From left: Tyler Clements, Dojo Social Club co-founder, Reysa Mae Lim (Yby’s wife), Yby Lim, Dojo Social Club co-founder, were all smiles to welcome Border City residents to their new business after opening in late June. Jeannette Benoit-Leipert Meridian Source
A new local business is offering a unique entertainment experience, just in time for the summer holidays.
The Dojo Social Club opened its doors on June 29. The establishment features three ping pong tables, two private karaoke rooms and a private gaming room, and is located just east of The Sticks pool hall, in the same building complex.
“We’re actually really new. We opened up on June 29. We’re very much a ‘baby business’, I like to call ourselves and have definitely had our ups and downs, although hopefully with spreading awareness we can keep growing and keep having a place for younger people to come by and just be out of the streets and have fun in a more safe environment,” said Dojo Social Club co-owner Yby Lim.
He said the idea for the business came from his own experience growing up in the Border City.
“We’re trying to stick to the family-friendly kind of vibe here, especially since there haven’t really been many entertainment options, especially for teenagers when I was growing up around here. So I thought this would be kind of a perfect offering for all those students and college students as well,” said Lim.
“We are planning on having adult-only nights in the future though, just so we can get in touch with the older demographic, and kind of show them they can have karaoke with a couple of glasses of wine. We are truly offering a private experience for people. It’s something new to Lloydminster, and something new to central Canada. We noticed these karaoke rooms tend to be more popular on the east and west coast of the country, so we wanted to introduce something new.”
Lim said he took the leap into business with his partner Tyler Clements, who is from Raddison, Saskatchewan.
“When we were looking at places to kind of build our physical location, I suggested to him that we actually build it here in Lloydminster,” said Lim.
“Not only because I know a lot of people here and it would help us get started once we opened but just because of the amount of value that we can give to the people in our community here, because I know a lot of people tend to go out of town when they want to do something fun. Especially when it’s something like karaoke or a larger-scale entertainment experience … and I wanted to offer that here in Lloydminster so people didn’t have to go far from home and just stick to their community to have that kind of entertainment.”
The club offers something for everyone, and Lim said they are “definitely wanting to grow the table tennis community around here”.
“We have our ping pong lounge…we have three competition-grade tables. And then ITTF approved ping pong paddles and two buckets full of our own brand of ping pong balls.”
Lim and Clements are competitive table tennis players and are always up for a challenge.
“Customers can come over here and challenge us to a game, and if they beat us, their next hour at a ping pong table is completely free. So, a little incentive for people to get better at their game and just for us to see if there’s any other players out there in Lloyd … I’d love to see everyone come out—even from Vermilion, I’ve heard there’s some good players from Vermilion,” said Lim.
“In the future, we do hope to start a leaderboard, for people to kind of compete with each other for some fun and then also meet new people—challenging new people that are just one or two spots above them on the leaderboard. A good chance for people to meet one another here in Lloyd—something a little more social.”
As well as ping pong they offer two different private karaoke rooms of different capacities.
“There’s our small pink karaoke room, which can seat up to six people … a nice little cozy place, a little more budget-friendly for people. And the second karaoke room, my personal favourite—the red room. A little dimmer lighting, a lot more intimate—this is our more premium experience room. It can seat 12-14 people,” said Lim, adding it has been a popular option for the younger crowd.
Another popular room for youth is the private gaming room, which seats six.
“We have a PS5, Xbox series X and Nintendo Switch all with the latest games that are really popular. And we’ve been taking video game requests … just recently I added FIFA.”
Lim said they also found a way to partner with some fellow local business owners to add value for their customers as well.
“In each of our rooms, we actually have menus … these are our partner restaurants. They’re all locally owned, and our current campaign is saying that when you support us at Dojo Social Club you support everyone else in your community by supporting local,” said Lim.
