Pirate Journalism

I have mentioned before that I believe living in a tourist town is pretty cool. Where else could a small town population get to have top-notch restaurants, amusement parks and theaters? If we were in the Midwest, what would we have? If that big mass of water outside our windows was the Ohio River, I don’t think we would have the same quality of life as we do here in Myrtle Beach.
Sure, that sounds simple enough, but how many times do we forget how great this place is? How often do we forget that we have an awesome beach right down the street? Too often, I bet. I also think that we forget some of the cool places to be that are here for us because the summer crowds tend to scare us away from them.
Well, during the next few months, I am going to try and remind you of some cool “places to be” that are more accessible while most of the tourists are still sleeping in their snug little beds and only dreaming of being at the beach.
My first stop on this tourist tour of Myrtle Beach begins at Broadway at the Beach.
I had to drop off some data files to my friend Sean, but our schedules weren’t matching up. However, he said that he liked to hang out at Broadway Louie’s and was there most Thursday evenings. Coincidentally, my Thursday evening was open, and I figured I could meet him there, drop off a flash drive and maybe hang out for a little. Or a lot, as it turned out.
Broadway Louie’s is known for two things: its arcade and its karaoke.
Jake’s All-Star Karaoke starts at 9 p.m. nightly, and this is some big-time stuff. I have done karaoke there before, and it is quite a different experience from any other karaoke I have tried in the past.
This isn’t any mike and TV screen in the corner operation. This is going up on a big stage and singing the words off a jumbo projection screen to a huge crowd.
Karaoke on this scale will truly test your stage fright tolerance.
The other half of Louie’s is a two-level arcade.
With a small, square bar in the center, the place has pool tables, skee ball, claw drops and just about every game imaginable.
Sean was already there, working up a sweat on one of the Dance Dance Revolution games. I had come straight from work, so I ordered a drink, took a look at the menu and decided on a chef salad and a appetizer sampler platter. I really wasn’t expecting much. After all, I was in an arcade. Was I in for a surprise!
The sampler platter was a good-sized mix of cheese sticks, fried mushrooms, poppers and onion rings, but it was the chef salad that impressed me.
A lot of places serve a chef’s salad that consists of lettuce with a few slices of lunchmeat on it. To tell the truth, I get a lot of chef salads, despite my reputation for bad eating habits. I only mention the good ones here.
Louie’s chef salad is worth mentioning. It was a delightful mixture of turkey and ham, including a generous amount of cheese served on a bed of crispy lettuce. Honestly, I was just expecting something to hold me over until I went somewhere else to eat.
Broadway Louie’s banished all thoughts of more food.
So, well fed, I took my chances against Sean at Dance Dance Revolution, and failed miserably. My only relief was that the people who were taking pictures of Sean’s expert play had moved on long before I got my anti-groove on.
We took a tour of the arcade, trying out various games. I ended up getting hooked on Deal or No Deal, a video game based on the television show. After collecting my reward tickets, I didn’t have enough tokens to go for any of the big prizes, but I did well enough to pick out some silly gifts for a care package to a friend.
Broadway Louie’s is a great place to be to let your inner child out to play, especially while you have a chance to check it out during the calmer months of the year.

(Originally published in the Myrtle Beach Herald)