Game On: Superelectric to Open Gordon Square Pinball Parlor

We’ve gotten to know the guys from Superelectric – Ben Haehn, David Spasic, Nathan Murray – from their popular Third Friday events at 78th Street Studios, when they transform their art print shop into an eclectic pinball parlor. Or maybe you’ve seen them at the Cleveland Flea, where they transform a dusty corner of a garage into a pop-up pinball arcade.

By mid-summer, Superelectric will become a very visible addition to the Gordon Square neighborhood, when the guys set up a permanent shop at the corner of W. 65th and Detroit, in the former home of Yellowcake Shop.

“We’re really stoked about it,” says Spasic.

Unlike those popular pop-up events, Superelectric Pinball Parlor will be a six-day-a-week affair, where fun-loving folks can while away the days playing vintage arcade games like pinball and anything else from the “strange, cool world of vintage gaming,” notes Spasic.

That includes old fortune teller games, love meters, shuffle puck bowling, even an old electro-mechanical shooting range. But don’t expect to find the usual round up of classic arcade games that’s making the rounds.

“We’re not really focusing on the arcade games as much as the strange, old novelty stuff that you don’t see around,” Spasic explains. “I feel like 16-Bit [in Lakewood] and a few other places around town cover that ground. I don’t think we need to duplicate what they’re doing well.”

The challenge, says Spasic, is figuring out a system of payment. Given the range and ages of many of these machines, it’s not just a matter of retrofitting a coin door onto the front. Guests might pay by the hour. “We’re still working out details.”

Food and drink, including alcohol, will be a component of the operation as well, though likely not from the start. And if and when a liquor license is acquired, Spasic says that alcohol consumption likely will be relegated to later in the day.

“We want to keep the space more family oriented,” he says. “I don’t want it to be a party atmosphere all the time. It should be a fun, safe place where kids and families of the community can come together. To me, that’s one of the big disappointments of the places where you can play pinball now; they’re mostly just bars. We want to change that a little bit.”

Built by creative types, the art gallery meets arcade space is bound to be visually compelling.

“Over the last few years we have really refined our aesthetic and the way we’re doing things,” Spasic says. “I think people are going to be really excited about what we’re representing down in Gordon Square. It’s going to be better than anything they’ve ever seen. We’re going to work really hard to make sure that comes true.”

Although the guys will be taking a break from Third Fridays while the build-out process unfolds, they intend to resume them in a few months.

Look for Superelectric to open in Gordon Square this June or July.


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