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Mesa bar offers patrons games of all kinds
BY ASHLYN ROBINETTE
Tribune Staff Writer
Need a new date destination? Looking for something to do with your friends and family?
The Silver Key Lounge might just be the ticket.
A craft beer and wine board game lounge with a 1920s speakeasy atmosphere, the Mesa business offers a free game library with over 600 board, card and RPG games to choose from. Guests can also make their beverage selection from 16 draft craft beers and mead along with more than 20 beers in cans or bottles, 20 wine labels, cocktails, over 30 craft sodas and other non-alcoholic drinks.
These games can last a few minutes or a few hours and can be played by one or multiple players. Don’t know what to play? The lounge provides a game master to guide you.
Located at 1837 W. Guadalupe Road in Mesa, the Silver Key Lounge is open for gaming and drinking from 2 p.m. to 2 a.m. Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 12 a.m. Sunday. The lounge is kid friendly until 10 p.m.
Because the lounge does not serve kitchen-made food and just packaged snacks, guests are welcome to bring in outside food but no outside drinks.
McCleary, a longtime gamer, noticed that board game lounges and cafes have been on the rise in the past few years. Tired of working the corporate life, he partnered with Adam Oligschlaeger to open The Silver Key Lounge.
They had a major goal, McCleary said, explaining:
The name and ‘20s art deco theme are inspired by a 1926 fantasy short story by H.P. Lovecraft called “The Silver Key,” McCleary said.
A spacious room for games of all kinds greets patrons at the Silver Key Lounge in Mesa.
(Courtesy Silver Key Lounge)
���SILVER KEY ���� 19
Mesa lawyer opens ‘pop-up’ legal of�ice
BY SYDNEY MACKIE Tribune Staff Writer
Visitors to the San Tan Village in Gilbert can now �ind dining options, plentiful shopping – and legal counsel, courtesy of Mesa attorney Billie Tarascio.
Opened early this month, her walk-in Modern Law Express of�ice is the most recent iteration of Tarascio’s lifelong goal to ensure legal advice is attainable and affordable.
The Modern Law Express location and is designed as a bridge between self-representation and traditional legal representation.
The services provided by the San Tan location are family law matters such as divorce and custody, estate planning and guidance in Arizona’s new marijuana conviction expungement program.
A graduate of the University of Oregon and its law school, Tarascio has utilized her 16 years of legal experience to create innovative options for those undergoing costly and complex legal battles.
“If people don’t have access to information, guidance and strategy, it can be devastating for them and their families,” she said. “They can lose their kids, they can really hurt themselves in court or they can end up with a divorce decree or judgment that costs them tens of thousands of dollars that could have been avoided.
“So having some options that are not just the traditional model is really important.” Her own experience has in�luenced her approach to law.
“I always knew I wanted to be a lawyer, but very early on in college, my parents went through a divorce that was pretty unexpected and pretty traumatic and not really well done,” she recalled. “It was so disruptive to not only their lives but also to mine and my brother’s, that I decided I wanted to become a family law attorney and work with families going through similar issues.”
Her in-store team of family law and legal advocates help customers determine the services needed and their cost, then connect them with the right lawyers or certi�ied legal document preparers. ���LAWYER ���� 19
Mesa lawyer Billie Tarascio aims to make legal help a ordable at her San Tan Village
Landsea Homes pitches last chance to buy in Eastmark
TRIBUNE NEWS STAFF
One of Arizona’s biggest homebuilders said its two planned subdivisions in Eastmark may offer one of the few remaining opportunities to own in the masterplanned southeast Mesa community. Landsea Homes, a publicly traded homebuilder, has broken ground on the �irst of two subdivisions in Eastmark.
Its Greencourt at Eastmark comprises 48 �inished lots while its Greenpointe at Eastmark will offer 124 �inished lots slated for groundbreaking this fall. “These homes make up the �inal phase of Eastmark and offer some of the last remaining opportunities to buy in the master planned community,” the developer said in a release.
Landsea’s High Performance Home features include REME HALO air puri�iers and LiveFlex features that allow residents to personalize space according to their needs and lifestyle. It also has home automation amenities powered by Apple.
Homes will range from 1,875 to 2,160 square feet and prices will begin in the $300k’s.
Landsea Homes is now one of Arizona’s largest and leading homebuilders after entering the Valley market just three years ago.
