.
But all this success comes at a price. Aldridge is always there and he lives next door. He still vacuums and clean tables.
“I think it makes my employees feel better about doing their work,” said Aldridge, who also pointed out that because he doesn’t sell alcohol, it’s hard to make his business profitable. “I always want to be there. It’s hard to ever get away. But I can run home to take a nap whenever I want.”
So what’s in store for the future? Within the next five years, Aldridge hopes to construct a pool table and game table showroom behind his parking lot to display pool tables as well as ping-pong tables, poker tables, foosball tables, air hockey tables, pin-pall machines, jukeboxes and the like. He said that he doesn’t see himself ever selling or dissolving the business, although he would like to cut down on his hours, which usually add up to 80 per week.
When he’s not working, Aldridge takes “short vacations,” sometimes to the beach, but mostly to professional sporting events. His favorite teams are the Carolina Panthers, the Atlanta Braves, the Carolina Hurricanes and the Tarheels.
“But it’s hard to get out of town,” he added.
And there’s only one question left—Does Aldridge still play pool?
Playing regularly during the first nine years of his business and extensively before he ever opened Family Billiards, Aldridge burned out last year and took a brief hiatus. Yet after his friends and professional pool players Allison Fisher and Gerda Hofstatter showed up for some star power during Family Billiards’ 10th anniversary celebration, he admits that he’s “trying to get back into it.”
Family Billiards is located at 9021 Highway 105 in Foscoe. The pool hall and restaurant is open 360 days per year from 11:00 a.m. to midnight Monday through Saturday and from noon to midnight on Sunday. For more information, call 828-963-6260 or click to www.family-billiards.com.
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