San Francisco pinball restaurant Outer Orbit facing closure, seeking community support via GoFundMe.
Summary
Erika's Pinball Journey features interviews with Christian Gainley and Elizabeth Coni, co-owners of Outer Orbit, a San Francisco pinball restaurant and community hub operating since 2018. The venue is facing financial difficulties and potential closure, prompting a community fundraising effort via GoFundMe and a search for investors. The video highlights Outer Orbit's role as a tournament venue, its Hawaiian fusion food and craft beer offerings, and its support of local pinball leagues including the SF Queer Pinball League and Bells and Chimes women's league.
Key Claims
Outer Orbit has been operating for over six years since opening in 2018
high confidence · Christian and Elizabeth directly state they have been open for over six years
Outer Orbit currently operates seven pinball machines after reducing from nine due to pandemic-era operational changes
high confidence · Elizabeth explicitly states 'We only have seven machines right now' and explains the reduction was due to transitioning to table service during pandemic
Jaws has become the top earner machine, replacing Godzilla
high confidence · Christian states Jaws 'seems like it's going to just be Jaws now' in terms of earnings; Mary confirms 'Jaws and Godzilla' are 'the two top earners right now' with Jaws implied as primary
Outer Orbit hosts multiple tournament formats including Bells and Chimes women's league, SF Queer Pinball League, Bay Bridge team league (Outer Orbit Otters), and various standalone tournaments
high confidence · Both Christian and Mary describe extensive tournament hosting, with Mary providing detailed examples of specific tournaments run
The venue conducted a 24-hour pinball tournament during the pandemic
high confidence · Christian mentions 'during the pandemic we did the 24-hour pinball tournament' with Elizabeth calling it 'really fun and unique'
Notable Quotes
“The only business I ever want to open, if I'm going to open a business with you, is like a pinball arcade.”
Elizabeth Coni @ early interview — Establishes the core vision and passion that drove Outer Orbit's founding
“Godzilla's been here the longest. It's really hard to get rid of that one.”
Christian Gainley @ mid-interview — Demonstrates the emotional attachment to machines and their role in the venue's history
“This is their favorite spot... we opened in the city and we want to keep San Francisco interesting.”
Christian Gainley @ late interview — Reveals the owners' mission to create a unique community space and maintain San Francisco's cultural character
“The community for pinball is just so connected and supported and well-loved.”
Mary Smith @ late interview — Captures the core ethos of the pinball community that drew her to Outer Orbit
“It's more about the vibe, more about the social aspects, more than anything.”
Mary Smith @ closing remarks on community — Articulates what makes pinball venues valuable beyond revenue—the social infrastructure
“I didn't start getting into tournament directing until I think I got involved with Bells and Chimes, which is the women's league.”
Mary Smith @ mid-interview — Shows how Outer Orbit's tournament infrastructure enabled community members to develop leadership roles
Entities
Outer OrbitcompanyChristian GainleypersonElizabeth ConipersonMary SmithpersonFree Gold WatchcompanyBells and ChimesorganizationSF Queer Pinball LeagueorganizationOuter Orbit OttersorganizationBay Bridge team leagueorganization
Signals
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business_signal: Outer Orbit is facing financial difficulties threatening closure despite 6+ years of operation; seeking GoFundMe donations and investor partnerships
high · Erika's framing throughout video emphasizes Outer Orbit 'facing some tough times' and 'possibility of closing their doors for good'; explicit call for GoFundMe support and investor recruitment
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community_signal: Outer Orbit is a significant hub for Bay Area pinball community organizing, hosting multiple league formats (women's, queer, team-based) with documented growth in participation
high · Mary and Christian both describe hosting Bells and Chimes, SF Queer Pinball League, Outer Orbit Otters, and multiple standalone tournaments with growing membership
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community_signal: Bay Area pinball community has developed infrastructure for distributed tournament hosting and league coordination through social media (Facebook, Slack, Instagram), facilitating growth
high · Mary details Bay Area Pinball Facebook page, Bay Area Pinball Slack, SF Pinball Department Instagram, and IFPA certification pathways as community organizing tools
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competitive_signal: Women's and queer pinball tournaments are experiencing significant growth in Bay Area participation, creating demand for venues and machines
high · Mary notes Bells and Chimes and queer league 'numbers have just grown and grown and grown' and Christian/Elizabeth mention needing to add a machine back due to tournament demand
