# Tony and Kim Chbeir of What’s Brewing in SA, TX - Episode 29 **Source:** JBS Show **Type:** podcast_episode **Published:** 2024-05-30 **Duration:** 42m 44s **Beat:** Pinball **URL:** Buzzsprout-15161113 --- ## Analysis Jamie Birchall interviews Tony and Kim Chbeir of What's Brewing in San Antonio, a coffee roasting company (since early 1980s) that has grown to operate 50 pinball machines and hosts tournaments. They discuss their journey from five machines in 2017 to their current operation, the importance of their tech team (Mike McKenna and Chris), plans to launch Twitch streaming by end of June for tournaments and events, and Tony's passion for astronomy which complements their community-oriented arcade venue. ### Key Claims - [HIGH] What's Brewing has grown from 5 pinball machines in 2017 to 50 machines by 2024 — _Tony states 'we started with a couple of pinball partners that we're very lucky to have met and we grew from five machines at the beginning and now we have 50 machines that didn't happen overnight but it was over you know the period of eight years'_ - [HIGH] The coffee roasting company was founded in the mid-1970s by an older couple; Tony's father purchased it in 1983 and began roasting operations in 1984 — _Tony explains 'there was an older couple in San Antonio that got into gourmet coffee in the mid 70s...when we were passing through a town in 83...dad smelled the gourmet coffee...ended up making them an offer...From there, it moved to another location where we started roasting coffee in 84'_ - [HIGH] What's Brewing will host the 2025 state pinball finals in February or March and also host a Bells Rodeo in February — _Tony states 'we learned that we're going to be hosting the 2025 state finals next February or March and then we have another Bells Rodeo in February'_ - [HIGH] What's Brewing plans to launch Twitch streaming by end of June 2024 for tournaments and events — _Tony says 'we should have our first streams coming up here by the end of June, hopefully, if everything goes well' and they ordered equipment including 'mini ATX case with all my computer stuff coming in the next week or so'_ - [MEDIUM] Ninja Eclipse homebrew machine is earning money at What's Brewing, performing comparably to expectations though not at the level of new Stern releases — _Tony states 'it's earning you know, similar to what you'd expect...I wouldn't say like a new Stern because there's always a lot of hype and people want to play the newest Stern. But it's up there. It's earning'_ - [HIGH] Tony owns a 22-inch computerized telescope made by Obsession company in Wisconsin and has been doing astronomy outreach since the 1990s — _Tony explains 'I got my latest telescope. It was made by a company named Obsession in Wisconsin, and I have a 22-inch scope...Although going back, I got my first telescope when I was 10...I got the bug back in the early 90s'_ - [HIGH] What's Brewing has partnership with Mike McKenna (tech) and Chris (tournament coordinator) as core pinball team members — _Tony states 'We quickly met Mike McKenna from MGM Amusements. He's an integral part of the What's Brewing pinball team as well. Chris is still a big part of it. We all work together...if you take either of those points of the triangle away from it, you don't have, like, what's brewing pinball'_ - [MEDIUM] John Spates visited What's Brewing a couple months ago and praised how well the machines play there — _Jamie states 'John Spates visited you guys a couple of months ago, and he raved about how great the machines play' and Tony confirms they have great techs maintaining the machines_ ### Notable Quotes > "We're not quite a bar. We're not quite a brewery, but we do have coffee. It's kind of fun, family arcade style." > — **Tony Chbeir**, ~5:00 > _Concisely describes What's Brewing's unique business model blending coffee roasting, pinball, and family entertainment_ > "if you take either of those points of the triangle away from it, you don't have, like, what's brewing pinball" > — **Tony Chbeir**, ~18:30 > _Emphasizes the importance of collaborative partnerships (Mike McKenna, Chris) to their pinball operation's success_ > "I think a lot of the enthusiasm that I learned to share astronomy, I could also use that to kind of get people excited about pinball when they walk up...once they get into it, it's kind of like it snowballs" > — **Tony Chbeir**, ~42:00 > _Draws parallel between overcoming intimidation factor in astronomy and pinball; demonstrates philosophy of community engagement through shared enthusiasm_ > "there's still some nature there, you know, in the middle of it. So it's been a lot of fun. And I think it's part of what keeps me interested in Tony because he's amazing and he's so passionate about, you know, so many things." > — **Kim Chbeir**, ~40:00 > _Kim describes how Tony's passions (astronomy, pinball, coffee) are interconnected aspects of their relationship and business_ > "We set them hard. Long story short, we set them hard. We try to be fair, but about the only thing that I change on a regular tournament, as I might go through and set the ball save timers down to five seconds" > — **Tony Chbeir**, ~24:00 > _Explains tournament machine setup approach balancing casual players and competitive tournament conditions with 50 machines_ ### Entities | Name | Type | Context | |------|------|---------| | What's Brewing | company | Coffee roasting company in San Antonio, Texas founded in mid-1970s; now operates 50 pinball machines and hosts tournaments; plans Twitch streaming launch | | Tony Chbeir | person | Co-owner of What's Brewing; pinball enthusiast since 2016/2017; astronomy hobbyist with 22-inch telescope; involved in pinball tournament hosting | | Kim Chbeir | person | Co-owner of What's Brewing; met Tony in 2016 at star party; pinball player and community supporter; involved in family astronomy outreach | | Mike McKenna | person | Lead technician for What's Brewing pinball team; from MGM Amusements; primary tech for machine maintenance and repair; integral to arcade operations | | Chris | person | Tournament coordinator and pinball community member; brought personal collection to What's Brewing; part of core pinball team with Mike and Tony; works on co-ed tournament