The company has developed homes and communities in New York, Boston, New Jersey, Arizona, Florida, Texas and throughout California in Silicon Valley, Los Angeles and Orange County.
“Eastmark is such a desirable location to live in the Phoenix metro area, with top-rated schools and beautiful surrounding neighborhoods,” said Kaylee Smith, Arizona Division president of Landsea Homes. “We look forward to providing future Eastmark residents with high quality and modern homes, innovative amenities and nearby resources to meet all of their needs.”
“We’ve enjoyed a presence in Eastmark before, and we’re thrilled to launch these two new neighborhoods. Buyers appreciated the location, desirability and value that the homes offered, and we know that these homes will also be well received,” added Smith.
Information: landseahomes.com/ari-
zona/eastmark. ■
SILVER KEY ���� ���� 18
The 5,000-square-foot business opened in mid-January but was originally slated to open in October of 2019. McCleary said he had been advertising The Silver Key Lounge since August 2018 and that multiple obstacles – from permits to the pandemic – delayed the opening.
“By the time we had all of our ducks in a row, COVID-19 hit,” McCleary said. Even after opening, the �irst four months of business were touch-and-go and there was fear that they wouldn’t be able to keep operating, McCleary said.
Suddenly, vaccinations became more readily available and people who wanted to go but couldn’t because of health concerns were now able to come out.
“Once the vaccinations hit the mainstream, it was a complete 180,” he said.
Now, the lounge sees more and more gamers of all ages walk through the doors.
The Silver Key Lounge has weekly board, card and miniature tournaments that often offer prizes or lounge credit.
For instance, every Sunday is Dungeons & Dragons One Shot Sunday Night where gamers run through a simple adventure and are taught the basics of the rules. Every �irst Saturday of the month since its opening, The Silver Key Lounge has hosted a Sellers Market, that enables visitors to score deals on games from various private vendors and stick around afterward for fun game play.
“It gives people the opportunity to sell their games and have a little human contact again,” McCleary said.
If you can’t make it to the Sellers Market, the lounge also provides retail space up front where a variety of games are for sale.
A fantasy tavern-themed private room that can �it up to 15 people can be reserved for a minimum four-hour block. It’s called “The Silver Button Inn” and is named after one of the lounge’s kickstarter contributors, McCleary said.
Most notably, The Silver Key Lounge offers a livestreaming table for $10 an hour where gamers can livestream or record their gaming sessions on YouTube, Twitch, or other platforms.
In the future, McCleary hopes to expand The Silver Key Lounge in several ways.
A complete food and beverage menu, along with a board game library, can be found at thesilverkeylounge.com. To �ind out about upcoming events at The Silver Key Lounge: facebook. com/thesilverkeylounge/events. ■ The lounge has both an extensive library 600 board, card and RPG games as well as a retail area where people can buy games.
(Courtesy Silver Key Lounge)
LAWYER ���� ���� 18
To save clients what can become thousands of dollars in retainer fees, Tarascio often directs customers to online resources.
These can range from Modern Law’s sister company, I Do Over, a legal document preparation service, to free online classes or legal coaching.
The San Tan Village Modern Law popup also helps people clear marijuana convictions in Arizona courts from their records following the recent passage of Proposition 207, which legalized recreational marijuana.
According to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Of�ice, under the Smart and Safe Act, individuals may petition the court to have a marijuana-related arrest, charge, adjudication, conviction or sentence expunged if a case meets necessary quali�ications. A charge can be expunged if the case involved possession of paraphernalia used to consume marijuana or less than 2 1/2 ounces of marijuana. Expungement also is possible if an individual was convicted of cultivating less than six plants at a primary residence for personal use.
As the option for expungement just became available in July, Tarascio said her legal team had yet to see the process to completion.
These rights include the ability to obtain loans funded by the government, hold public of�ice, serve on a jury, and the right to vote among many others.
Tarascio explained that at the San Tan Village location, “You can get your expungement done for $199 and you can get an uncontested divorce for $999, so it really is quite a bit less expensive than what you would pay going through a traditional attorney.”
Equipped with 25 legal professionals committed to increasing access to justice and original ideas for saving clients money, time and energy, Tarascio said the Modern Law Express location could change the lives of countless East Valley residents. “Typically with law �irms, you have to go out searching for them, but with this, you’re shopping and along with getting a shirt at Macy’s, you can also get the power of attorney,” Tarascio said. ■
