Jessica Lleras bent over the red felt expanse of the pool table, lining up her shot. Crack! Thirteen ball in the side pocket. Unfortunately, it was her opponent’s ball.

She didn’t seem to mind, though. The 17-year-old, a recent graduate of Crescent Valley High School, was having a good time Friday afternoon hanging out at the Fun House, a new business that opened July 15 next door to Richey’s Market.

It offers something new for Corvallis — a variety of table games and other amusements for people of all ages.

“When I was a freshman and sophomore in high school, we used to go to the MU to play pool,” she said. But being surrounded by a bunch of college kids at Oregon State’s student union was “kind of intimidating,” she said.

“This is more family-oriented,” she said. “My little sister’s over there playing miniature golf. ... I feel like I can bring her here.”

It’s an old story in Corvallis, where young people frequently complain about not having enough to do.

Yes, there are the old stand-bys, the Memorial Union and Highland Bowl, but one’s for college students and the other’s for, well, bowling. There’s the Boys & Girls Club, but that’s for members, and it can get pretty crowded. There’s always swimming at Otter Beach or minigolf at Beaver Falls — as long as the weather’s nice.

The idea behind the Fun House is to fill the gaps in those offerings.

Co-owner Scott Yarrow, 23, remembers the dearth of entertainment options available when he was growing up in the area.

“I grew up cruising up and down Ninth Street,” he recalled. “Maybe (we’d) go to the bowling alley. There was not a whole lot else to do.”

That’s still true today, especially for the under-21 crowd, and Yarrow saw that as a business opportunity. So he teamed up with his cousin Joshua Guth, 28, and friend Kenneth Hokama, 35, to open the Fun House.

The 5,600-square-foot room has four pool tables, a nine-hole miniature golf layout, three dartboards, two foosball tables, a pair of air hockey tables and a ping-pong table in the back. There’s also a small snack bar with candy bars, chips, popcorn and bottles of soda pop and juice.

It costs $10 an hour to rent a pool table, $3.50 a round for golf, and $6 an hour for everything else.

Yarrow’s hoping to add video games to the mix eventually, but nothing too gory.

“We want to keep it pretty family-oriented,” he said. “We don’t want to get into the shooting games.”

Hokama thinks the location — walking distance from Linus Pauling Middle School and the Boys & Girls Club — should help provide a steady stream of young customers, “especially right after school’s done and when they have their little breaks.”

On Friday, the new business was getting good reviews from customers of all ages.

“I think it’s great, all the stuff they have,” said 11-year-old Jeffrey Kimura, who’ll be a sixth-grader next year at Cheldelin Middle School. Although it’s been open less than two weeks, this was Jeffrey’s third visit to the Fun House.

“They ask me every day if they can come here,” said his mother, Cris Kimura. “His little brother’s over there, playing air hockey.”

And what would Jeffrey be doing if he wasn’t here, shooting pool with his mom? He doesn’t even have to think about his answer:

“Lying on the couch moping around about not having anything to do.”

The Fun House is open from noon to midnight Monday through Thursday and from 9 a.m. to midnight Friday through Sunday. The address is 942 N.W. Circle Blvd., and the phone number is 752-0288.

Bennett Hall is the business editor for the Gazette-Times. He can be reached at 758-9529 or bennett.hall@lee.net.