in Providence.
D&L Billiards and Barstools
Owners: David and Lisa Christie
Location: Atwells Avenue, Providence
Rhode Island's Market Has Changed. Developers, Builders, Investors and Sellers Must Change With It.
By Emilio DiSpirito IV License Partner | Engel & Völkers Oceanside Leader | The DiSpirito…
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Type of Business: billiards and bar stools supplies and service
Year Founded: 1987
Employees: four
Annual Revenue: WND
David Christie pocketed his passion for pool 17 years ago to break into the business of billiards and bar stools. Or, as he describes it, his billiards business was cued by a zealous hobby “that went kind of crazy.”
Christie, a former bartender, has been playing pool for about 20 years and in the process has won numerous trophies. However, he felt there was a limit to his playing career.
“I could never become a world champion,” he said with a sly smile, “so I figured I’d get into the retail end of it.”
Christie, with his wife Lisa, started D&L Billiards and Barstools in 1987. The couple were originally repairing pool tables out of their home, but later acquired a 1,400-square-foot storefront on Admiral Street in Providence, which they eventually outgrew.
In 1996, the Christies moved into their current location: a 7,000-square-foot, two-floor store on Atwells Avenue in Providence. They still retain the Admiral Street spot for storage.
The couple say their current Atwells Avenue location has been good to them, especially with the recent addition of a Shaw’s supermarket plaza down the street, which has added traffic flow to the surrounding area.
A visit to D&L Billiards can be overwhelming basically because there’s so much to look at. Statues, or accent pieces, of all shapes and sizes and a spectrum of custom billiard balls greet patrons.
A wall of encased cue sticks lines the left side of the store. A few extravagant, antique pool tables are stacked on each other near the center of the first floor. Custom bar setups are positioned near the front windows.
An adjoining room on the first floor boasts a large collection of bar stools and the walls are plastered with myriad tavern-like wooden signs with droll sayings like: “I got a pool table for my husband. Best trade I ever made.”
The second floor, too, has various pool tables stacked on each other with a plethora of bar-related mirrors and signs hanging on the walls.
D&L Billiards certainly offers a wide selection of billiard supplies and services, and is actually considered the biggest bar stool distributor in Rhode Island with 150 stools on display.
For the most part, the store sells and repairs new, used and antique pool tables. About 60 percent of the business is the sales of pool tables, which can vary in price from $1,000 to $36,000. The most expensive table on display is an antique built in 1870, which has the $36,000 price tag.
The store has about 40 pool tables on display and typically sells more antique tables than used tables, Christie said.
The company’s repairs can include replacing a leg of a table, refitting a table pocket or re-clothing a table. D&L Billiards also moves tables and configures and installs them on-site, at a customer’s home or at a place of business.
The repair and construction process can be complex, said Christie. Larger pool tables can be in 40 different pieces, he said. Installations could take half a day.
Antiques can be especially difficult to construct and repair, with such things as finding the right method to attach pool table pockets under the felt cloth covering of the table. Antique construction, too, could take up to half a day.
“You really need to know what you’re doing when you put up a pool table,” said Christie.
D&L Billiards also offers a wide selection of custom billiard balls, custom cue sticks and custom cue repairs. The store has a variety of billiard balls with various designs and logos, which Christie dubs “collecti-balls.”
Despite the bevy of billiard supplies, there are also other items that can help customers shape and complement home game rooms and pool halls.
“We try to not just limit ourselves to billiards,” said Christie. “People see more interest than just a pool table in here.”
Additional wares include chess supplies, darts, Ping-Pong, lighting fixtures and complete bar sets. Perhaps some of the more peculiar products are the several statues, or accent pieces, that can be found throughout the store. Some of the chef statues have been particularly popular, said Christie, as people look to use them to decorate their kitchens. But the biggest seller among the statues, he said, is the Betty Boop statuettes.
The Christies, East Greenwich residents, said 65 percent of their business is residential as they generally cater to the residential game room customer.
Commercial customers include pool halls, taverns, bowling alleys and other similar venues.
The couple get most of their merchandise from Las Vegas trade shows. D&L Billiards sells pool tables from seven manufacturers, including AMF, Beach Manufacturing, Connelly, Mosconi and Renaissance, whose high-end tables start at $8,000.
Looking back over the years, the Christies say their success is due to hard work and simply entering the market at an opportune time. When first starting out, David Christie had humble expectations.
“I was just hoping to make a living,” he said. “We’ve gotten a lot better. I think experience has helped. We like what we do. It’s pretty easy to stay busy with it.”
