Pharoah’s owner to close in Superior, re-open pool hall in Longmont

LONGMONT — If you have been missing your local pool hall in downtown Longmont, you’re in luck.

David Motarjemi, owner of Pharoah’s American Grill in Superior, is buying the former Breaker’s building at 380 Main St. to bring professional and league pool back to town.

As a result he will close Pharoah’s in Superior, where he has had a pool hall and grill for the last year.

“Mot,” as he prefers to be called, is an electrical engineer by trade and has had a high-tech software business. He also invests in real estate as a hobby. Motarjemi didn’t get interested in pool until he was 60, when he bought a building in Denver and opened a pool hall. He’s 72 now.

“I said that sounds like engineering to me, geometry and physics. I got fascinated and hooked,” he said. “Two years ago I took fifth nationally in a pool tournament in Las Vegas.”

After a shooting near his pool hall in Denver, he closed the business and found a space in Superior. But after a year there, he decided the clientele was a little too busy perhaps, to play pool regularly.

“I think a lot of people love to play pool but it’s not something they commit every week to,” Mot said of his business in Superior. “In order for a pool hall to succeed, you need people who play pool on a regular basis. In Superior, it’s a fairly affluent neighborhood and the majority of people are busy. Even though they’ve come in and played pool and loved it, it’s not something they are able to do three times a week, which is a dealbreaker for a pool hall.”

When he started looking for a new place, he found the former Breakers location, a two-story building built in 1910 that was a former Woolworth Co. store location in Longmont’s earlier days. Motarjemi said he bought it for about $2.6 million.

“It’s been empty for four to five years, so the town is ready to fill that spot in downtown,” he said. He said Longmont has a big billiard community, as well.

The business is named after his dog, Pharaoh, a Belgian Shepherd. He credits the dog for saving his life when he was ill with COVID-19 during the pandemic. Motarjemi checked himself out of the hospital, he said, because if he was going to die, it wouldn’t be there. 

“I was building my pool hall in downtown Denver, and I ended up getting quarantined there really, … so I ended up putting a bed in the pool hall, and for 20-some days my service dog Pharoah slept next to me. … At night I wouldn’t close my eyes because I was pretty sure if I did I wouldn’t open them again.”

But Pharaoh kept him going. “With him around I was forced to take him out for a walk. That little activity to take him out kept my strength going. I was worried if I died, he’d starve to death. So the psychological pressure to make sure he was OK kept me fighting.”

Now, he’s famous.

“I’ve had him since 2015,” Motarjemi said. “He’s been photographed with every pool champion in the world. When I go to Vegas, people recognize him and not me.”

What he likes about the Longmont building is he can make the downstairs the pool hall and eatery, while he uses the upstairs for office space for his software and hardware company, Logical Devices, He may even create an apartment upstairs. 

He plans to have about 14 tables in all – the good tables that serious pool players prefer.

Motarjemi intends to have the building open before January, at which time the winter leagues start. He said the Longmont location also will be a nice location to accommodate people from Denver all the way up to Fort Collins for tournaments.

“Longmont offers a happy medium,” he said. “We think we can attract more tournaments there.”