Walk into the newly reopened Sobe’s Backstreet Pavilion and you may think Steven Sobe is just your average guy playing arcade games in the corner. But for Steven, video games have brought him national recognition and have led him back to Mount Airy.

This three-time national champion at Golden Tee Golf has spent the past five years in Chicago working for the maker of his favorite video game. But when he heard that the location of his parents’ former business was vacant, Steven told his dad, Larry, to snatch it up.

“We wouldn’t have opened this if Steven wasn’t coming back,” Larry said.

So Steven resigned from his successful job with the marketing team at Incredible Technologies (IT) and came back to reopen the family business.

“I did what I set out to do ... I had a good opportunity to come back to Mount Airy,” Steven explained.

The video game pro said he enjoyed his time with IT, but the city life wasn’t for him. Steven said, “I couldn’t stay in the city forever ... I just like North Carolina. I like it a little slow-paced.”

The Pavilion reopened at 617 N. South St. in Mount Airy on Sunday. Steven will be the main operator of the business. The Pavilion features a grill and games center, and it will be open from 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. Monday through Saturday and 1 p.m. to midnight on Sunday. The Pavilion’s phone number is 786-2210.

Steven’s brother Michael came down from Cleveland to help them get the business running again. He said he would be here for a few weeks.

Michael said, “At first I thought they were crazy, but they’ve always been successful, and it looks better than ever.”

The Sobes call their business a “family entertainment center.” No alcohol is allowed in the Pavilion. Malinda said she has been known to patrol the parking lot to make sure no alcohol or drugs are brought on the premises.

People can come to the Pavilion to shoot pool or play video and arcade games. The Sobes said their business is geared more toward teenagers and adults, because they don’t have any kids’ games.

“And we’ve always served good food,” Larry noted. He said their “Backstreet Burger” and “Barnyard Burger” are favorites.

The Backstreet Pavilion opened in 1990. The Sobes closed it down in 2003 and put all of their attention into their bus company. They opened another grill and games center at the location in 2005 under a different name but closed it down two years later.

It is the coin-operated video game Golden Tee Golf that largely brought the Pavilion its success from 1990 to 2003. At one point, the Pavilion and Mount Airy had the most Golden Tee tournament champions per capita in the nation. The business had people coming from across the nation to play Golden Tee Golf.

The game lets players play virtual golf with people from around the world in real time, since it is hooked into the Sprint communication system. People can play for fun or for money. The game is now in its 20th anniversary.

“If you walked into any bar in America you would see this game,” said Steven, who got started with the game when his dad bought one for the Pavilion.

“Instantly I knew that it was different than any game I’d played before,” he said. “I was pretty much hooked in from the start.”

So Steven went from local video game fan, to 2001-2003 national champion, to the “blue button” as he likes to call it. Push the blue help button on a Golden Tee Golf game, and a video of Steven Sobe will pop onto the screen giving tips on how to play the game.

Steven’s skill at the game has given him many opportunities. He has won a gold medal in the X Games. He has appeared in golf digests and has been nicknamed “the Tiger Woods of coin-operated golf.” He has been featured in numerous newspapers and magazines, including USA Today; has appeared on ESPN Cold Pizza; and even has the cell phone number of Chicago Bears’ linebacker Brian Urlacher.

But Steven just said, “I’m a normal guy who was good at a video game.”

He said he is not having a hard time adjusting to life away from the big city. Steven has been back in Mount Airy for a week and plans to stay in the Mount Airy or Pilot Mountain area.

Steven said he’s a little rusty with Golden Tee, because he wasn’t allowed to compete while working for the company. But now he’s back to playing his favorite game in his newly reopened business.

“It feels like a blast from the past,” he said with a laugh. “But I still expect this to be a Golden Tee hotbed.”

Contact Meghann Evans at mevans@mtairynews.com or at 719-1952.