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design_philosophy: Outer Orbit owners prefer Spooky Pinball games for their 'horror thriller vibe' but acknowledge playability vs difficulty balance (Alice Cooper's Castle had low engagement)
Topics
Community venue closure and financial crisisprimaryPinball tournament scene and league infrastructureprimaryWomen's and queer pinball community organizingprimaryBay Area pinball ecosystem and venue landscapeprimaryPinball machine selection and earning potentialsecondaryRestaurant and food service integrated with pinballsecondaryPinball as community-building and social activitysecondary
Sentiment
mixed(0.35)— Content is deeply positive about Outer Orbit's community impact, tournaments, and cultural significance, with warm nostalgia and genuine affection from interviewees. However, the primary framing is deeply concerning: the venue faces potential closure due to financial hardship. The video functions as a rescue plea, creating tension between celebration of what Outer Orbit represents and existential crisis about its survival. Interviewees express gratitude and pride but underlying urgency about the need for community support to avoid closure.
Transcript
youtube_auto_sub · $0.000
what's up everybody in this episode I'm going to share with you a special interview I got with outer orbit now outer orbit is a San Francisco pinball restaurant and unfortunately they're facing some tough times after being a place for years of pinball and food and amazing Community they're facing the possibility of closing their doors for good now when I initially got this interview with them I was unaware of that so I'm hoping now to shed light on this super special pinball spot to the Bay Area and how you can help keep it alive I'm going to put their GoFundMe Link in the description below and they also have they're looking for like potential investors so if you know someone that's looking to potentially partner in a pinball arcade restaurant go ahead and check out the link and I'll have more description of what you can do and be a part of it below um so yeah if you love pinball love local businesses and just love seeing passionate people do what they do best then stick around hear their story and let's rally together to save outer [Music] orbit my name's Christian gainley and I'm one of the owners of outer orbit and I'm Elizabeth coni the other owner of outer orbit we wanted to open Arcade a pinball spot eventually it happened in 2018 we were dating early on and started to play Pinball together I happened to be pretty good at it and he hadn't played much before and so he was intrigued cuz I was beating his ass a little bit yeah maybe and then he overcompensated and got really good we loved it we had some friends who were really into it who owned some machines so that was kind of eye opening like oh people actually own them and people play tournaments and it was like a big eye opener and then the idea of the arcade came up probably around 2013 and you started to think about opening a restaurant and I was like no way and I'm like the only like business I ever want to open if I'm going to open a business with you is like pinball arcade and so we settled on that and then of course we found a spot with the kitchen we did intially plan to open an arcade only we're going to have beer wine probably a panini press not much but we were originally looking up the hill from us we're in Bern Heights right now and we live in Burn Heights and there's a cute little Community up there so we're going to open Arcade up there another SP we were gunning for were working out and we found this location which is down the hill and it had a full kitchen so we got a chef kind of went for it yeah so it was kind of like I don't know all of our favorite things in one place we really also into craft beer so it was like let's have a nice big Island Bar why not and so we kind of just dreamed up everything and hoped it would work and went from there we've been open for over six years yeah we came up with the name outer orbit pretty early on when we were conceptualizing it and actually the business name the LLC name is skillshot LLC originally we were going to be called skill shot pinball and we didn't get a liquor license so it seemed like a little confusing yeah a little dumb if you don't have shots you know yeah and then we just went through all the pinball terminology that we could think of and we're kind of close to the outer Mission so we like oh outer orbit and it's it's a move like you know shot on the Playfield right when in pinball so our food is Hawaiian and inspired Asian fusion you could also say but yeah Christian from Hawaii and so we pull a lot of influence from that yeah we kind of put all our favorite things into this restaurant and Hawaii food is one of those things so we call our food haa Hawaii food we're not doing traditional hawaian food that's for sure yeah and we're not doing Hawaii food that a lot of people are familiar with which is barbecue hawaian barbecue so people are familiar with that but what's been happening in Hawaii food is amazing really good stuff the evolution has continued in the contemporary food there is is really inspiring every time I go are just like wow and then we also blend that with like what people like in in at San Francisco California Cuisine and like everything that's kind of