In Blade Runner, Harrison Ford’s character Rick Deckard skulks around a dystopian future, getting dripped on by humidity condensing on masses of neon signage overhead. If you jumped in a hover car and ascended the crumbling skyscrapers, you might find a venue like B. Lucky & Sons as the source of those lights.

The cocktail bar and arcade parlour is by Funlab, the company behind Strike Bowling, and the wildly successful string of Holey Moley minigolf bars.

Funlab CEO Michael Schreiber says the concept is based on a fictional backstory, and “started with a bottle of good whisky”.

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“There’s this gentleman called Bill Lucky who has this global chain of pawn shops,” says Schreiber. “He gets tapped on the shoulder by some Chinese triads out of Hong Kong to build illicit Casinos behind his pawn shops, so the pawn shop is the front for the casinos. So it’s English gangsters meeting some Hong Kong triads.”

Schreiber says that referencing criminal organisations in B. Lucky & Sons’ imaginary backstory is all in the service of escapism.

“There’s no gangsters hanging around or heavy nefarious activity of any sort, it’s a very bright, light, fun environment,” says Schreiber. “The alternative is to just call it Fun and Games, Playtime, Timezone. Boring. We’re not paying any royalties to any triads or any criminal gangs and obviously there’s no prostitution or drugs.”

Inside, it’s more innocent than the concept suggests. Punters down alcoholic bubble cups (no plastic-straw ban here) and order wonton-topped pizzas with bonito flakes served in bamboo dumpling steamers. Tickets issued from the arcade games can be traded for nostalgic prizes.

“It wouldn’t be much fun if you were just winning bouncy balls and plastic lighters,” says Schrieber. “So we were on Ebay looking for collectables. Rare comics, rare vinyl, vintage Chanel purses, Star Wars characters in their original packaging.”

Adults with cash to burn play to win childhood treasures from claw machines, such as giant stuffed Pokémon, or the Nintendo 64 your parents refused to buy you as a kid, complete with the original box. There are whisky tastings and music festival tickets up for grabs, and in the spirit of never growing up, you can even win botox injections.

“What would guys and girls want to win that’s meaningful, and [what are] they looking to do or spend money on?” asks Schreiber. “Maybe a couple of beverages down the hatch and having a lot of fun and they go, ‘Oh look at this, I’ve been wanting to try botox’.

“I’m not one for cosmetic surgery myself, but body hacking is all the rage.”

The fastest way to amass tickets for deluxe prizes – like rides in helicopters – is to opt for roulette-style games, but not everyone is at B. Lucky for big-ticket items.

“You can have an unpretentious and fun time. Meet people in real life; a counterpoint to our digital lives. A counterpoint to everything being totally serious … in what is a very hectic, fast-paced, kind of dangerous world that we’re living in today. I think we’re all entitled to keep that joy of fun and youth in our lives.”

B. Lucky & Sons
Level 3/211 La Trobe Street, Melbourne
1300058259

Hours:
Sun to Thu 12pm–12am
Fri & Sat 12pm–3am

luckyandsons.com.au

This article first appeared on Broadsheet on August 24, 2018. Menu items may have changed since publication.