16-Bit Bar+Arcade

16-Bit began in Columbus, Ohio and brought its format to 110 East New York Street in downtown Indianapolis: a wall of free-to-play arcade cabinets and pinball machines, a 21-and-over door policy, and a bar that funds the games. The nostalgia is thorough — the drinks are named for cartoon and video-game characters, the machines are period-correct, and nothing costs a quarter. It is a loud, crowded, very specific kind of night out, and it is worth saying plainly that this format solves a problem non-drinkers have in ordinary bars, which is that the drink is the entire activity. Here it is not.

The zero-proof list is also better than it needs to be. Kissed By A Rose is the serious one: Seedlip Garden 108 — the pea-and-garden-herb expression of the London non-alcoholic distillate — with hibiscus, lemon, rose and mint, which drinks dry and floral rather than sweet. Gym Class Zero, the one INDYtoday singles out, is desert pear with lime and tonic. Below those sit a run of deliberately simple, deliberately nostalgic drinks: Pinky and the Brain is fruit punch and lemonade, Optimus Prime is lemonade with cranberry and Sprite, and Lisa Simpson is the house Shirley Temple. Visit Indy lists the bar in its Buzz-Free Drinks guide on that basis.

Hours are the other reason it earns a place here. 16-Bit runs to 2:30am on Friday and Saturday and opens at noon at weekends, which makes it one of very few places downtown where someone not drinking can stay out as late as everyone else and still have something to do. It sits two blocks from Monument Circle and a short walk from Cannon Ball Lounge at Hotel Indy, so the two combine into a straightforward downtown evening without alcohol.