How A Coin Toss Decided Dave & Buster's Name
It's not often that you come across a restaurant that appeals to people of all ages, but then again, not every restaurant is Dave & Buster's. The chain does more than just serve up delicious food — though we wouldn't blame you if you're only heading there for a good meal. A trip to D&B's also offers patrons both young and old the opportunity to act on their competitive spirit by playing a few games in the arcade, or simply grab a beer and watch their favorite sports team on one of their many televisions that, per the Dave & Buster's website, are also equipped with great sound systems.
As you can see, an evening at Dave & Buster's certainly promises to be enjoyable for everyone. If you've ever visited, you may be wondering who to thank for putting so many great concepts under one roof. Despite the claims of one viral TikTok video, the restaurant-bar-arcade hybrid is not the genius of comedian Dave Chappelle and rapper Busta Rhymes. Rather, the entertainment venue is the brainchild of David Corriveau and James "Buster" Corley, two Arkansas business owners that operated a gaming parlor and restaurant, respectively, in the 1970s. The pair teamed up after noticing patrons bouncing between their neighboring establishments and, according to The Daily Meal, re-located to Dallas, Texas in 1982 to open the first location of their joint business venture. The name of the business is now widely recognized, but it was determined in quite a unique way.
The Dave & Buster's name was left up to chance
When it came time to name their joint venture, David Corriveau and James "Buster" Corley took an interesting route. When naming a new business, Evolve Creative suggests that coming up with an impactful and unique name is highly important. A business's name is typically the first thing that customers will come in contact with and is how it will be remembered, well, forever. By that logic, nothing about the process of coming up with it should be left to chance, but that didn't stop Corriveau and Corley from settling on the name of their new business with the flip of a coin.
We're not lying. Though it was seemingly decided that both founders of the restaurant-arcade hybrid would be honored in the name of their new business, Mental Floss reports that each party had an equal chance of getting the first mention, as they used a coin flip to decide the order of their names. It's unclear who called heads or tails, but, as you can tell, whichever side Corriveau claimed in the toss wound up being the lucky one. Dave & Buster's was born, and we can't say we're not happy with the side that lady luck chose on that fateful day in 1982 — Buster & Dave's just doesn't have quite the same ring.