happening here so there's a little bit of influence from both and spam BBI is really big cuz we make our spam from scratch and we have a vegan version cuz it's SF and a lot of our stuff is naturally gluten-free too which is cool but another one would be our Pig mil that one's really special cuz we we import wood from Hawaii that's like guava wood so we smoke the pork with Goa wood and that gives it like a really special flavor and then something really unique that's gotten a lot of popularity is our HOA corn dog which is really unique in that it's a beef dog but it's wrapped with cheese and our grilled jalapenos and then dipped in our malasada batter which is like doughnut batter and then deep fried and rolled in sugar and tokashi so it's like spicy and sweet and savory it's like everything you want we do run a bunch of tournaments and we're big fans of supporting the bells and Chimes women's league and also the local queer League the SF queer pinball League big fans of those groups and we also have outer orbit otter cuz we do a team League here too so we have our own team which is great I think it was during the pandemic we did the 24-hour pinball tournament yeah so that was really fun and unique experience yeah we're I mean we're relatively small we only have we have seven machines right now and so we're kind of maxed out when we support some of these tournaments the what's amazing is these leagues are growing and growing and they're almost getting too large for their little SWOT now yeah we started with nine machines here and then during the pandemic because we were just operating out of our parklet in front of the restaurant we switched to doing table service out there and then when we pandemic we transitioned to doing food inside we we kept with the table service yeah and because of that and reservations yeah reservations we're not doing volume so much we're more of a restaurant much more of a restaurant we were a restaurant before but we're definitely more of a restaurant now and so we need seats to to pay for stuff so sadly yes we had to pull a couple of machines out we put the new bankett in and pulled machines out but we still were able to squeeze one in over there so we only really lost two which isn't too bad no that's not bad so how many you have now you have seven seven machines in the beginning we were working with someone else who routed machines here and we'd always have like the newest thing from him plus some of our favorites but we'd also like just try to mix it up so we do change out machines at least once a month or so or every other month or so think we like yeah we're pretty subjective yeah we don't buy everything but we do buy a decent amount do you feel like people like some of your regulars they come in and they see the pinball and then they like get attracted to it have you seen anyone kind of convert to become more pinball definitely I mean I think that was the whole mission of our place from the get-go is just like getting people to engage and like be curious about like well why would this restaurant have so many games like you know like maybe it's worth checking out and and it does happen and then people think about it even when they come alone or with whoever and they think about it and come back with like a date cuz they're like this is actually a cool date spot like we have something to do and like and so we see a lot of that and it's pretty cool we do uh wine tastings and we have like beer tap takeovers and all kinds of stuff usually it has to do around drinking but we also have a VIP program so we do like a secret menu week so we have special stuff on the menu that week and those people also play Pinball well some of them cuz we offer free pinball to our VIPs so that helps it was important that we didn't hide the pinball either the pinball is clearly in view of the majority of the restaurant from the games you have in your lineup do you have any favorites right now that are in your lineup or any games that you like love to keep here I mean Godzilla's been here the longest it's really hard to get rid of that one yeah by far proba the biggest earner yep it was my favorite game for the longest time and then Keith that one put out another game and it Jaws yeah seems like it's going to just be jaws now wow yeah yeah so you got the Le you got the limited edition Jaws yeah I generally don't buy L's kind of on principal he got lucky with this one that it turned out to be such a winner yeah it's such a pretty game that we yeah we broke that rule for once I love Tron too that's a great Tron from Lind AR it's got the little ly sign in there too yeah yeah yeah there's definitely been a Resurgence and the attraction of pinball a lot of new people which is great yeah and I think we attribute it partly to it being a tactile game experience you know in our era of screens on everything yeah in pandemic probably helped a little right but yeah there's definitely been a resurge in some popularity and you know the queer league and the women's league that we we host their numbers have just grown and grown and grown and it's one of the reasons we added a machine back in is because we just didn't have enough machines to support those tournaments we're like a bare minimum oh I think like the really early '90s games