Forget losing weight and all that baloney -- the next thing on your New Year's resolution list should be hitting some of the Twin Cities' freshest nightspots. Chatterbox Pub It's still a couple of months away, but a third Chatterbox will open at 44th St. and France Av. S. in the Linden Hills neighborhood of Minneapolis (on the border with Edina).
Yep, the only place where you can get a game of "Battleship" with your beer is expanding west. This latest version of the Chatterbox will add to the mini-empire of '80s-themed basement bars that includes the original in south Minneapolis and a two-year-old spinoff in St. Paul's Highland Park.
The third was supposed to open in November, but the renovation in the old Cafe Bicko space is taking longer than expected, owner Steve Miller said.
As they finish construction -- the place should be open in two or three months -- they've also been amassing retro video games and board games for the new spot.
"We've got a bajillion of them," Miller said. "My house and garage are full. I can't wait until the restaurant opens so I can get my garage back."
Like the others, this location will stick with just beer and wine, and is comparable in size to the original's intimate layout.
Chatterbox fans can expect one update to the usual video games. The original Chatterbox started with just Atari, then added Nintendo and later on Sega Genesis -- marking the lineage of '80s gaming systems. Now Miller's crew is bringing another system into the fray: the Nintendo 64, which made its debut in 1996.
"We've decided that the time is right," Miller said.
