Q&A With Cloud 9 owner, Ike Jouhal

Q: How does it feel to be the #1 dart house in the country?

A: Absolutely great! It gives me great pride and honor to be in that position. The family of Cloud 9 jointly has worked very hard for this.

Q: Do you feel that you will be able to maintain this status?

A: We would love to, but as we took that honor from someone, I’m sure some other bar will eventually take it from us.

Q: So who actually is or are the dart coordinators of Cloud 9?

A: This actually is a strange question for me because we always have a team of players who work hard with me. Rick Clark is helped by Terrance Carter and Robert Brown. Also the players of Cloud 9 do help and support the bar and its activities. I
personally too take active interest along with Amit and Sumit.

Q: Cloud 9 seems to be participating actively in the cups... your comments?

A: It seems that quite a few players like the challenge of competing against other bars and bringing the honor and recognition home to Cloud 9. I’ve attended quite a few of these cups and find the competition and camaraderie very impressive. It brings even closer an already close family. We have won and lost quite a few of them, but we just recently won the 4x7 Cup. Hopefully, by this weekend we will be bringing home a couple more.

Q: How is your reputation is perceived as an individual throughout the darting community?

A: This is a tough one to answer because you are asking me to guess at others’ opinion of me. I know that I work hard in this business to treat people with integrity and respect and hope that people see that.

Q: You always seem to be remodeling. What’s up next?

A: Honestly speaking, I think I have found a permanent solution to the layout of the dart boards and hopefully will leave it as is. Though the men’s restroom is my next project and hopefully that should be completed within the next three weeks.

Q: How do you think Cloud 9 is revered in the dart community?

A: We are known as a fun loving, friendly, but noisy group that does not hesitate in supporting Cloud 9 players here and everywhere. And you know the famous chant... “Cloud what?... Cloud 9!

Q: What is this “Papa Ike” thing I keep hearing?

A: Well you know my children call me “Papa” and this followed to their friends, and it just continued growing. The kids come to me, talk to me and seek advice. It just seems I have become “Papa Ike” to the bar. To be honest, I think it is a very respectful and honorable title. Do you know how happy it makes me feel when someone says... “You are the Papa I never had”?

Q: Does Ike ever lose his cool?

A: Ty, I think I know why this question has come up. Let me assure you and my friends that I am the same cool and patient Ike as always.

A certain recent incident that I felt was putting a scar on the bar caused me to recall the words of Rick Clark, a very solid advisor of mine, who once asked me if quality or quantity was more important. I have now come to realize that it is not that important to be the #1 Dart Bar if you don’t have quality people in place to keep it that way. We at Cloud 9 are going to strive hard for that.

I would like to seek the support of all my friends and family of players in supporting me in achieving this and at the same time, thanking them all for making Cloud 9, this family bar, #1 in the dart world.