{"id":23837,"date":"2019-08-14T08:15:27","date_gmt":"2019-08-14T15:15:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/?p=23837"},"modified":"2019-09-04T07:57:49","modified_gmt":"2019-09-04T14:57:49","slug":"achievement-unlocked-custom-retro-arcade-espresso-machine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/achievement-unlocked-custom-retro-arcade-espresso-machine\/","title":{"rendered":"Achievement Unlocked: Custom Retro Arcade Espresso Machine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Photos by Brenna Huff<\/em><\/p>\n

[A]pproaching the Zen Cafe Coffee Roasters booth at Coffee Fest Indy this year, one may have expected to hear an electronic cacophony of beeps, zooms, whirs, and pew sounds associated with arcade games rather than the steamy hiss and metallic clangs of an espresso machine. Front and center on display was a brand-new Synesso MVP customized to look like an arcade cabinet that would look perfectly at home in an episode of \u201cStranger Things.\u201d Instead of buttons to smash and defeat an opponent, the face of the machine featured all the high-tech calibration bells and whistles that a barista could ask for. Kelly Stombaugh, the company\u2019s head coffee roaster and an artist in her own right, had collaborated with Synesso to design the retro-inspired piece of equipment for the company\u2019s upcoming second location. Stombaugh shared her experience with Fresh Cup<\/em>, from initial inspiration to the final touches in developing this unique homage to \u201880s video game culture.<\/p>\n

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity. <\/em><\/p>\n

\"Kelly
Kelly Stombaugh<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Can you tell me about the design of the espresso machine I saw in Indy?<\/h4>\n

I\u2019m a \u201890s kid, but I\u2019ve got two older sisters who are a decade older than me, so I got all their \u201880s hand-me-downs. That was pretty much a huge inspiration for the design because the owner of our caf\u00e9, who picked out what espresso machine he wanted, he was like, \u201cOkay, I want you to do a design. You can do whatever you want.\u201d Which, I love to hear that, but it\u2019s also kind of scary.<\/p>\n

Since I had all of this \u201880s stuff growing up\u2014which let me tell you, made me super relatable to my peers\u2014when everybody had a Super Nintendo I had an old Atari, and we also have one in the caf\u00e9\u2026.I was kind of looking at them like okay, so we have these arcade machines that we\u2019re starting to collect all of a sudden, like within the last couple months. We\u2019ve got a Nintendo set up for people to play. We play VHS tapes. I was looking at my own experience with those things since they\u2019re already becoming part of our caf\u00e9.<\/p>\n

I know [Atari] because I played one of those for forever. The covers of those games, like those old \u201cActivision\u201d games, they always had some kind of rainbow stripe element in their design. I always thought that was super cool. And a lot of them were using bands of colors, but those were like sunset colors. As a kid I thought that\u2019s the most beautiful color combination.<\/p>\n

The owner, who was actually an \u201880s kid, is also kind of revamping that style for himself. It\u2019s not intentional. He just kind of has that going on as a person\u2026.He just got [his mullet] freshened up [with] some lightning bolts razored on the sides, and he drives around in this old Toyota truck that he wants to get custom painted.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also speaking to what\u2019s happening in pop culture right now, kind of this idea of the \u201880s with \u201cStranger Things,\u201d what we interpret the \u201880s as now.<\/h4>\n

Yeah, exactly. It\u2019s not the same, obviously, but there are design elements and things being pulled back and they\u2019re becoming interesting again. Also, kind of given a modern facelift.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/h4>\n

Once you had the inspiration, how did you create that design for that machine?<\/h4>\n

The first thing that I did was just absolutely scour Synesso\u2019s website. I wanted to see what all of their color options are and things like that. I found that they also have wood packages available with four different types of woods to choose from. I was like, \u201cOh, this is great!\u201d It absolutely reminds me of wood-paneled televisions and stuff like old station wagons.<\/p>\n

I knew from the get-go that we wanted to use some kind of wood, but the most helpful resource for me was their Instagram page. I just scrolled through @SynessoFactory to see what kinds of things they have done that aren\u2019t listed on their website. I just wanted to know everything that we can do, and then kind of plug my design into that.<\/p>\n

I found an image of the side, like the shape of the side of the machine, because I knew that was where the magic was going to happen. Then I used that photo from their website to create a template of that shape. I knew I wanted to do these stripes and some kind of dark sky, or space color, which was that deep blue. I just plugged all of that into this template that I made, along with our order form specifying we want everything in Zebrawood that we possibly can have.<\/p>\n