for sure I mean bride of pinb was huge in that but also you know I would say attack from Mars and Medieval Madness get away there's so many yeah yeah when we got when we first started dating we were going to the shot Wheels which is a bar further into the mission they have two machines there so we just hang out and play Medieval Madness and attack from bars there I think Monster Bash yeah Monster Bash all the old classics those were like I think I mean I don't know it's it's hard to say but for the longest time like '90s games are always the tops for me but as as new ones come out they keep getting more and more interesting like gameplay wise and they also are so deep that can be a turnoff but then if it's made like if if it's made well anyone can approach it and like have a great time like you canot know what you're doing and like still do something fun you know yeah like blow up the score like well I got more than 2 million 10 million feel a little better about games playing we'll see yeah no I think I think they're hitting a really good stride right now in game development and that like it's not just about how deep can it be but like is it still fun for people who don't go de you know what's been the most rewarding moment since opening outer orbit I think in general just when someone says like this is their favorite spot or like they love everything about it kind of thing we opened in the city and we want to keep San Francisco interesting but yeah we have Hawaii Fusion food pinball craft beer we're really in the'80s cnth music so we're bumping that all the time we wanted to be a unique spot in a city that's what makes cities exciting and interesting yeah yeah so yeah we get a lot of people who not a lot but we get a lot of people who tell us where their favorite spot in the city and that's pretty awesome that's why you do it you know like it it feels really good when people get it my name is uh Mary Smith I currently am the assistant general manager for out of orbit where we're currently at and also I'm a fellow pinball Enthusiast such as yourself for going on since 2019 I'm not from the Bay Area I moved out here back new years's of 2018 I got hired on as an employee for Janos Kiss's Community Market over in Mission Bay at the end of 2018 and was introduced to my friend Justin Gua who was the store manager at the time he and I connected via like a TV show we really liked and he was like hey Mary do you like pinball I was like well didn't go to a lot of arcades as a kid because my my family's military so we moved around a lot so I didn't have like a local arcade I like to go to but my dad when he grew up he was really into arcade games and stuff like that so he invited me out to free gold watch and he introduced me to our mutual friend Doss but he introduced me to Black Knight sword of Rage still remember when my first pinball machine I played here in the city and first game I played both him and Dawson I ended up beating both of them and I was like oh that was fun I enjoyed that and there was like all these other pinball machines like over 50 pinball machines and there was like I want to keep playing and we had fun playing there and he invited me out out to guest on the baybridge team league night that he was a captain for one of the teams and so I got introduced to the outer orbit otter and introduced to Christian and Biff who own outer orbit and I guested for them that night and helped them win and he was like yeah Mary you should definitely join our team cuz you're pretty good as just a beginner and I'm like okay sure so next season he had me officially join and started coming to Outer orbit more and more cuz for all our home games was here and fell in love with the food The Vibes the pinball obviously and been coming back here ever since eventually my friend Justin had to step down as Captain and I had to pick up the mantle as Captain and been in the restaurant industry for several years now and Christian and Biff were like yeah we kind of like you we think we can see about maybe bringing you on staff and if you want to help us you know do some admin work here and there that would be cool and now we're one big happy family so so I really enjoyed playing in tournaments I think my first tournament I ever played in was here it was a flipper frenzy tournament that was run by Russ and Shannon sweeter they were doing like these almost like bi-weekly or monthly flipper frenzy tournaments back when that style of tournament was really big and I remember meeting so many people like new people and making new friends I met my friend Jean who found out we went to the same Alma Moder together and I was like yeah this is a lot of fun and you know free money if you get in the top four a lot of the times it also is a nice little incentive but uh I didn't start getting into tournament directing until I think I got involved with like bells and Chimes which is the women's league out here and the queer league with Jackie Olen I just really like helping them run tournaments and so so I started doing like trying to do like my own tournaments mostly here at out of orbit but I've done my first one was actually at freeold watch and that was called the slap save tournament which was a lot of fun it was very well attended we maxed out at