Separate wireless devices vs. wireless bridge?

Solution 1:

Option 2 - the wireless bridge - by a long shot. Depending on the bridge and router it may well be able to combine more channels for faster throughput but even if not it still eliminates the collissions on the wifi network which eat up bandwidth.

Have you looked at Ethernet over Powerline for backhaul?

Solution 2:

I have a bunch of WiFi-enabled devices in close proximity to each other (the entertainment area), but they're too far away to connect to the router via Ethernet.

I have that issue here and lots of organizations have this issue.

A very good way to solve this is to connect an Access Point (router) or something like a Ubiquiti AP (I use this) back to the main network by one Ethernet cable. (You can do this using a power line setup for Ethernet also).

Router AP is best hooked up LAN to LAN, Static IP on the main network and DHCP OFF to prevent having duplicate DHCP servers. This is all built into the Ubiquiti AP.

This should work fine and will give you full strength Wireless in the Entertainment area.