Pharaoh’s Billiards Breaks Wide Open in Longmont
A Passion Project Years in the Making and a Table with History
For David Mot, owner of Pharaoh’s American Grill & Billiards in Longmont, pool is more than just a game—it’s a late-blooming fascination that transformed his life, sparked a business, and brought one of the rarest pool tables in the country to Main Street.
With a newly renovated interior featuring 12 seven-foot bar tables, two regulation nine-footers, and a championship 10-foot Diamond, Pharaoh’s was designed not just for casual games but for serious players. It’s a space that, Mot admits, he’s been visualizing for years, although the journey to Longmont wasn’t exactly direct.
Mot originally scouted Longmont in 2022, hoping to turn the old Chicago Pizza building into a pool hall. But after being outbid, he landed instead in Superior, where he bought a former Buffalo Wild Wings with a fully equipped kitchen. The space was beautiful, he thought, but the location proved challenging.
“Superior is a great town, gorgeous,” Mot explained. “But it didn’t have the pool demographics. People like to go somewhere close, two- or three-miles max. I learned that the hard way.”
He also learned that passion for the game can’t be forced into a community; it has to be part of it. And that’s exactly what he sees in Longmont: a vibrant, engaged pool-playing central location.
“Longmont has always been a good area for pool players,” Mot said. “You need weekly league players to keep a pool hall alive. Otherwise, those tables are just big pieces of furniture that don’t make money.”
Mot’s relationship with pool is relatively recent. He first picked up the cue stick in his late 60s after buying a restaurant in downtown Denver. With no customers early on, he passed the time hitting balls, and quickly learned how difficult the game really was.
“I was getting bored, so I started banging balls around,” Mot laughed. “It’s a lot harder than it looks.”
Eventually, someone convinced him to join a league, and things clicked.
“Once I learned the right way to play, I fell in love with it,” Mot said. “I brought in some pros to teach me, and two years later, I placed fifth nationally in the bronze division in Vegas.”
After falling in love with the game through leagues in Denver, Mot realized he wanted a permanent place to play, not one where he had to rotate between bars and struggle with parking. That desire led him to open his first small pool hall in Denver, which he eventually sold after safety and crime concerns post-COVID.
Mot credits that rapid growth to mindset and dedication.
“A lot of people who’ve played for decades just do the same thing over and over. You can play 100 years and not get any better if you don’t try to learn,” Mot said.
The name “Pharaoh’s” is deeply personal. Mot credits his old dog, Pharaoh, for saving his life during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. He was sick and alone in his downtown Denver restaurant-turned-pool hall, quarantining for weeks with no testing or medical help.
“I was 70 and very sick. Pharaoh kept me going. If it wasn’t for him, I don’t think I would’ve made it,” Mot shared. “So, I named this place after him.”
While operating the same type of billiard hall in Superior, when the Longmont location became available, he jumped on it.
“Even while I was in Superior, I was still scanning listings for Longmont,” Mot said. “When this popped up, I knew it was the right move.”
Now, in Longmont, he’s finally found the right fit. Pharaoh’s boasts 15 tables, including a standout: a 10-foot Diamond championship table, one of only 18 in the country, and the only one in Colorado.
“That’s the Cadillac of pool tables,” Mot said. “It cost $18,000 and there’s a two-year waitlist.”
Mot managed to get one faster by striking a deal with Diamond Billiards: he agreed to let his table be used at the International 10-Ball Championship before it was shipped to Colorado. The world’s top players—including Fedor Gorst, Joshua Filler, and Shane Van Boening—have all competed on that very table.
“It’s surreal to think that the table right here in Longmont was used in a world championship final,” Mot said.
While most visitors don’t realize the significance of the table at the center of the billiard hall, it’s available to rent, just at a slightly higher rate than the others.
Step inside Pharaoh’s American Grill & Billiards, and one is immediately struck by the hum of conversation, the clack of cue balls, and the warm feel of its oak floors.
The space itself is a transformation story, too. When Mot acquired the building, it was a former bar and restaurant that had sat empty for years.
“The place was in horrible shape,” Mot recalled. “We found hot dogs on the kitchen floor that had been there for five years.”
The most challenging part? Removing massive steel bars that took up nearly half the space.
“It looked like the Bismarck battleship,” Mot said, laughing. “It took a month just to tear it down.”
After a complete gut renovation, Pharaoh’s now features oak wood flooring, new brick walls, updated lighting, and a full commercial kitchen.
“That’s a real $70,000 oak floor—no engineered stuff. It’s hard to maintain, but it looks and feels like it should,” Mot said. “Good pool halls have real wood floors. They’re easier on your feet and don’t stink like carpet when someone spills a beer.”
Despite only being open five days when Mot spoke to the Longmont Herald, the place is already buzzing.
“Come back around 7:30 and there won’t be a single table available,” Mot said. “I haven’t even had to advertise—we don’t have enough tables for all the customers.”
Pharaoh’s is already filling a long-missing niche in Longmont’s downtown—a polished, pro-level billiards venue run by someone who genuinely loves the game.
“It’s not just about the tables,” said Mot. “It’s about creating a space where pool players feel at home.”
Pharaoh’s hosts three leagues—BCA, NAPA, and APA—on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights, and those league regulars are the lifeblood of the business.
“The league players come back every week. They fill the place,” Mot said. “A couple bars in town have one or two tables, but nothing with the atmosphere or the space for serious players.”
There’s a clear sense that this place was built for and by people who love the game. Mot even still plays and competes himself.
“I’m still in my own league,” Mot said. “I went to Vegas last year, didn’t do as well because I was so busy building this place. You’ve got to practice every day if you want to compete at a high level.”
His advice to new players?
“Come here, join a league,” Mot said. “If you don’t learn the right mechanics from the start, they get stuck in your muscle memory, and then you’ll hit a ceiling. But if your fundamentals are correct, the sky’s the limit.”
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