A new cue-sports venue built around one of the rarest games in American bar culture is coming to South Hayward. Bay Billiard & Snooker plans to open along the Mission Boulevard retail strip, offering full-size snooker tables and on-site drinks in a space with no kitchen and no food menu at all.
The business is set up at 31005–31199 Mission Blvd. in Hayward, according to WhatNow, placing it within the Fairway Park Shopping Center, a roughly 130,000-square-foot retail block wedged between Industrial Parkway and Whipple Road, per LoopNet. The shopping center already houses a Dollar Tree and a Jack in the Box, giving the future snooker bar a built-in flow of foot traffic and parking off the Highway 238 corridor, LoopNet notes. It marks the first business venture for owner Asadullah Escandari, who confirmed to WhatNow that the operation is still awaiting approval of its alcohol license before it can open its doors.
Bay Billiard & Snooker is being designed as an evening-oriented snooker bar rather than a restaurant or family arcade. The venue will serve alcoholic beverages for on-site consumption, though the report notes that further details about the planned drink menu, along with the interior layout, table count, and specific beverage selection, have not yet been disclosed.
Why the Business Needs a Food-Free Liquor License
Because Escandari is opting out of a food program, the bar must secure a Type 42 license from the state, which permits beer and wine service without any kitchen requirement, according to the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. That license comes with a hard restriction: under Business and Professions Code Section 25665, Type 42 premises must bar entry to anyone under 21, regardless of whether food is served. All alcohol servers and managers at the location will also need to complete California's mandatory Responsible Beverage Service certification before pouring a single drink, per the Userve Blog, a requirement aimed at curbing over-service and underage sales at bars statewide.
Type 42 licenses are genuinely uncommon in California. The state currently has about 1,270 active Type 42 permits statewide, compared with more than 24,900 Type 41 licenses that cover restaurants serving beer and wine alongside food, according to the ABC. That gap reflects how much more scrutiny standalone bars face around zoning and local concentration rules compared with typical eating establishments.
Local Permits Still an Open Question
Beyond the state alcohol license, Hayward's municipal code requires its own layer of review for commercial entertainment venues and alcohol-selling businesses, typically through an Administrative Use Permit or a Conditional Use Permit approved by city planners, per the City of Hayward. Hayward revised parts of its commercial zoning rules this year under a Business-Friendly Hayward initiative meant to streamline certain permit processes, the city says. It remains unclear whether Bay Billiard & Snooker has already secured that local sign-off, an approval that sits separate from and in addition to state ABC licensing.
WhatNow reports the business may open by the end of September, though no firm opening date has been set. The uncertainty tracks with the pending alcohol license, since the bar cannot legally pour drinks — its entire business model — until that approval comes through.
Filling a Gap in the East Bay's Cue-Sports Scene
Part of what makes the concept notable is the sheer footprint a real snooker hall demands. Regulation snooker tables run 12 feet by 6 feet, nearly double the surface of a standard 7- or 8-foot American pool table, and use smaller 2.125-inch balls with narrower, curved pockets, according to Blatt Billiards. That space requirement helps explain why dedicated public snooker venues remain scarce in Northern California, where existing tables are often tucked into private clubs like California Snooker in San Jose rather than open to walk-in customers.
Cue-sports fans in southern Alameda County currently have to travel to reach a full setup, with California Billiards in Fremont offering a full bar, food service, and both 9-foot pool and regulation snooker tables. A public, snooker-focused bar in South Hayward would give East Bay players a closer option, landing in a corridor the city has flagged for long-term mixed-use growth near the South Hayward BART station, according to filings reviewed on CEQAnet.