like I think 32 players and it was just so much fun and I've been doing tournaments ever since this past summer I did super secret pinball Club League kind of thing that was all throughout the summer on Mondays and that was flipper frenzy tournament style and got to have some really cool trophy design work with my for my friend Allison O'Neal but yeah just love working with pinball people all the time so out of orbit we have our bells and ches tournaments also we have our baybridge team League out of here with the outer orbit otter and we also have just a bunch of like random tournaments that stop by here as well recently we had the final flip tournament for my friends Sean and Kristen so they're sadly moving away to oh but yeah just to Standalone tournaments we do them here a lot of the time too I really like to run group match play tournaments here those are pretty standard but the ones I like to be in I like I like the Ping golf style tournament that my friend Jean does a lot of the times and he's also introduced this new style called reum which is not what you think it's not what you think pinb just got a lot of H are we still talking about this same he's hosting this tournament style called thre SS out at gal on 16th Street in the mission and it's basically like a team-based pinball tournament where you and two other people form teams and you try to work as a team to beat the other team you're up against on certain whatever machine you're put up on so each player plays one ball and it's basically like a two-player game but each player plays one ball you need six people total and if you win the game you get like one point or whatever and you compare your score against their scores so the top four make it to the playoffs and then whoever wins gets this trident trophy that he made cuz it's like three prong so three sons and it was just a really fun time so like anything that's like team based I enjoy more than just like solo because like you if you go in Solo like yeah it's fun but like you're kind of like by yourself whereas if you're working with other people to achieve the win it's a lot more fun that way so you plan on running some thre SS out here that would be cool I'd be down for that in all honesty cuz we definitely like to do like a lot of women's tournaments out here cuz there's in my opinion there's not enough women's tournaments that are done just saying but even though we we had bells and Chimes here we also do a lot of like women's only tournaments so we did our X-Men launch women's tournament here back in late October early November that one was very much fun cuz we got to all dress up as different X-Men characters and we had this like really cool drinking game for the bar for like shots of Soju where I got one of those invisible ink pens and I wrote on a bunch of playing cards the word share and basically like a luck of the draw so if you were able to spell share with the four different suits you get a free shot of Soju and everybody loved that those kinds of like fun Concepts to make the tournament unique is is a lot of fun I would say there's like certain types of tournaments that bring more professional tournament Players in and some that more beginners like to come to so like if it's an ifpa like certified tournament that has like a good amount of Whoppers attach attached to it or points value to it then you do get a lot more really good players show up for it thankfully with the amount of machines that we have here the tournaments that we can host aren't super crazy big also we we don't really like to host tournaments on the same days that we're open for regular restaurant service so that usually leaves either a Monday or a Tuesday night but like women's tournaments we get like a good diversity of beginner intermediate and advanced players one of our one of the best female players we have Louise Tyson Van Wagoner she always likes coming in for women's tournaments here like all the time she's just an amazing player and I love watching her play every single time I almost beat her during our X-Men launch party it was a tiebreaker on X-Men and I was so close so freaking close my first ever tournament whenn I had was actually here and it was for I think just a regular like group match play tournament and I was playing against Leslie Ruckman another amazing player yes another amazing player El rucko and I was playing against Rob Coley Nick Yankee and myself that was the top four and I was playing I didn't realize I was playing great that tournament but I guess I was and I ended up winning the whole thing against those other three players players which all three of them are freaking amazing Legends freaking Legends depending on the type of tournament you host here you can get a fair mashup or like a bunch of Pros so bunch of these machines are very tournament friendly because we have some machines that you know are very rare that not a lot of people are familiar with and know how to play so it's like mean to everybody like they're not able to play long games so it keeps the tournaments going quick and also we have very familiar games that everybody knows and loves and enjoys playing regardless like Godzilla has been here since I can remember when it was released I guess Jaws another Keith elen Fon favorite