Three Lives navigates pandemic in its first year in business

SYRACUSE — Starting a restaurant in the middle of a pandemic might not seem like the best idea but it does have silver linings. Just ask Jon Page, owner of Three Lives, an Armory Square venue that is a bar, restaurant, and game arcade rolled into one.

“It’s all I’ve ever known, so it doesn’t seem odd to me,” Page says about Three Lives’ first year in business, all of which has been during the pandemic. “We’ve always just pivoted.”

After 10 years of experience working in fine dining for other people, Page says he knew he wanted to start his own business venture. After talking with several business owners he had met throughout his career, he thought about what sector in which he would be most likely to excel. He considered a couple other ideas but ultimately examined the gaps in the Syracuse bar/restaurant scene.

“What Syracuse was missing was an alternative nightlife and a bar arcade,” Page contends.

Having spent years in the restaurant industry, building the menu and business plan came naturally to Page and his team. After three years of planning, the perfect location became available at 316 S. Clinton St., “right in the heart of downtown,” Page says. 

Three Lives held its grand opening on Aug. 19, 2020. It is located in a space that previously was home to Sugar Magnolia Bistro, Byblos, Black Olive, and a Quizno’s franchise.

The Three Lives menu is modeled after different video games, from the “Super Nintendies” chicken tenders to a drink menu filled with elixirs, tinctures, potions, and power ups — served in unique video-game inspired glassware. 

Along with food offerings, Three Lives is home to a variety of video games. In this atmospheric regard — combining food and drink with an arcade setting — the arcade bar has virtually no competition locally, Page says. In terms of its bar offerings, he says Three Lives’ main competition is Al’s Wine & Whiskey Lounge. Located right across the street, the relationship is friendly and camaraderie-driven; the staff of each restaurant are frequent customers of their neighbors. 

The team at Three Lives aims for any customers who walk through the door to feel right at home. Page stresses he hopes to create a completely inclusive environment, suitable for both groups of friends in the evenings and families during the day.

“We call ourselves ‘E for everyone.’ Everyone’s a gamer at some point and it’s about finding that game that you like,” he says.

Now, after a year in business, Page says he wouldn’t change the experience. 

“I would do it again in a heartbeat,” he says, “because this is a dream come true.” 

In some senses, the restrictions and challenges presented by the pandemic have actually helped Three Lives. When the business concept was announced in 2019, hype built quickly, Page remembered. Thinking back to the trajectory that publicity could have sent him on, he says the new business might have been initially overwhelmed. 

“COVID allowed us to grow gradually. That’s a silver lining, the steady growth,” he says. 

On its first day in business, last August, Three Lives’ staff was forced to close down the vintage video games — a major part of the restaurant’s business model. The staff had to press pause and think about other interactive offerings that could set the eatery apart. 

“We’re going to feed them. We’re going to give them drinks. We’re going to have fun,” Page told his team. 

One particular idea that proved successful was the Roll for a Shot menu. To play the “game,” the customer rolls a 20-sided die, each side of which corresponds with a different drink shot. Perhaps the brightest silver lining was when a patron shared a clip of the game on TikTok and it went viral. 

“It looked like a commercial,” Page says, adding it drew people from across the country. New customers even traveled from out of state, quarantining for two weeks upon their arrival, simply to visit and roll the die, he notes.

The pivots continued as the year went on and the city of Syracuse was designated an orange zone under New York State’s COVID-19 cluster initiative. That meant no indoor dining was allowed from November until mid-January. That was the most difficult challenge the Three Lives team has faced thus far. Forced to offer take-out only, Page shifted the interactive experience from in-person to entirely virtual, streaming from the bar, sometimes eight hours a day. That online presence helped Three Lives not only stay in touch with its customer base, but also grow it, as well. 

“We had patrons who heard about us only through Twitch,” Page says, referring to the video-game live-streaming platform.

Without any pandemic assistance from local or state levels, Page continued to pivot as guidelines continued to shift. The lack of funding pushed him to work harder. 

“You have to then focus in on the demographic and really engage with people,” he says. 

And engage the staff did, from building Three Lives’ online presence, which Page hopes to continue into the future, to paying close attention to any customer feedback regarding the food, drinks, or atmosphere. 

Now, with a staff of 12 people and in the process of hiring more, Page says he is looking toward the future — the “light at the end of the tunnel” that guided him through this first year. In the near future, the team is expanding the restaurant’s hours of operation, hosting more events like trivia, and updating its menu. Three Lives recently started to be open for lunch, attracting more families. Thinking long-term, Page says he hopes to expand to a second location. 

Of course, the rate of any growth will depend on how pandemic restrictions might shift in the fall. 

“That’s a challenge that I’m bracing myself for,” he says. “I’m not dreading it; I’m just enjoying the time I have right now.”

For now, Page hopes to continue offering a unique and inclusive environment, changing the dialogue of what nightlife is in Syracuse, he says. 

“We want you to leave with your heart meters full,” Page quips.