organization | | Collier | person | World-class pinball player from San Antonio pinball community; fiancé of Cynthia; first-generation fan of Wormhole/Jamie's content; active in tournaments at What's Brewing | | Jamie Birchall | person | Host of JBS Show / Wormhole Pinball podcast; interviewer; operates Wormhole arcade venue; known for pinball content creation and community engagement | | Ninja Eclipse | game | Homebrew pinball machine designed by Chris (Ninja Eclipse creator); operating at What's Brewing; earning revenue comparable to mid-tier releases; tournament-legal | | Wormhole Pinball | company | Arcade venue in Texas operated by Jamie Birchall; hosts tournaments and streaming; serves as pinball community hub; expanding to 'Wormhole East Museum' | | San Antonio Pinball League | organization | Tournament league centered at What's Brewing; competitive pinball community in San Antonio area | | John Spates | person | Visited What's Brewing; praised machine playability; helping with Wormhole streaming tech night project; known in pinball community | | Cynthia | person | Fiancée of Collier; getting married; featured in What's Brewing wedding celebration tournament event | ### Topics - **Primary:** What's Brewing business model and growth trajectory, Pinball arcade operations and machine maintenance, Streaming infrastructure and Twitch launch plans, Ninja Eclipse homebrew machine performance and integration, San Antonio pinball community and tournament scene - **Secondary:** Astronomy outreach and telescope operations, Tournament machine configuration and settings, Community engagement and customer experience ### Sentiment **Positive** (0.85) — Very positive tone throughout. Hosts and guests express mutual admiration and enthusiasm for pinball community, What's Brewing's operations, and upcoming streaming projects. Genuine appreciation for team members (Mike, Chris), local players (Collier, Cynthia), and cross-community collaboration (Wormhole). Minor note of apprehension about streaming technical complexity, but overall optimistic and supportive. ### Signals - **[business_signal]** What's Brewing operates 50-machine collection split across tournament-legal modern Stern/LCD machines and EM/vintage machines; tournament operation requires 5-30 minutes setup depending on configuration (confidence: high) — Tony: 'for the, I think we've got between D&D sterns and LCDs, we probably have 25, I mean, maybe 30 minutes. It's not that bad'; operating during public hours and tournaments simultaneously with balancing act - **[community_signal]** What's Brewing and Wormhole collaborating on cross-venue streaming and tech knowledge sharing; Tech Night at Wormhole launching with John Spates and Kieerick Warren to stream machine maintenance and repairs (confidence: high) — Jamie: 'we're starting a tech night...starting next Wednesday is a new stream in the wormhole called Tech Night at the wormhole. And it's going to be hosted by John Speets and Kierick Warren...we're going to live stream our techs working on all these particular machines' - **[community_signal]** San Antonio positioned as strong pinball hub with dedicated tournament scene, quality machine maintenance infrastructure (Mike McKenna), and growing player base (Collier, Trey King, Love Family) (confidence: high) — Tony: 'we've got a great family of pinball people that come in and run tournaments and just kind of like throw parties for each other...we're really lucky in san antonio that we've got such a good group of people that quickly kind of coalesced and like formed this group'; John Spates visiting and praising machine playability - **[event_signal]** What's Brewing will host 2025 state pinball finals (Feb/March) and Bells Rodeo (Feb), driving infrastructure upgrades including streaming rig purchase and assembly (confidence: high) — Tony: 'we learned that we're going to be hosting the 2025 state finals next February or March and then we have another Bells Rodeo in February...we really need to get back on this course and get all the mobile rig stuff' - **[product_concern]** Ninja Eclipse homebrew machine performing adequately in earnings but not reaching new Stern release hype levels; stable operation with minimal tech intervention required (confidence: medium) — Tony: 'it's earning you know, similar to what you'd expect...I wouldn't say like a new Stern because there's always a lot of hype and people want to play the newest Stern. But it's up there. It's earning' and 'it's been working really well everybody should be having a lot of fun with it' - **[technology_signal]** What's Brewing acquiring streaming equipment (mini ATX case, transmitter/receiver packages) based on Wormhole's two mobile streaming rigs and consulting with Jamie on setup approach (confidence: high) — Tony: 'we ordered the, I got a mini ATX case with all my computer stuff coming in the next week or so. And then we're going to be placing the orders for our transmitter receiver packages' and discussing various streaming architectures (static vs mobile, comparing to Carpool, JDL, IE Pinball approaches) --- ## Transcript hello my name is jamie birchall and you are listening to and or watching our podcast called wormhole pinball presents and today i am so excited to be joined by tony and kim shabir of what's brewing in san antonio texas welcome back to the wormhole this time virtually absolutely yeah thank you so much good to be here uh i'm so glad you guys were able to make it to the wormhole a couple of weeks ago. That was awesome. Thank you so much. Yeah, I think you inspired us. We want to do some one strikes as well. You guys are awesome. The one strikes are fun. They're goofy. It doesn't really matter. Yeah, close to one. Yeah, exactly. I should have won that one too. I just constantly choke. You don't want to take anything away from the people coming though. I know you do it on purpose. Yeah, I'm the host. I do the same thing all the time, man. Selfless. So before we really get into questions for you both, can you guys give me like an elevator pitch on what's brewing so our listeners and viewers can kind of understand where you guys are coming from? Yeah, absolutely. We're a coffee roasting company that's been in business in San Antonio