About Us

Cobra Arcade co-founder, Ari Bracamonte, bought restored old arcade games. He would do pop-up arcade shows with these games under the moniker “Artcade.” He would fill once-empty spaces with his collection of games, local artists, musicians, drinks, and people. You could tell there was something special about it; something nostalgic that brought people together from all walks of life. Ari had a few opportunities at securing a place to call his arcade concept “home.” However, the fading recession and downtown-Phoenix development boom came and gobbled up all the cool, older buildings right out from under him.

In 2015 Ari met adaptive reuse visionary, Chuckie Duff. After hearing through the grapevine about Ari’s project, his vision, and seeing his collection of games— Chuckie was hooked. It wasn’t long until the two actually met in person to discuss the project.  Chuckie already had a prospect building in mind for what would become Cobra Arcade Bar in Downtown Phoenix. To their advantage, Chuckie brought in Genuine Concepts and AV3 Designs to take the vision and make it a reality.

After over a year of planning, construction, and permitting Cobra Arcade Bar was finally born in Downtown Phoenix. The initial reception was nothing short of the original “Artcade” pop-ups. Lines formed, conversations started, people got loose, and continued to have a good time night-after-night. We can’t thank our amazing staff (Cobra Family), Phoenix, and our community more for holding it down with us.

Ari was always keen on opening a Tucson location once Phoenix was well rooted. The Cobra Arcade Bar Tucson location is the all-out version of what the arcade should be. It is fairly larger and is built with 3 years of understanding and know-how. Most brands open their flagship location and go all out and then half-ass their follow-up locations but their team did the opposite. They took everything they learned mixed with everything they like and created their dream location all over again.