By: Kyan Feser
In May 2022, following its two-year closure during the COVID-19 Pandemic, Abari, Charlotte’s beloved arcade bar, returned as Super Abari.
Around this time, Zachary Pulliam, Super Abari’s owner, began conceptualizing an offshoot inspired by Japanese arcades.
Initially, Pulliam and his team settled on a location in Eastway Crossing, a shopping center about ten minutes from Super Abari. Unfortunately, these plans fell through, Pulliam recalled.
Sometime later, Pulliam was approached by Peter Hahn, the business development manager of Super G Mart, an international grocery store chain.
At the time, Hahn was preparing for the grand opening of the Pineville location, which featured a massive food hall dubbed Alley 51. Hahn wanted some form of entertainment, and Akihabari, a mini arcade inside the hall, was born.
Akihabari is a play on words of Akihabara, a famous Tokyo shopping district centered around anime, manga, and gaming culture. The arcade is dedicated to rhythm games, a video game in which players perform actions in time with music or a specific beat to earn points and progress.
A popular genre in Japanese arcades, games like these are rare 
in the U.S., so Pulliam sources them through GndZero, a Spartanburg business that imports them from Japan.
Upon entering the arcade, you’ll quickly notice the massive, flashy cabinets lining the walls. Most notably, a massive Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) cabinet sits front-and-center.
“With DDR, it’s your feet on arrows, but it can be a variety of things. Drums, buttons, whatever to match the beat of the song,” he added.
“I grew up, and the only rhythm games we really had arcade-wise was DDR, and I mean, I love DDR. I lost like 75 pounds back when I was a kid playing DDR.”
Aesthetically, Akihabari is split into two parts.
“One side’s an alleyway and the left side’s like the inside of an arcade. Unfortunately, a lot of Japanese arcades are kind of boring inside, so we tried to make it as interesting as possible, but kind of keep the sterile look as much as we can,” Pulliam said.
The alley side was designed by 8Lincoln30, a custom design and fabrication shop in Charlotte, Pulliam said. Eulizerd, a mural artist from Charlotte, spray-painted the alley’s gaming-inspired graphics, he added.
“I definitely think the alley side is the most interesting part,” Pulliam joked.
While Pulliam is busy in Charlotte running Super Abari, Wilder Hamm, Akihabari’s arcade technician, sees what Akihabari has brought to the area.
“I’ve worked in and out of Arcades for most of my life, but I mean, Akihabari is special,” Hamm said.
“My favorite thing is probably the community, the rhythm community,” he added.
“Before Super Abari opened, Charlotte didn’t really have much of a rhythm community, outside of a couple DDRs and Pumps (Pump It Up, a DDR-adjacent game) around Dave and Buster’s and stuff. So now, I mean, I feel like you’re starting to see more and more things pop up in Charlotte, but Abari definitely has the majority of them.”
Akihabara is located inside Alley 51 food hall at Super G Mart (10500 Centrum Parkway) in Pineville. Click here to learn more.
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