Published On: 01.24.25 | 

By: Meg McKinney

Poppa G’s re-racked – Alabama pool hall where everybody knows your name returns after fire

Chance Burnett takes aim at a striped ball during a Thursday night match. Burnett is owner of Poppa G’s Billiards. (Meg McKinney / Alabama News Center)

It’s new and bigger, in a new place, but the comfortable and familiar atmosphere of Poppa G’s Billiards continues to welcome longtime pool players and visitors.

Following a total loss from a fire more than two years ago, hearing the loud cracks from cue balls breaking apart striped and solid color object balls and rolling across 24 new pool tables means Pelham’s Poppa G’s Billiards is back in business.

“We lost everything,” Chance Burnett, 36, owner, tells a visitor, “except for the staff” of 10. This devasting loss included the physical loss of the building with all contents, as well as a sense of place and Poppa G’s longstanding role in Alabama’s pool playing community.

A fire destroyed Poppa G’s, but that didn’t stop the pool players from playing their weekly matches since then. For the past two years, the 16 to 20 teams that make up Poppa G’s American Poolplayers Association teams kept up play at area venues, waiting for a replacement to be developed and opened.

This summer they returned home to Poppa G’s – in a new location that also had a former life. Valley Elementary School, located at 2408 Pelham Parkway and renamed Campus 124, is part of Pelham’s Arts & Entertainment District. Campus 124 is owned by Scrimsher Properties and modeled after a repurposed Huntsville school, Campus 805. The three-digits refer to each city’s ZIP codes.

Poppa G’s is the new kid at Campus 124.

Former classrooms with chalkboards have been converted to Half Shell Oyster House, The Beer Hog, The Guy’s Place (hair salon), Valhalla Board Game Café and more.

Like students going to school, pool players carry their cue stick cases over their shoulders and file along brightly lit, squeaky clean, beige brick and tile halls. New glass doors swing open to the new Poppa G’s, where the saying “where everybody knows your name” is alive and well.

Friends and competitors greet with hugs, pats on the back, and “good to see ya” is heard throughout.

What was once the school’s cafeteria is now a sprawling, open space with rows of pool tables and large LED perimeter lights hanging above each table – is a stunning sight. Along the sidelines there are enough chairs and tables for teammates and scorekeepers to go around several times.

Burnett lists the improvements.

The new Poppa G’s has grown from 7,000 square feet to 17,000 square feet, and 16 seven-foot tables to 26 tables with room for more tables for tournaments.

“We have more teams, 16 to 20, with eight pool players per team” on the “busy nights – Wednesday, Thursday, Friday – with 150 to 200” pool players coming through the doors.

According to Austin Schrimsher of Schrimsher Properties, “there are 370 parking slots” (front and back of the property). The front slots fill up on busy nights, leaving some drivers cruising for a space.

“We’re like a sports bar now. We have a new, full kitchen” Burnett informs visitors, with a new menu offering “chicken wings, French fries, tater tots,” blended with Poppa G’s traditional hamburgers, sandwich wraps, salads, and apple pie à la mode.

The waitstaff personalizes Styrofoam beverage cups with a customer’s name and a heart, a Poppa G’s tradition.

The spacious bar is customized with lacquered wood and numerous bar chairs.

Poppa G’s maintains its family-friendly reputation with “a room in the back for kids to do homework” while their parents compete. Between matches, parents with infants and preschool children gather at the former cafeteria’s stage, with coloring books and small toys.

Among the familiar faces returning to Poppa G’s is Ed Gill, who turned “99 in November” and plays pool “five nights a week plus Sunday afternoons. I like to be with people,” he says.

RELATED: Alabama pool player Ed Gill is 96 years young and still going strong

Like his opponents, Gill is competitive and quickly shows his 10-year win-loss statistics on the APA website for 1,251 eight-ball and 1,280 nine-ball matches.

Gill is a World War II veteran and competes against not just younger, but much younger pool players today, like Rosie Tucker, 27, who started playing this summer on a team with her mother, Lucy Tucker.

Tucker’s teammates have higher skill levels, backed by years of experience. As Gill and Tucker play an eight-ball match, they remark that they hope to be playing pool at Gill’s age, too.

Family connections work their way through Poppa G’s. “Mr. Ed,” as Gill is affectionately called, plays on a team with his daughter, Lisa Casey. Recently, Casey’s daughter, Lindy Morrison (Gill’s granddaughter), and granddaughter, Nora Rich, 14, (Gill’s great-granddaughter), dropped by to watch for a few moments.

There are pool players doing double duty at Poppa G’s by playing pool and babysitting their children or grandchildren. A baby carriage and car seats are visible among the chairs and tables.

“My daughter had to work tonight,” Jennifer Carlson explained, as she watched over her 3-year-old granddaughter, who stood tiptoe to watch Carlson’s game.

Poppa G’s next generation of pool players is in the making. Oliver Tarpley, 5, listened closely to aiming pointers from experienced pool players one evening. He likes going to Poppa G’s because “I don’t have to be inside by 7:30.”

“She’s an old Poppa’s kid,” Alex Eastman says of his eight-year-old daughter, Austen Eastman, who sat with him after one of Eastman’s matches. “She plays pool in our garage” at their home.

Burnett says Poppa G’s “has had kids’ tournaments” in the past and hopes to have a youth league in the future.

Celebrating a teammate’s birthday is integral to Poppa G’s. Casey’s teammates brought cupcakes, a banner and a party headband to commemorate her recent birthday. Looking festive, Casey wore the birthday headband during her matches.

The walls of the former Poppa G’s were covered with framed photographs, documenting generations of local pool players. All the photographs were lost in the fire, and this loss comes up in conversations among pool players. Efforts to replace the photos have begun, with a dedicated photo wall titled “Poppa G’s Family.”

Welcome home.

Meg McKinney is a professional photographer and a pool player at Poppa G’s Billiards.