Iowa City’s new Forbidden Planet offers video games, pizza, pinball

Thomas Connolly has a knack for nostalgia with a contemporary twist.

Connolly's restaurants, Bluebird Café in North Liberty and Bluebird Diner in Iowa City, serve up modern Midwestern soul food in a retro diner environment.

In his latest venture, Connolly has recreated an authentic 1980s-style video arcade that serves cool cocktails, craft beers, and a fresh take on pizza.

Connolly said the idea for Forbidden Planet, which opened Nov. 6 on the Ped Mall in Iowa City, originally came from his business partners, Luther Moss and Cory Ingle.

At the time, Moss was the manager of the Tobacco Bowl, a coffeehouse and cigar store that Connolly's family had owned and operated for nearly 25 years. Ingle, a long-time friend of Moss, worked at the recently-closed Wedge pizzeria in downtown Iowa City.

'In the last few years, it was becoming apparent that it was time to change the business,” Connolly said of the decision to convert the Tobacco Bowl into an arcade and pizzeria. 'With fewer smokers, we saw our market diminishing, but we had this great space in the middle of downtown.”

The three men decided to pull the trigger in the spring of 2014. Tobacco Bowl closed at the end of May and they spent the next five months building out the space, installing a kitchen, and buying vintage video games and pinball machines.

Their quest for arcade games took the men to places like St. Louis and Chicago where collectors had hundreds of video game machines stored in vast warehouses.

'People can be fanatical about buying, selling, and restoring video games,” Connolly said. 'It's a labor of love.”

Forbidden Planet's collection includes four pinball machines and 10 classic video games like Pole Position, Mario Bros. and Galaga. More machines wait in storage and will be rotated in to keep things fresh.

In a throw-back to 1981, all video games cost only a quarter per play, and pinball machines are 50 cents.

Connolly and his partners are especially proud of Forbidden Planet's pizza. The pizzeria offers deep dish and Neapolitan - or thin crust - pizzas with a large selection of toppings.

'We use fresh, local ingredients whenever we can and make the sauce and crust from scratch,” Connolly said.

Ingle, who runs the kitchen, makes the pizza dough using super fine Italian bread flour to produce a crispy crust. The pizzas are baked in a special pizza oven from a company in upstate New York.

Forbidden Planet's menu is rounded out by a constantly changing selection of craft beers on tap, cocktails, and coffee drinks made using a traditional lever-operated espresso machine.

l Know a company or manager who has been in business for less than a year that would be ideal for 'Ground Floor”? Contact George Ford at george.ford@thegazette.com.