since the early 80s. we got into pinball in 2017 and we started with a couple of pinball partners that we're very lucky to have met and we grew from five machines at the beginning and now we have 50 machines that didn't happen overnight but it was over you know the period of eight years we've kind of grown our collection grown our community and now you can come in you can see the coffee getting roasted You can see the coffee being packaged. You can get a cup of coffee or a pound of coffee or 100 pounds of coffee. You can also play pinball during our kind of bank hours that we keep, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. usually. So, yeah, we're not quite a bar. We're not quite a brewery, but we do have coffee. It's kind of fun, family arcade style. Wow, that's awesome. We'll delve into it now. So it opened in, what, 79? I think is the website yeah actually there was an older couple in San Antonio that got into gourmet coffee in the mid 70s and they decided to open up a coffee shop in what used to be Central Park Mall right at 410 and 281 and they were just ahead of their time you know this is free Starbucks this is Maxwell House this is Folgers time and San Antonio wasn't really ready for it and when we were passing through a town in 83. Me and my family stopped at Central Park Mall and dad smelled the gourmet coffee, kind of drew him in. Started up a conversation with this couple. They were on their way. They were looking for a buyer and dad was looking for some opportunities. He ended up making them an offer and took it. From there, it moved to another location where we started roasting coffee in 84. Then we bought our first warehouse in 94. We moved to our current warehouse in 99. Now we've got a 10,000 square foot warehouse. 10,000 square feet. Wow. Mostly coffee. We've got a big roasting room. We've got a lot of green coffee storage. We've got a large packaging area, but we also have three large rooms with pinballs. And I think we kind of maxed out. We kind of stuffed as much pinball as we can in there. But I think we're happy. It's a nice round number of 50 machines. There's always room for more, Tony. Yeah. It's like the dishwasher, right? They just end up at our house. Yeah. Yeah, they do. They do. So real quick, www.sacoffeeroasters.com is your website. You can offer, order the coffee directly. I want to mention that because you guys brought the Vienna blend, which I gave to my wife. She's drinking that at home. And then the Viennese blend you brought, I think that's here at the Wormhole. Yeah. Yeah, we brought you a couple of pounds. And, I mean, we're definitely playing our next trip already. I'll bring you some more. Yeah, it's a good barter system. You keep bringing that stuff, and we'll keep letting you in whenever you want. Okay. Deal. So when did you two meet? We met at the warehouse, actually, in 2016. Yeah, it was right before Tony kind of started the pinball adventure. We had a mutual friend that invited me over to a star party at a warehouse in what seemed like a very scary, kind of sketchy, you know, event. She was like, yeah, yeah, we're going to go look at the stars at this guy's warehouse. I'm like, what guy? What warehouse? Like, you're scaring me. Like, why are you making me take me to this place? I had no idea because it was an industrial kind of area. So at night, there's like nobody there, you know, at that time, especially because we still, you know, people didn't really come as often into that area unless you had business there. You're, you know, renovating a house or something. And so I came to this star party and I met Tony and he was so charming and he had this amazing telescope. and he showed me the stars, so I just kept coming back. Oh, my God. That's awesome. I have a bunch of astronomy questions for you later. That's how we met, and then I think some of our first dates were going to Austin and, you know, going to pinballs and some different places, Buffalo, and then Buffalo was still open. We did some tournaments together, and, you know, pinball was always there right at the very beginning, and that was part of what we liked to do together. She's always been there to support that aspect. She puts up with the pinball machines here at the house, waking her up. But yeah, we really enjoy doing pinball together. It's fun to split flip. It's fun to play against each other. That is awesome. And that is why I strong-armed you so quickly when you came to the wormhole to be on the podcast because I just absolutely love it. When did you first put machines in the warehouse? You said 2016? It was 2017. I think it was like that summer we did a renovation. So it was kind of a square layout at the warehouse. We had some like awkward rooms and that's when we started kind of breaking down walls, opening things up. We wanted it to be more like when a customer walks in the front door, I wanted them to be able to see all the way to the back where the roasting operation was. So there was kind of a lot of demolition in 2017. And then we got the first – Chris Doyle, friend of the wormhole, he brought his personal collection in. And we had those on pre-play until we got our state tags on them. So it was probably a good three or four months of replay, and then got our first, like, fish sale, I think, with our first semi-modern. I was coming. What was first? I always want to know what's first. Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, that was kind of when we started growing it past the original five, and then it was kind of just buying them here and there. We quickly met Mike McKenna from MGM Amusements. He's an integral part of the What's Brewing pinball team as well. Chris is still a big part of it. We all work together. Chris is like the tournament guy on the co-ed stuff. Mike is our main tech. I'm just the guy that lives there and kind of replaces rubbers and reports things up to Mike that I can't fix. But, I mean, I think if you take either of those points of the triangle away from it, you don't have, like, what's brewing pinball. Yeah. Pinball, you know, John Spates visited you guys a couple of months ago, and he raved about how great the machines play. And, you know, pinball machines break down all the time, and we all know those arcades where they don't work. And so let's give a shout, you know, and thank you for giving a shout-out to your techs because that's what keeps the machines in such great shape. Yeah, absolutely. We can't do it without the community as well. You know, we've got a great family of pinball people that come in and run tournaments and just kind of like throw parties for each other when there's celebrations or morning or anything else we come together and you know it's just i think anybody listening to this podcast can recognize everybody's got their their hometown arcade where they've got their pinball family and we're really lucky in san antonio that we've got such a good group of people that quickly kind of coalesced and like formed this group and we uh we love all it's great yeah you have got you've got great people and great players in san antonio and some of the nicest people have come here and I have to give a shout out to the Love Family because as their name implies they're just lovely I think they're at the warehouse right now I just saw them before I left did you? they're amazing and they were my first real fan they came up to me like real early on when we started and they're like we love you and I just didn't know how to react to that they're super Yeah, Collier and his fiancee, Cynthia, who we absolutely love. I'm trying to name all the people from San Antonio that come to the Worm. They're having their wedding shower. We have our first Saturday tournament on Saturday, and we're going to dedicate it to them. So putting everything on free play. Shh, don't tell anybody. But we're going to put everything on free play later in the evening, and we're all wearing white, and it's going to be just for them. And we love those guys, too. So that's awesome. And you guys are really the hub for the San Antonio Pinball League. So that's awesome. Congratulations. And thank you for really helping grow, you know, pinball. Yeah, it's been a wild ride. Okay, so I looked on PinMap, and I saw two machines there that struck my eye. And I looked at your website and said let me look at their current list of pins Two right off course I mean World Cup Soccer I mean if you listen to any of my podcasts i have a problem with world cup soccer i love it too much and yeah it the only pin that i own but my new obsession is congo yeah yeah that was uh we got that one uh i think in like 2019 uh steve Steven Bowden of you know he's the famous pinball player who worked for um deep root here in San Antonio, along with Barry Elsler. He was selling that machine, and I think Chris picked it up. Yeah, we love Congo. It's great. Oh, we're dying for a Congo. So if anyone's out there listening to Congo, hit us up at wormholepinball at gmail.com. Maybe we can do an exchange program where we just trade machines in between our arcades. That's above my pay grade at the wormhole. John Spates will hook you up with that. Okay, we'll talk to John afterwards. Absolutely. Absolutely. Speaking of John again, we're starting a tech night. You know, we have our tech night here Wednesdays. And I was telling you both when you were here, you saw the list of grievances, our board of grievances. So what we're going to start is starting next Wednesday is a new stream in the wormhole called Tech Night at the wormhole. And it's going to be hosted by John Speets and Kierick Warren, who she's doing a lot of great stuff. So we're going to live stream our techs working on all these particular machines and show the board of grievances and have a long cord and let Mike, John walk around and interview some of the techs, although they probably won't want to be on. But I told them they won't want to be on, but we'll deal with that later. So but look for that. That's we're all excited about that stream. I'll watch that. Yeah, it'll be good. I think it's a different crowd, right? It's a different than watching competitive pinball. it's really people that are going to be interested in how do you fix cosmic princess or some of the rarities that we have here, you know? Right. Right. Yeah. I mean, we're, yeah, we, I would love to do the same thing at some point just because we were, we've got such a resource with Mike because he can work on like the, the EMs and can work. He's confident. He has a confidence. I mean, he's, he basically shoots things into space. So he kind of has to have them space hardened before they go up there. because you can't pull over up there. So he's very good at getting stuff, like, working all the way. But I'm really looking forward to seeing what you guys come up with. Yeah, I think it can be totally duplicated, right? And that's the – so let's talk about duplication here. When are you starting the What's Brewing streaming channel on Twitch? Yeah, we got the rig about 18 months ago because Collier was – He got to sit in the booth. I think it might have even been with Phil before you guys took – you got some of Phil's equipment. Yeah, we bought – that's how we started. We initially bought Phil Grimaldi's equipment for his pinball. Yeah, I think it was the last time he was streaming at the Houston Expo. And Collier jumped on the mic as well as, like, Trey King and a couple of our guys got a couple of minutes at the booth. And I just saw the way that they kind of took off on it. I was like, hey, we got to do something like that. So I went ahead and I bought the erector set. I forget the name of the company that sells all the parts for that rig. It's like 80-20 something. Yeah, yeah. So I got that list and I assembled that and I got all the cameras. And it was kind of like the Jack Danger list. So it was a static kind of thing. It wasn't a rolling, going from station to station, hardwired kind of thing to a laptop. and then we found out we didn't have the Wi-Fi and it fizzled out a little bit. Our latency was, we were dropping too many packets so it would be fine for a minute and it wouldn't be fine. You can't do that when you're live streaming. So we put it on the back burner and when we learned that we're going to be hosting the 2025 state finals next February or March and then we have another Bells Rodeo in February, were like, wow, we really need to get back on this course and get