Former Yates Street Taphouse acquired by Vancouver bar owners with long-term plans

Three Vancouver-based partners are making their foray into Victoria’s bar and eatery scene by transforming the former Yates Street Taphouse into Glitch Arcade Bar.

Brothers, Tom and Trevor Poirier, and contractor Dan Haines are the owners behind the new Victoria-based Glitch, located in the historic Dominion Hotel building at 759 Yates Street.

They previously opened to Glitch establishments in Vancouver, closing the Kitsilano location in 2024, which had them searching for the next best spot.

“We’re not just opening another bar,” says part-owner Dan, who, with his partners previously operated the Glitch location in Kitsilano before it closed in 2024. 

“We’re hoping to create a space where people can put down their phones, and actually connect with each other in person.”

Between the two brothers, they’ve opened half a dozen bars and restaurants. However, this is the first venture outside the Lower Mainland. Dan joined the partnership with the Kitsilano location and now the Victoria location.

The Kitsilano location closed in October 2024 due to rising rent rates coinciding with the end of their lease terms.

As of Feb. 1, 2026 the part owners announced they’d received liquor license approval and had settled on a 10-year lease agreement. Following the news, the partners began renovating the bar, with plans to open by mid to late spring.

Why they chose the former Yates Street Taphouse

When hunting for a new space, there were focused on size and location.

“We knew we needed a big size,” says Trevor. “This is almost 7,000 square feet,” referring to the Victoria space.  “Some of the games are huge, so you need real estate to put them out there right?” says Trevor.

The Yates Street space also had downtown to proximity that the Kitsilano location lacked. This motivated them to have a place where people don’t want to leave, and that’s close to downtown.

“So what we like about this is it’s downtown…We’re gonna have the nightclub deal on the weekend so we can keep them here having a good time, but there’s also a reason you’ll stay all night because you can watch the game, and play the games,” says Trevor.

Learning from what was lacking in previously-owned bars

The ‘2.0’ Victoria addition is a nod to things learned from the previous bars.

“We’re calling it version 2.0 because we realize where we were lacking,” says Trevor. “We were missing the sports,” he says.

Entering the bar, the front right side area will include an arcade section. Then further down on the right, booth seating, along with 20 bar seats and five to seven televisions will offer a sports bar vibe.

Then, the back right hand portion will be converted into a private room, equipped for roughly 20 people.

Dubbed ‘the Miami Room’, the private bookable room will have space for 20 people, and equipped with bluetooth stereo, and consoles for games like Smash Brothers or Mario Kart, says Trevor.

“We’re doing like pink flamingo wall paper, a lot of palm trees, that sort of thing,” says Trevor. A sliding door will close off the space allowing people to book it for birthdays, bachelor/bachelorette parties or small corporate events.

The Kitsilano location also lacked a dedicated dance space.

“We had a DJ on weekends and a small dance part, but we didn’t really have a dedicated space being used,” says Trevor.

So the left hand side will check off the dance space, including a DJ booth and a private VIP bottle service section.

“We have talked to a lot of our friends in the early 30s and they’re like ‘we want a cool place’ we’ll pay for a better looking, nicer place,’” Trevor said.

Revitalizing the downstairs as a speakeasy

According to Trevor, the entire capacity will be 225 upstairs and 50 downstairs.

That’s right, there’s a downstairs, but over the years it’s become a storage space for previous owners.

“The last two operators kept saying ‘we’ll get to this’ but then it was just banker boxes full of files, broken equipment,” says Trevor.

The first section of downstairs is where the larger-sized arcade games will be stationed, including full-size basketball, skeetball, shooting games, and a sitdown Jurassic Park game.

Then around a the corner, a narrow corridor lined with existing plush, red velvet booths, offers a jazz bar or speakeasy vibe.

“We’re gonna keep the bones in kind of an homage, but we’ll do the speakeasy door, but we’ll do more cocktail-forward. There’s a big cocktail scene here in Victoria as we’re learning,” says Trevor.

“We look at it as it’s the one more for us as the older crowd,” says Trevor. “This will be the place to come down, decompress, like the hospitality industry that has had a stressful night.”

As renovations continue, the partners plan to open the space by late spring, with general manager Julien Chevallier relocating to the Island to run the establishment.

“We want to bring back that feeling of gathering at your local spot – where you run into friends, make new ones, challenge someone to a game, and end up in conversations you never planned on having. It’s about being present with the people around you, sharing laughs and friendly competition, and creating memories together in the same room,” says Julien.

For the latest information, visit Glitch Victoria.