This is one serve we love.
Williamsburg’s feisty table tennis club, PiPs, will soon add beer, turning the dry Roebling Street hall into an overhead smash.
The recreation venue, named after the covering on a table-tennis paddle, offers balls and rubber-covered raquets for a mere suggested donation of $5, one of the best deals in the neighborhood.
And if the final liquor license approval comes through, it’ll be the ultimate mixed doubles: beer and ping-pong.
But don’t get crazy.
“We play straight-up table tennis on $1,500 tables — this isn’t some Kmart s—t,” said co-owner Bill Mack. “This is an Olympic sport. We respect the game.”
Mack and co-owner Mike Weiss met through the neighborhood’s underground table tennis circuit five years ago, and their love of the game led them to playing against each other in Williamsburg lofts. Weiss eventually installed a full-size table in his Williamsburg computer store, Mikey’s Hook-Up (where he decimated The Brooklyn Paper’s team in a classic video).
Given their love of the game, it was inevitable that Weiss and Mack would transform a former auto body shop near Metropolitan Avenue into their dream hangout, complete with three nine-foot courts.
PiPs hopes to foster camaraderie among its guests by teaching beginners the fundamentals of the sport each weekend while also providing tournament-level table tennis once a month.
The new beer license will likely bring more amateurs to the space, which is something its regulars don’t seem to mind.
“The play here is awesome— you pay the least amount of money for the most amount of fun,” said PiPs regular Jasy Ho. “People don’t care about winning and losing— they just enjoy the game.
PiPs [158 Roebling St. between Grand Street and Metropolitan Avenue in Williamsburg, (347) 674-7706]. Open 4 pm–midnight. For info, visit www.pipsout.com.
Reach reporter Aaron Short at ashort@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-2547.
