Green Room Sports Lounge

Just because it’s cooling down in Ellicottville doesn’t mean you need to pack up the golf clubs quite yet. It doesn’t mean you need to call in your final tee time for the season, and it doesn’t mean you’ll have to wait for spring break in Florida to get reacquainted with the fairways. In previous years, that wasn’t true for us in Ellicottville. But this year, that’s all about to change. Did somebody say… year-round golf? FORE!

The Green Room Sports Lounge is coming in hot! It’ll take the place of the old Subway in the Washington Street Plaza behind Katy’s Cafe. It’s a sports lounge and golf simulator combo, and the Baker boys - Austin and Hunter, along with Jarrett Pond are just a few weeks away from opening this unique-to-the-area bar. The goal is to fulfill the golf niche during the off-season and provide a hub for the golf and sports fan community in town. The Green Room is planning to open this month!

Upon entering, you can expect to be greeted by a full bar with TVs everywhere you turn, so you can always have a great view of the big game. Close by is the lounge area, offering a much more chill vibe than your traditional sports bar. This area will undoubtedly set The Green Room apart. The star of the show, however is in the back, where you’ll find golf simulators… floor-to-ceiling screens that display a full golf game. Depending on how hard you hit the ball into the screen and at what angle, the display will show your ball travel across the virtual course, simulating as if you were to actually to be playing the game in real life.

I spoke with Austin Baker, co-founder of The Green Room earlier this week. An entrepreneurially-minded person, Baker has always had the gears turning on new business ideas. He’s currently the manager of Wildwood Bar and Grill and Center St. Dispensary, both located in Salamanca. The Green Room Sports Lounge is Baker’s next exciting project.

“When I was working at a golf course a couple of summers ago, me and Jarrett, one of the partners, were talking about golf simulators and how so many people don’t even know what a simulator is. We knew Ellicottville would be a great location because of how popular golf is here, and it kinda just went from there," Baker said.

You’d think he was a golf pro after venturing into this new business opportunity, but Baker has only been into the sport for a couple of summers after spending time working on a local course and learning about the game. “I was always into sports growing up. I played three every year of high school - football, basketball, and baseball. I went to SUNY Brockport for sports management so I’ve always been into sports.”

Baker is looking forward to what this will mean for the golf community as a whole, past just a cool new spot for the community to hang out at and watch sports. “I think it’s going to give everyone the opportunity to play all year long, not just in the spring and summer, so that means the community will get way more practice. Overall, everyone’s just going to get better at the game," said Baker.

Even better, the simulators may even effectively attract new players. Baker says the style is much less intimidating to newbie golfers or youngsters than being thrown out onto the course for the first time. “It’ll be more friendly and inviting to them," added Baker.
As The Green Room gets closer to opening, an anxious Baker hopes it’ll become a top spot in town. “I have no doubt in my mind that it’ll be the place to be all year round, for years to come. We definitely miss Subway, but this is certainly a worthy predecessor.”

You can find more information on their Facebook page or @greenroomevl on Instagram.

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