all the mobile rig stuff. And that's one of the main reasons. I mean, of course, I wanted to visit the wormhole, but I really need to get eyes on what you guys have in your two mobile streaming rigs. So we actually ordered the, I got a mini ATX case with all my computer stuff coming in the next week or so. And then we're going to be placing the orders for our transmitter receiver packages and a couple other things that you were kind enough to share with me. I'm really appreciative of that. Oh, of course. We should have our first streams coming up here by the end of June, hopefully, if everything goes well. Do we have a Twitch channel name? Nothing fancy yet. It might just be What's Brewing Arcade or What's Flipping. I'm not exactly sure. I think we're going to be able to have some, and this is all just speculation at this point, but I would like to open it up to some of our pinball family and see if people want to do some, you know, late night stuff where they're just streaming. I mean, if people want to put their name on it, they're more than welcome to. I think there's so many options for you guys, right? Yeah. But you've got a really great T-shirt that you're wearing that has a pretty good brand, so I would probably incorporate that in your Twitch channel. but that's just me. Yeah, we might as well. We can go all different kinds of directions, but I think the main stuff we're going to be doing for tournaments and stuff will probably be under what's brewing or what's flipping. Cool. I need to go. So speaking that you came to the Wormhole to check out our stuff, I need to go to Memphis and check out David Yap's stuff. I watched it last night too. I was watching that amazing race. and he did an amazing race on Sunday I think it was maybe or Monday whatever how they can go from machine to machine it gives me such envy I think we're going to incorporate a lot of that when we build the Wormhole East Museum I really do I think that's a great idea I've been to a flip side I don't want to say it's a shame because I don't want to speak out of turn but Kim and I have been to one south of Fort Collins in Colorado. I think there's a flipside arcade in a small town just south of there. We stayed right next to it in Loveland. Yeah, I think there might be more than one, but they didn't have that kind of streaming stuff up back then, but I don't know if that's proprietary. I know he's a genius with... He's a genius. I had him on the podcast, and I had him and his partner on, and they just walked me through how they did it. But I need to go. That's a 2025 initiative for me. I've got to get to Memphis and figure that out. Because, you know, real lastly on the streaming garbage, but you have a decision to make. Do you want it to be mobile? Do you want it to be able to leave What's Brewing? Because if you want it to be able to leave What's Brewing, I would probably copy Carpool, right? Because they have it mobile. Yeah, super mobile. It's super mobile, right? You've seen their stuff, and they haven't even – It's like phones, right? They use phones. Yeah, they use phones. And I think it's, aside from the latency from the audio that they sometimes have problems with, I mean, it's just a great stream. It's a great stream. They're going to always have that because of the Bluetooth problems, and that's just. That's what it is. That's what it is. But Clark will call me. Yeah, they're great. It's something else. So then, or you could do the static with, like, what we have, and then I copied IE Pinball and all the rest of them. You know, another great stream to check out is JDL. Yeah, I've watched them some. Oh, my gosh. I would love to have that. That instant switching is just great. You don't have to worry about interrupting people, and you can just turn it off and on. You can do multiple machines on the stream at the same time. Yeah. It's pretty incredible. It is really cool. Your games at Watch Brewing, how are they set? because you have a lot of tournament players and then you have a lot of people that come in and drop quarters, right? Yeah, we're open to the public even during tournaments and stuff. So we do have – that is a balancing act. Yeah, how do you do that? Because Collier and Trey, they can play all day. Yeah, we set them hard. Long story short, we set them hard. We try to be fair, but about the only thing that I change on a regular tournament, as I might go through and set the ball save timers down to five seconds instead of the normal 10, 12 seconds, and turn on the tournament option on the menu. Just make sure the rules stay the same. That makes sense, right? Yeah. How long does that take you for 50 machines? Well, I just do the modern strength. We leave the DMDs on tournament mode pretty much all the time because nobody really notices. And there's not really a ball save option on a lot of the DMDs. So those stay at tournament all the time. And then for the, I think we've got between D&D sterns and LCDs, we probably have 25, I mean, maybe 30 minutes. It's not that bad. It takes me almost 30 minutes to put up this rig, you know, to set all this up. Yeah, I was wondering about that, how long that's going to take to get everything set up. And your computer stays static. You don't have to plug everything back into the USBs. No, 30 is a big exaggeration. It's 5 to 10, but I go through it like a fine-tooth comb, and I've really learned how to be an engineer, which I'm not. I'm in sales. So I had to go, when something is broken, I use the engineering method, just go backwards and they're like IT, you know, they just take you backwards. And that's what I really have to learn. And cameras, you got to learn all that camera crap. Yeah, we delved into that a little bit when we bought that static system. And it's, yeah, it's a learning curve. I kind of I not dreading it but I am a little bit apprehensive about it Here what you know again real quick start with baby steps Kim Don let him go crazy with 50 machines already Just go baby steps Yeah. And then, you know, build your audience and build your thing, and then you give him a little bit better camera next time and maybe a little bit better mic. Yeah. And that's when the big bucks start rolling. And that's when $7.50. All those