Dickerson set to open billiard parlor downtown

An era ended in downtown Las Cruces when My Brother’s Place, the popular restaurant and billiard hall that had been in operation on Main Street for over 40 years, closed in 2016. Q Time, adjacent to 10 Pin Bowling on Amador, shut down along with the rest of facility in 2018. Options for a game of pool, especially downtown, abruptly seemed to be getting scarce.

In 2020, Lucky Dog Billiards opened its doors on E. Lohman, but was plagued with setbacks dealt by the Covid-19 pandemic on top of the routine pitfalls of launching a new business, ultimately closing last August. But a new outfit plans to resume pool and darts at the location.

Marci Dickerson, owner of restaurants The Game and Game 2 in Las Cruces, told the Bulletin she is on track to open her third place, The Game Billiards, at the former home of Lucky Dog, with a full bar, a menu featuring pizza and wings, 12 pool tables, shuffleboard, dart lanes and a small outdoor patio.

“I was a significant investor in Lucky Dog,” Dickerson said in an interview at the business. “I certainly believed that the concept would do well … the pool atmosphere and the darts was very limited in Las Cruces.”

Dickerson has many pots on the fire. Dickerson’s Catering and Event Services, which she considers her primary business, is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. The Game (established in 2008) and Game 2 (established 2016) operate near the New Mexico State University Las Cruces campus and on Northrise Drive, respectively. Dickerson also sells real estate with Steinborn and Associates.

She is also a cofounder of The Association, an organization of local professional women and entrepreneurs, and of the nonprofit Revolution 120, which distributes aid to individuals and groups through goods and services.

The Game Billiards fulfills her desire to expand into downtown, she said. Beginning March 19, it will be open Tuesdays thru Saturdays from 4 p.m. to midnight.

Among the first special events in the works is a memorial pool tournament in tribute to fallen Las Cruces police officer Jonah Hernandez, who was murdered on duty in February.

The restaurant industry is challenging, and the difficulties multiply with the addition of managing a bar. Dickerson said for female entrepreneurs, this kind of business — requiring attention at night and weekends, and subject to emergency calls — is harder still.

“One of the biggest challenges is that women are, historically, the predominant caregivers for the children the majority of the time,” she said. “Most restaurants and bars are run in the evenings; they’re not run when the children are in school. That causes a problem for a lot of people, and a lot of sacrifices must be made of that time with the children to run them.

“I was very blessed and able to do because, the entire time I’ve been in business, my mother has been the primary caregiver for my kids. She has been the one that has been there making sure the homework is done, they’re at all their practices and all those things. Because of her role in my company, I was able to go do all of these things.”

Dickerson added that her mother had been a restaurateur herself, operating a business open for breakfast and lunch only, allowing her to be a full-time mother while running her enterprise.

The restaurant-and-bar business, she said, remains male dominated, among vendors as well as other bar owners, and upon entering the field at the age of 23 she soon toughened up.

“Twenty-five years ago, there wasn’t ‘Me Too,’ there wasn’t any of that,” she recalled of a time she learned to negotiate with vendors and watch the flow of cash, as well as alcohol, closely.  “I developed some coping mechanisms to make sure they took me seriously … and I am the best bouncer we have.”

She now sits atop an organization of over 100 employees including managers across several businesses, including two bar-and-grills that open seven days a week and a catering operation that she said sometimes operates for stretches of 21 consecutive days.

But how is her break shot? She grinned and admitted she is not a pool player, but would be willing to learn.