The pinball machines and skee-ball lanes are on their way out of 114 N. Sacramento St. in downtown Lodi, and an upscale cocktail bar is moving in. Carlos Villapudua confirmed he is taking over the former Q25 Arcade Lounge space with a goal of opening sometime in February or March 2027.
Villapudua told WhatNow that the new spot will be geared toward an older, more upscale crowd than the younger-skewing bars already downtown, and he was clear that it won’t be an arcade. The bar doesn’t have a name or a final concept locked down yet, but Villapudua said the arcade equipment will be removed entirely as part of the transformation. He’s planning to spend roughly three months renovating and redesigning the space before any grand opening.
From Atari Cabinets to After-Work Cocktails
Q25 opened in early 2025 as an arcade bar stocked with about 35 vintage machines, including classic Atari games, skee-ball and pinball, according to the same WhatNow report. That run has now ended, clearing the way for Villapudua’s project. He’s hired an architect along with a designer who is a Lodi native, and he’s talking with a second designer as the plans take shape.
This will be Villapudua’s first bar, though he has run a restaurant and owns other businesses, and he said he’s wanted to open a bar for a long time. He applied for a liquor license in 2025 and spent months this year searching for a suitable location, including options outside downtown, before landing back at 114 N. Sacramento St. Other bar owners reportedly encouraged him to open downtown if the opportunity arose.
A Quieter Vibe, Inspired by Vinyl Bars
Villapudua said he’s interested in a vinyl-bar atmosphere where the music plays at a lower volume so guests can actually talk, or even hold a meeting, rather than shout over a speaker system. He told WhatNow the bar should let guests converse instead of relying on loud music to carry the room. It’s a different energy than a typical arcade crowd, and it lines up with the broader shift Villapudua said he researched: reports that younger customers are drinking less and spending more time at home.
That shift shows up in national numbers, too. Gallup found that the share of U.S. adults who drink alcohol fell from 62% in 2023 to 58% in 2024 and 54% in 2025, before holding steady at 54% this year, according to the polling organization. The decline held across age groups, and none of those groups saw a significant change in the past year, per the same Gallup report. Separately, 13% of U.S. adults said in Gallup’s 2026 survey that they sometimes drink too much, a record low, while 17% said they’d swapped in a nonalcoholic beer, wine or spirit in place of a real drink at some point in the past year.
Looking North for a Blueprint
For a sense of what a quieter, music-forward concept can look like, Villapudua doesn’t have to travel far. Legend Has It, described as Sacramento’s first hi-fi bar, held its grand opening Sept. 14 at 410 L St. in downtown Sacramento, according to CapRadio. Hi-fi bars like that one are built around prioritizing the listening experience, particularly of music pressed to vinyl, over everything else the bar offers, CapRadio reported. About 400 people rotated through Legend Has It’s opening night, where 14 local DJs each played 45-minute sets.
Villapudua isn’t promising a carbon copy of that model, but the instinct behind it, treating the room itself as part of the draw, matches what he described to WhatNow. He said the appeal of his bar shouldn’t rest on alcohol alone. “It’s not so much about the alcohol,” he said. “It’s about coming here, having a good experience and having fun.” He added that the experience should engage guests through the cocktails, the decor and even how it feels to walk in the door, with the goal of getting people to stick around rather than cycle through for a single round. Villapudua said he wants the bar to become a destination in its own right for downtown Lodi.