biddies. I can't wait. All those bits wait till you get them. It'll be like farmers. Oh, yeah. Okay, let's talk. Talk to me about Ninja Eclipse. How did that get on site at What's Brewing? Yeah, so Chris reached out to me through one of our coffee plants. He knew one of our coffee plants, so he reached out to me, got my phone number, gave me a call, and invited them in. And we just kind of, it always happened to be during a tournament day. And one of the first people I introduced him to was Collier. I knew that that's somebody that you'd be interested in talking with because Collier is a world-class player. That's just kind of getting, you know, his, you know, getting his belt set for, you know, competitive. He's like very well along the way of like learning all the rules of every machine. So that was a good guy to introduce him to. And then, you know, of course, you know, Mike McKenna and Chris Mutt, Mike had a lot of good advice that I think that he really listened to and brought into his latest iteration of the machine that we have at What's Brewing now. And it's just been, it's been a lot of fun to have a working pinball machine that was made in San Antonio at the arcade. it's been a lot of fun and they come in and they do little programming tweets here and there but I think we talked about it a little bit a couple of Mondays ago when we were at Wormhole and it's just been work you know there hasn't been a team of techs like coming in every day to fix problems it's pretty much been set as it is and it's been working really well everybody should be having a lot of fun with it. Is Collier allowed to play it in tournaments? Oh yeah we all don't, I mean, it doesn't matter what game you're playing with Kali, you're not looking for I think the rule set is pretty strict there's not really like a back door to blow that machine up, as far as I know it's pretty straightforward and linear and achievable for anybody can kind of walk up to it and play it and score some good points it's a great game How's it earning? Good, good, I'd say it's earning you know, similar to what you'd expect with I wouldn't say like a new Stern because there's always a lot of hype and people want to play the newest Stern. But it's up there. It's earning. Yeah, yeah. I don't have the exact numbers, but, yeah, I'd say it's a lot of people putting quarters into it. Yeah, it's earning. I had Chris on a couple of months ago, and what a just straightforward great dude. Yeah. Yeah, no, I think he's coming from a really good place, and he wants to put a good product out for people at a good price. I think that's – I mean, nobody's getting rich, like, operating pinball, making pinball. You know, it's always got a passion project aspect to it. But I think he's got really good intentions for, you know, putting good pinball machines out there and reaching an audience. Wow, it's awesome that you guys have one on location there in San Antonio. It's just fantastic. Let's talk astronomy. because I'm a dork as well. Sure. How did you start bringing telescopes to what's brewing? How did that happen? Well, I guess it was about 2010. I got my latest telescope. It was made by a company named Obsession in Wisconsin, and I have a 22-inch scope. The mirror is about 22 inches across. That's the primary mirror, and it's fully computerized. It has access to, you know, tens of thousands of objects. You basically just punch it in. It goes to the object and then it tracks the object so you don't have to, like, nudge it. So that was the first time I really did public outreach at the warehouse. Before that, I've been part of San Antonio Astronomy Groups. Although going back, I got my first telescope when I was 10. Dad got me my first little scope. I got the bug back in the early 90s. So, you know, it was a lot of fun growing up with astronomy. Kind of just when I started to drive, I load up my 10-inch, and I just kind of head out towards Kerrville, find some back roads, and just set up on the side of the road. And it's just kind of grown. It's just like pinball. It kind of grew as I got older, and I got a bigger scope, and started setting up behind the warehouse. just with Facebook friends. It was mostly small groups. If there was a lunar eclipse, we might have like 40 or 50 people out. But during the winter months when the sun goes down at a reasonable hour, we set up the scopes every Saturday and have it set up in the back so people can kind of just have a look at the moon or Jupiter or Saturn or some deep sky objects. And I train my kids so now I don't have to always be setting that up on my own and be manning it. I can kind of either be doing the pinball stuff or be doing outside the warehouse stuff. So it's fun to teach them how to do it. I think you wouldn't think right off the bat, but I think as far as the wow factor with watching somebody look through the IEPs for the first time, it's kind of a much similar reaction they have to touching a pinball machine for the first time and kind of it just takes whatever kind of worries you have uh walking up to the machine or the telescope you kind of forget about that once you are interacting with either the telescope or a pinball machine all you really care about is keeping that ball from draining or you know just seeing all the details at of the moon's craters or whatever you're answer. We've got a blind dog knocking our truck driver out. Oh, don't worry. I think it goes well with the coffee aspect and the pinball aspect. We have fun with the astronomy at the warehouse. Kim and I still go out to West Texas. I load up the telescope in the back of the trailer. We drive out to the pinky black sky and pass the Big Ben. We go out there and just set up the scope for three or four nights and just recharge the batteries. Is it amazing, Kim? Yeah, it really is. It's been awesome just because, you know, I didn't grow up going to star parties. I had no idea what that even meant. Right. And learning about that through Tony and experiencing it in different places, it's just been really beautiful and amazing. And it's things that I've been able to share with friends and family that we would never have even imagined, especially in the middle of San Antonio, which is like a big city