Inspired by owner’s quest to honor friend who died, Cyberpunk-themed Life Bar Arcade opens near Schaumburg

With this summer’s opening of Life Bar Arcade at Schaumburg’s northeast gateway, owner Peter Roesler has completed a major step in his seven-year quest to honor a lifelong friend who died.

From its old-school video games to its food, drinks, live music and karaoke, the entertainment venue is a celebration of the cyberpunk pop culture the two loved from their youth in nearby Elk Grove Village.

While Roesler, 42, has held a variety of skilled jobs throughout his adult life, learning how to run every aspect of this particular type of business has been the constant theme since the untimely passing of his childhood friend, Allen Lau, in 2019.

They met while starting the seventh grade, just after Roesler’s parents divorced and as Lau’s parents were about to.

“We became instant best friends,” Roesler said. “He’d come over to my house every day. He introduced me to a lot of the things that made their way here.”

Those passions included food and even 1990s K-pop, or Korean popular music, which Roesler tells his similarly enthralled young daughters took place long before it was cool.

The bar opened three months ago at 1626 E. Algonquin Road in the Park Place Shopping Center, immediately east of Schaumburg and just north of the village’s convention center. But it’s been in preparation since Roesler signed the lease for the space in November 2024.

Though he employs a staff capable of operating Life Bar Arcade in his absence, he taught himself how to do everything necessary in their absence. He can personally fix any of the $250,000 worth of video games and pinball machines he owns, prepare food in the kitchen and tend bar.

Some of that apprenticeship was spent working at the gaming-themed restaurant now called Enterrium at Woodfield Mall. But with its 21-and-up age restriction after 7 p.m., Life Bar Arcade aims for a more adult crowd with its DJs, live music and karaoke.

But while there is some overlap in the offerings of nearby businesses like Enterrium and Andretti Indoor Karting & Games, Roesler believes in the adage that a rising tide raises all ships. Their unique aspects — like his venue’s occasional karaoke nights — are sufficient to distinguish them, he said.

“People love it!” he said of the karaoke. “We have such a positive crowd that cheers enthusiastically no matter what the skill level.”

Though the nearby Veridian redevelopment of the former Motorola campus wasn’t what originally attracted him to the site, Roesler said it made him sign the lease all the faster.

He said he’s excited to be near a part of Schaumburg that’s being refreshed and is looking forward to the planned move-out of the Cook County Highway Department maintenance facility across the street.

The fix-up and enhancement of the bar’s many arcade games has relied on tracking down rare parts online and through real-world searches, as well as by making them himself. For this, Roesler’s received help from his father, Pete, with whom he shares an aptitude for self-taught skills.

That recognition goes in both directions, according to the proud father.

“He amazes me,” Pete said of his entrepreneurial son. “I am like beyond thrilled, happy, a million emotions I could use, that he has taught me things. He’s taught me how to use the internet better.”

The younger Roesler said the key thing he learned from his dad is that the best way to learn to fix something is to be willing to break it.

“To me, there’s no such thing as failure, just learning,” he added.

Because the bar is in an unincorporated area, it couldn’t get the mayor and other village officials for its ribbon-cutting. Nevertheless, Life Bar Arcade will have a presence at Septemberfest on Schaumburg’s Robert O. Atcher Municipal Campus over Labor Day weekend.

The business’ name is both a reference to the “life bar” that visually indicates a player’s sustainability in a video game, as well as its being a bar and arcade where life is celebrated.

“I felt like simplicity might be key,” Roesler said. “I told the crowd last night, ‘You are the life of Life Bar.’ ”

epeterson@dailyherald.com