Wareham’s RWND Restaurant & Arcade Announces Opening After 2-Year Journey

WAREHAM (WBSM) — We first told you that RWND Restaurant & Arcade was coming to downtown Wareham back in September 2024. Now FFWD a year and a half, and it’s finally here.

READ MORE: Wareham's New Arcade Restaurant Looks to RWND Back to the 80s and 90s

Just before 6:30 p.m. this evening, RWND (pronounced “rewind,” if you hadn’t figured that out) posted a video on social media announcing that at long last, it officially opens on April 30.

“And yes, for really real this time,” RWND posted, the culmination of a two-year journey that had multiple delays that only increased excitement for its eventual opening.

Wareham's RWND Is a Restaurant First, Arcade Bar Second

RWND is the brainchild of Phil Warren, who told us back in 2024 that the goal was to be a restaurant first and foremost, looking to go beyond the typical bar fare.

“The focus from the beginning has always been not to be an arcade with bar food. We're going to be a restaurant first,” he said. "I don't see it as an arcade bar with food. I see it as a restaurant with an arcade bar.”

RWND's Library of 200 Retro Games and Free Play Model

However, that arcade will feature a collection of about 200 retro video games and pinball machines from the 1980s and 90s, with 40 of them on the floor at any given time, and new games rotated in on a monthly basis.

They will all be set to “free play,” meaning no quarters or tokens required. Players will simply pay one price to enter the arcade portion of the facility and can play as much as they want.

What Caused the Long Delay?

For reasons not exactly clear, RWND took much longer than originally anticipated to open. When we spoke to Warren back in 2024, he expected to open in the spring of 2025. However, the permitting process from the Town of Wareham reportedly set back that timetable, and updates on the RWND social media were few and far between.

Prior to today’s announcement, the last Facebook post from RWND had been in November 2025, announcing that it was hiring. The restaurant also handed out candy on Halloween last year for trick-or-treaters.

Wareham’s Anticipation Reaches Peak

Still, it seemed like a daily occurrence for someone to post in a Wareham Facebook group wondering when – or if – RWND was ever going to open. Well, today’s announcement means you all have about two weeks to get your thumbs ready to smash buttons and your wrists ready to flick joysticks, because we’re going back in time to the glory days of gaming in two weeks’ time.