in itself. And, you know, just being able to kind of have that moment where, you know, there's still some nature there, you know, in the middle of it. So it's been a lot of fun. And I think it's part of what keeps me interested in Tony because he's amazing and he's so passionate about, you know, so many things. And I just happen to enjoy them too. So I think that it's really fun. That is awesome. I'll tell you quick. I'm from Long Island, New York, and there's no stars. We didn't have any stars in New York. And when I moved to Florida, we lived way outside Orlando. And so we had stars. And my mother, this woman from Puerto Rico, Bronx, New York, she had never seen stars, really. And so she became fascinated with it to the point where we had the space shuttle in Orlando. So we could watch night launches from my patio. Oh, wow. And my mother would wake me up for them. I remember being a high school student and my mother's waking me up so I can go watch the launch. My brother never got up, but I got up and I was dating Janine in college and my mother would wake us up for night launches. And then, of course, she would call us and say, hey, you're going to hear the sonic boom at exactly this time because the shuttles, I don't know if you remember, but the shuttles used to go to California and then they would 747 them back. So, you know, they started landing in Cape Canaveral when I moved there. And so the in Orlando, the sonic booms would shake your house. Yeah, it was incredible. because it would uh the first boom is the break of the atmosphere and the second is the sound barrier so it's a boom and it just shakes i don't know if that sound effect was very good sorry but uh but anytime a planet is visible to this day my mother will text me and the iss goes over my head and she goes do you have clear sky because the iss is going to go over at this time or my mother it's just she's so awesome she's 77 years old and she is a geek and if i ever go to san and they love san antonio so i might send her your way because she would lose her mind if she saw yes yeah let me know if she's coming i'll i'll make sure that we have like clear skies or we can we can definitely arrange something special but it's uh anyway sorry i wanted to share that with you because oh yeah that's beautiful yeah it's just one of those things you you know like that bonding you have with your mom, I think it's through space and astronomy, I think it's something that you can kind of instantly share with somebody. I brought that, like I've been doing outreach with the telescope, like I said, going back to the 90s, doing star parties for the public, and I think a lot of the enthusiasm that I learned to share astronomy, I could also use that to kind of get people excited about pinball when they walk up It kind of just like breaking the ice A lot of people walk up to a pinball machine There intimidation factor There like they don know where to put their hands or really the base rules And if you just have a little conversation with them, it's a lot like telling people, this is where you look into a telescope. This is the eyepiece. This is what you're going to be seeing. And once they get into it, it's kind of like it snowballs and it can really turn into something, bigger than what you expected. It's beautiful. It is really beautiful. My friend and co-host Donovan has a brainchild called the simple rapid fire question game that we do. Oh, cool. I'm going to do it with the two of you, but we don't have to be so rapid. Okay. We can take our time. It's okay. It's just like 10 to 15 questions. We might as well start out with astronomy. what's your favorite constellation? probably Orion it's just big and bright and it's got a lot of cool stuff in it you've got the great nebula M42 you've got horse head nebula, you've got beetle juice so yeah there's a lot of cool stuff in Orion I'll edit this out but I've got a bunch of tattoos of stars and Orion was my first constellation so there you go There you go. Okay, cool. Okay, do we like the term large coffee or venti coffee? Large. I think large. Yeah. Well, get confused about the venti. No, I went on your website. I'm making fun of someone else. What's your best earning pinball machine? Right now, it's John Wick. Yeah, the newest earn is usually going to be our biggest earner. Runners up. like sustainable games is probably going to be stuff like Godzilla Jaws Jurassic Park World Cup Soccer but I know that one Stranger Things Stranger Things is an earner right yeah it just reaches across a lot of different generations of people like that competitive pinball question should we outlaw gloves no I don't think so I don't see it. How could that be a problem? It just makes us look bad, don't you think? Kind of like a game. Yeah. You know what I mean? I'm just kidding. All right. I have a category I call terrible movie, great pinball machine. So before we ask the pinball question, I'm going to name you three movies. You tell me which one is worse, the worst of these three movies, okay? Judge Dredd, Johnny Mnemonic, or Last Action Hero. Have you seen all three? I have, yeah probably Johnny Mnemonic yeah, it's a terrible movie pretty bad so now that you have those three what is the best pinball machine out of those three yeah, it's gotta be Johnny Mnemonic or Judge Dredd I think it's Johnny Mnemonic on both don't you think? yeah, it really is, it's kind of like going back to Congo awful movie, it's just really really bad I can't watch it, but Great Temple. Supposedly it's a good book, but I don't read. Are you familiar with Rudamaya Coffee? Yeah, those guys are out of Austin. Okay. John Spates used to set up a table selling Rudamaya Coffee on campus at University of Texas. Okay. He would sell the coffee for a few hours each Saturday in exchange for a keg for his organization. So he wanted me to ask if you guys are familiar with Rudamaya Coffee because they paid for kegs. Yeah, they're great. They sell great Mexican coffee. I mean, they've had great success. They're probably a much bigger company than we are. Well, credit to John Spates. Yeah, it's all John. I'm going to just put that on John. John was the reason why they're so successful. Better high speed, high speed or