An adult ball pit and cocktail bar? That has the potential to be an absolute cheesy nightmare, but Ballie Ballerson did it right - partially due to their great staff.
I HIGHLY recommend you get into one of the ballpits before you drink any alcohol. It's a very weird, different (difficult, honestly) way to move through the ballpit, and it's so much easier to have an idea of how it feels before you've also added alcohol in the mix. The neon, blacklit ballpit has a slope that makes it easier to get in and out of. The stairs on the front, smaller ballpit are harder to use (I promptly slipped and fell into the front ballpit which was hilariously fun and didn't hurt, but still.)
Do NOT bring anything to Ballie Ballerson that isn't securely fastened to your person OR you wouldn't mind losing. Especially when drinking, it's really easy to lose things in the ballpit. Really. You can't see the bottom (you can feel it; balls are about hip height for me), but you'll have a hell of time finding anything you drop. That includes credit cards or phones. This is especially true at peak weekend times where people WILL shove you - whether accidentally or not. (People fall sideways when trying to navigate the ball pit all the time. Myself included.)
Looks like most of the negative reviews are pre-2019. I'm a pretty big germaphobe, and it didn't feel "dirty" here. I've been at burger joints that felt dirtier than Ballie did.
PROS:
-A photographer and selfie-lover's dream. The two ballpits give you a ton of opportunity for awesome photos you'd never get anywhere else. Go early if you want less people in your shots, and don't forget the ceiling is also mirrored for even more shots.
-The two ballpits are regularly cleaned. Definitely wash your hands before eating the pizza after playing in the ballpit, but the ballpit didn't feel dirty or gross even while entirely sober. It just felt fun.
-As you probably could guess, most of the patrons here are women. Lots of bachelorette parties and groups of girls. (I only counted two non-staff men in the entire place.) Staff is protective too. When one of those men was approaching a very-overly-drunk woman (who kept hugging staff) and trying to take her home, the staff encouraged the woman to head home solo and asked the woman to text the staff member when she got home okay.
-Most ordering is done via QR code on the table itself. This means you can use a saved credit card on your phone if you want to reduce entropy. You just decide you want another round of drinks, and poof! They appear in 10-ish minutes. This kept staff levels semi-low too. They help you settle in and make sure you know where you're going, but after that, they mostly clear tables and deliver drinks and make sure everybody is okay. Lots and lots of drunkenness here which is definitely expected.
-Lots of security around - especially at ballpits. They were watching like hawks - especially when people who didn't arrive together were talking or getting close to one another in the ballpit.
-The Karaoke Room was a blast. Two microphones, and both of them worked great. A decent mix of songs - though mostly older songs if you're coming from US musical tastes. The hour flew by way too quickly - though it was a little odd that some bar patrons would stand outside the karaoke room door and just watch you while you were in there. I'd definitely recommend the room though.
-VIP booths were nice and comfortable too. Again, another recommend if you plan on making an entire night out of the Ballie. Having a "home base" to return to if you went over to the ball pit or over to pee was great. Dirty plates and cups were cleaned constantly.
-Great service. We were brand new to Ballie and booked a "Booth and Balls" package (we assumed it meant the Karaoke Booth and the Ball pit). It actually meant a VIP Booth and the Ballpit. Staff was great about helping us make a reservation for the karaoke room later that night and even dealt with my silly (now that I know how Ballie works) questions with ease.
CONS:
-The "pole" in the karaoke room wasn't made of a normal dance pole material. This is definitely the pole dancer in me complaining, but it did NOT work for most anything pole dance. The engineer in our group said it was probably carbon steel. It felt bigger than a 45mm too. Probably somewhere in the 45mm to 50mm range.
-Half the women's bathroom sinks (touch sensitive) didn't work. They had a ton of toilets (all clean), though. I think there was 6 total. Tablemate said the men's had a bathroom attendant.
-All the cocktails are VERY sugar heavy. Lots of gorgeous garnishes, though, that make the drinks really cute and photo worthy. I've had more over-the-top drinks before, but these still helped "make" the Ballie vibe.
-It gets LOUD - especially in VIP. They pumped up the music at 8PM, and I have a sore throat today because we did so much screaming. We couldn't hear each other across our table. read more