Local arcade bar Barricade is leveling up with a business expansion that will add live music, extra space and new event opportunities.

Nearly a year has passed since new Barricade owners Jacqueline and Justin Reader purchased the arcade establishment at 308 E. Center St. Since then, they’ve purchased a liquor license and food permit, updated the seating, added new gaming machines and brought in new activities for customers like the popular “Stitch and Bitch” held every other Wednesday.

Barricade has also continued to succeed with many of its original events like its monthly wine tasting.

But Barricade’s new expansion, which will nearly double its maximum occupancy, is powering up Pocatello’s only arcade bar with endless possibilities for growth.

The new expansion space is the former showroom of Draype Interiors, which was connected to Barricade through an archway. The Readers immediately began renovating the space, adding a new adjustable stage and sound system that includes two subwoofers with 15-inch speakers, four monitors and two additional 12-inch speakers with a 16-channel mixing board.

The Readers are working on their Baked and Loaded food subsidiary, which would add new food items like loaded baked potatoes, nachos and chili dogs and expand further collaborations with nearby ChubbyZ’.

The new expansion also allowed them to spread arcade cabinets into the room, add new seating arrangements and new mounted televisions. Plans are already in place to add a vintage Chuck E. Cheese Skee-Ball attraction.

“We’re starting DJ Trivia,” said Jacqueline Reader. “That’ll be every Monday starting at 7. We’ve also had different local bands reach out to us. We’ve got a comedy show coming up on March 7, and for Putt-Putt we’ve got Dirt Road Renegade, a live band that’s going to be playing during Putt-Putt on the 28th.”

Reader continued, “We’ve also got my brother, Jesse, and sister-in-law, Dera, that are going to be playing during Brewfest in March. We’ve also got (musician) Hal Waldram scheduled to play next month.”

With lots of new space, Barricade brought in arcade cabinets like Metal Slug 6 and plans to add a pair of vintage pinball machines from the 1960s called Big Casino and Hollywood in the coming months.

While aesthetic updates are still forthcoming — like new rugs featuring popular video game franchises such as Pac-Man and the Legend of Zelda — the Readers are also considering adding a painted mural from local artist Nick Hottmann as a feature sometime in the future.

The Readers also hope to make the lighting in the new expansion space more cohesive with the rest of the bar, swapping out white lights with programmable LED lighting for the stage that will better match the ‘80s neon design of Barricade.

“The plan is to have more games along the back wall and then possibly some more standing-height tables in the area,” Reader said. “Definitely more wall decor. I love all of the ‘80s movie posters, so we might do more of those. But the main thing is just trying to be deliberate about what we put up, not just trying to slap things on the wall to fill space.”

In addition to the coming aesthetic upgrades, Reader said they are looking at further renovating the heating and cooling systems in time for summer.

Reader is also open to transforming an area downstairs into a sort of green room waiting area for bands during live music events.

Despite all the power-leveling and updates made to Barricade, Reader said customers can expect the same quality and prices from the popular arcade bar.

“One of the things that we talked about that’s really important to us is that we’re keeping our prices affordable,” Reader said. “We’re not increasing our prices. All the games are still 25 to 50 cents. We’re not raising the prices on any drinks or anything. We’re just really hoping for a good turnout for events. It’ll help cover the additional overhead.”

For more information on Barricade, visit barricadepoky.com.