the getaway? High speed too. I think the second one, just because of those magnets on the upper rim. quicker new stern purchase pokemon or x-men 97 two rumored new titles pokemon no-brainer that's a no-brainer right yeah i think it has to be pokemon because that's just everybody knows pokemon is and i think we've got a little bit of marvel burnout um i think it's an atm for you pokemon yeah no i mean as an operator it's got to be a pokemon If you're a homeowner, it's really just up to you. But as an operator, I think every 99 operators out of 100 are going to tell you Kopi. All right. Kopi Luwak, also known as cat poop coffee, is a rare and expensive coffee made from partially digested coffee means that have been excreted by civet cats. Tony and Kim, have you ever tried this coffee? Yes. Probably no. No. Yeah. I used to roast it. We used to roast it for a guy out of Austin, Dustin Casey Butler. He had a Coffee Luwak coffee company. And, I mean, if you want to, if you have a second for a little bit of. No, we have time. Okay, so. I want to hear about. The thing about Coffee Luwak, I mean, aside from the bucket list aspect, is it's a great idea. And because the good thing about Coffee Luwak done right is the animal, the civet cat, is only going to pick the reddest, ripest cherries because they have the most sugar content. When they digest them, it's just like you if you're at the grocery store, you're going to pick the best looking apple or the ripest avocado. Same thing with these Sivakats. But once the bubble burst, especially after the bucket list came out, and you talked about that coffee, they started doing a lot of caged cats. So they caged these cats, they'd strip the branches of all the coffee cherries and just kind of throw them at the animals instead of following them around the forest and collecting their natural occurring droppings they just would collect their droppings out of cages now that takes everything away from the good aspect where the animals picking only the ripest cherries if they're hungry in a cage they're just going to be eating what they they're given and that that includes like unripe cherries so you lose a lot of that the goodness that you get if you're into partially digested coffee cherries. A lot of people aren't, but a lot of people are. So, you know, I think it was just a money grab after the fact. So, yes, civic coffee can be good. I've had some really good civic coffee. I don't know if I'm going to spend $300 on them. Leave it up to a coffee brewer to make it sound okay to drink cat poop coffee. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, you can rationalize it. Yeah, I know. I get it. Last question, not rapid fire. Are you coming to the Houston Arcade Expo in October 11th through the 13th at the Houston West Chase Marriott? I don't think we can avoid coming any longer. Everybody's gone except for us, and usually I just use the excuse, well, somebody's got to hold down the fort. But I've just heard so many good things about the Houston Expo. you guys really drew like the best party pinball party in texas and i think we're just gonna have to book it and i probably won't play an attorney just because i know better uh i don't i can't play pinball for eight to ten hours i just no i don't play in it and i don't play in the tournament tony i don't play in it um i just want to come hang out so come no seriously come and hang out because we take booths. The Wormhole booth is huge. It's in the back. It's in a really great spot. We hang out there. We've got our stream. You can come and join me, both of you, on the stream and commentate if you like. That would be awesome. Yeah, I think we're definitely going to do it this year. So you can hold us to it. All right. You heard it here first. Ticket information available at HoustonArcadeExpo.com. That was fun, guys. Anything that we didn't cover? I don't think so. Yeah, I think we got it all. Thanks so much for taking the time and, Chris, and having us on your program. No, I think you two are wonderful. Please visit sacoffeeroasters.com for ordering and their pinball lineup, their story, and just so much more. I love what you guys are doing. You really are great ambassadors to Texas pinball, San Antonio pinball. You're really the hub there. And we really, really appreciate it. And at Wormhole, we want to showcase them on the podcast. So thank you so much. Thanks, Jamie. We love being here. Thank you, Jamie. You're welcome, Kim. Thanks, Tony. Okay, buddy. Thank you. Thanks again for Tony and Kim for sitting down with me today. I really enjoyed that conversation. I can't believe we've recorded 29 podcasts already, and I still have more to come and record and bring to you. I'm working on a schedule for Alice Young, who happens to be the Texas Women's State Champion, and one heck of a person and pinball player. I'll have her joined by Erin Winnick-Anthony for that podcast. Look for that in the next two to three weeks. Jason from Pinball Party Podcasts will be joining me next week. I have two more that I'm trying to schedule, and let's cross our fingers for a few requests that are unanswered. I mean, why wouldn't you want to do this podcast? Email us at wormholepinball at gmail.com for information about running the wormhole and visit SpaceCityPinball.com for Houston's pinball calendar. We've got a lot of upcoming events. And speaking of events, I was very happy and fortunate to be the rig mover. We talked about it a little bit with Tony and Kim for Space Camp Houston, and that is the brainchild of Bells and Chimes here at Houston and Elizabeth Dronay. So thank you, Elizabeth, for putting together, and Liz Nebriker for being a helper. congrats to all the great players especially alice young kelly moncla aaron winnick anthony and rebecca slalom great job it really was a great tournament and you can go back and see it on video on demand on youtube and donovan just cut that up so we'll be back live on twitch this saturday for our june 4x thanks again for watching and listening to wormhole pinball presents i'm jamie virtual thank you you _(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_ --- *Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 179761cd-a347-4470-9aef-6cce8a8fda38*