SAN ANTONIO — A pool hall and popular hangout north of downtown held a fundraiser on Saturday to try to stay afloat after coronavirus forced them to stay closed for most of the year.
There are a lot of memories at Bananas Billiards Lounge, and dreams that owners are hoping will still come true.
“A lot of new people come in for the reason that their parents used to hang out out here,” said Bananas Billiard Lounge co-owner Rick Moreno.
“They’ll be like ‘oh, my dad used to come here, he said he played on the first table,’ and they come in and see the first table and they could already visualize their parents playing pool around the table,” he said. “I think that’s cool. I like to hear those kinds of stories.”
Moreno and Connie Turner said they put their life savings towards reopening Bananas, where he had spent a lot of time in his youth. The walls are covered with old photos and mementos. A plaque hangs on the wall that reads ‘Chase the dream, not the money.’
That was one of those sayings that my uncle would say to me, always chase the dream mama, don’t chase the money,” Turner said. “Even when I went to see him before he passed, that was one of the things that he said.”
But money is the only way to keep that dream alive since the coronavirus forced them to close for most of the year, so Connie’s ladies pool team put on a fundraiser. Smoked meats, raffle tickets, craft goods, and of course banana-nut bread were all sold to try to keep the lights, and the dream on.
“The dream is to get our doors open, to have our tables filled, to hear the sound of the balls breaking. That’s what we want,” Turner said. “We want that back.”
If you were unable to make the fundraiser today but still want to help, there is a Bananas Billiards COVID-19 recovery fund at gofundme.com.