and then we always like to try to have a spooky pin which is Christian and BFFs one of their favorite providers they like kind of like that horror Thriller Vibe I think the first spooky pin they ever had here was Alice Cooper castle that one not many people liked that one cuz it was a little challenging but chrisan and Biff love that machine our newest one we have is X-Men that one I've been seeing some people love it and some people are like I don't know how to get into it it's still a fairly new machine still new in code so our top machine would definitely be like jaws and Godzilla those are the two top earners right now there's a bunch of like social media pages that people can get on to like see where tournaments are being held and like who they can contact to like get more knowledge about how they might want to run their own tournaments so first one I would say Bay Area pinball is the Facebook page I believe literally every single tournament in the Bay Area is posted on that Facebook page for other pinball knowledge there's a Bay Area pinball slack channel that people can ask to join and everything thing tournaments and like new game discussion and there's actually like tournament director channel in that that you can ask questions about like oh how do I reach out to a venue and get something like this set up or how do I do the ifpa certification like paperwork and stuff also the ifpa website is a great source of information they have like a whole just written out rule book about how to what type of tournament you might want to look for all the different styles if you want to get it certified and also the San Francisco pinball Department we have our own Instagram account that people can like follow and send questions to that way if they're interested in League tournaments or League style things to look into there's a bunch of stuff that happens in East Bay as well as well as South Bay I know there's the Pacific Pinball Museum they have have a league out there South Bay if you're around the montere area shout out to Lynn's arcade who has their Monterey flipper pinball League there that literally has pinball events literally every single day almost I feel like they're insane they're pretty active and then I know mini boss and pinball on the lab there's a bunch of those over near San Jose that they do a lot of tournaments out there too I would say just seen like the community come together supporting each other even if like you know they're not performing well they're just having fun the community for pinball is just so connected and supported and well loved that's one of the reasons why I'm in the community to begin with is just people just having fun and enjoying hanging out with each other and if you get cash at the end of the night great if you get if you get hardare at the end of the night great but it's not everything it's more about the vibe more about the social aspects more than anything which is what I like about it thanks so much for watching this video I hope you enjoyed learning about outer orbit and you know I'll have all the things for their GoFundMe in the link in the description below and if you can donate $5 $10 if you're looking to invest in a pinball arcade restaurant this might be a really good opportunity to do that so um yeah any any little thing helps please share this video with friends family um it's an amazing place in the Bay Area and it would be such um a bummer to lose it so um I appreciate all you guys' help and support for the channel and more is going to come so I appreciate your patience and I'll catch you on the flip side
medium · Mary: 'Christian and Biff...like kind of that horror thriller vibe'; Alice Cooper's Castle 'not many people liked that one because it was a little challenging'
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event_signal: Outer Orbit hosted a 24-hour pinball tournament during the pandemic, demonstrating innovative venue programming and community commitment
high · Christian mentions pandemic-era 24-hour tournament as 'really fun and unique experience'
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market_signal: Pinball venue operational challenges post-pandemic: Outer Orbit transitioned from arcade-focused to restaurant-focused model, reducing machine count from 9 to 7 to prioritize restaurant seating and revenue
high · Elizabeth explains pandemic-era pivot to table service and reservations, requiring seat priority over machines; 'we're not doing volume so much. We're more of a restaurant'
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product_concern: X-Men has mixed reception at Outer Orbit with some players finding it difficult to engage with; code still in active development
medium · Mary notes 'some people love it, and some people are like "I don't know how to get into it"; It's still a fairly new machine. Still new in code'
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sentiment_shift: Jaws has displaced Godzilla as Outer Orbit's top-earning machine, representing a shift in player preferences and game rotation strategy
high · Christian: 'Seems like it's going to just be Jaws now'; Mary: 'Jaws and Godzilla. Those are the two top earners right now' with Jaws implied primary; Christian breaks own LE purchasing principle for this game