What we put in an order for was a wood handle for the steam wand, the portafilter handles, the paddles on the group heads for pulling shots. I can even get a bar across the back for holding cups in Zebrawood. We also wanted a wood panel with our name and logo etched into it because I had seen that they had done that kind of work before.<\/p>\n

That was my perfect idea of what this was going to turn out to be, but that\u2019s where the compromising had to happen.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll say Synesso did a fantastic job of working with us to make that machine what it is now. From the get-go, they were super excited to work on it\u2014which I would be too, custom projects are probably more fun.<\/p>\n

They did let us know that powder coating all of those different colors would be really difficult and expensive on our part, but that they could do different colors with vinyl cutouts for the stripes and then wrap them on the side panels. Which, I was kind of skeptical of, but okay, well they\u2019ve done this before. You would swear that they\u2019re actually powder coated just by looking at it. So we were really happy with that.<\/p>\n

Then the other difficulty was the wood panel with our logo, which they\u2019ve been discontinued because they warped or something, the wood panels were not working out well. They stopped doing it, but what they did do, is they made a vinyl wrap so that it looks like our logo is in Zebrawood and it\u2019s pristine, it\u2019s perfect.<\/p>\n

Some compromising did have to happen and it\u2019s kind of to be expected with any custom project. We were really happy. It\u2019s not exactly, you know, what we envisioned, but it still turned out to be a beautiful piece. In some ways, I think it works better the way they did it, which makes sense because they know their business and their products.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/h4>\n

To keep those realities of functionality and durability and budget in mind?<\/h4>\n

Yeah, exactly. Also, it\u2019s the longevity of it. Reality does have to step in here and there when you\u2019re on some super creative trip. You\u2019re talking about an espresso machine with steam wands. A wood panel eventually is going to warp when you apply all that heat and humidity.<\/p>\n

How long was the fabrication process once you got that design to Synesso?<\/h4>\n

Once I sent that design off to Synesso, I think it was about a month. There was a little bit of back and forth and they were in touch with us throughout. Like, \u201cHey, you know, the vinyl that we put on isn\u2019t sticking that well. We\u2019ve got bubbles, so we\u2019re gonna redo the vinyl altogether.\u201d So it\u2019s things like that kind of added time. They were straightforward with us, but also they didn\u2019t want to send out a machine that wasn\u2019t up to their standards either. We got that machine in like two weeks before Coffee Fest.<\/p>\n

Once you got it in, what were the customer reactions to the machine?<\/h4>\n

Honestly, the only place that we\u2019ve used it and shown it at all is on social media and at Coffee Fest. And that was it. Because we currently have a machine in our caf\u00e9, this one is going to be in a second location that we\u2019re working on opening up\u2026.But social media alone, people knew about it. We kind of put out little teasers of sorts, just a little bit of, this design or part of a photo that Synesso sent us while we were testing it out and calibrating and everything. We had people coming in and asking, \u201cSo what\u2019s the plan? Where is it? We want to see it!\u201d<\/p>\n

It was just a huge reaction. I don\u2019t think we would have gotten if we had just picked out a color and had it sitting in storage or something.<\/p>\n

\n

Zen Coffee Roasters
\nzencafecoffee.com<\/a>
\n574-217-7916
\n1302 High Street
\nSouth Bend, IN<\/p>\n

Follow @zencafesouthbend<\/a> on Instagram to stay up-to-date on the caf\u00e9 and its upcoming expansion.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An interview with Kelly Stombaugh, artist and roaster, on how she transformed a Synesso MVP into the retro arcade machine of her childhood dreams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1145,"featured_media":23842,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"limit_modified_date":"","last_modified_date":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}},"beyondwords_generate_audio":"","beyondwords_project_id":"","beyondwords_content_id":"","beyondwords_player_style":"","beyondwords_language_id":"","beyondwords_title_voice_id":"","beyondwords_body_voice_id":"","beyondwords_summary_voice_id":"","beyondwords_error_message":"","beyondwords_disabled":"","beyondwords_podcast_id":"","beyondwords_hash":"","publish_post_to_speechkit":"","speechkit_hash":"","speechkit_generate_audio":"","speechkit_project_id":"","speechkit_podcast_id":"","speechkit_error_message":"","speechkit_disabled":"","speechkit_access_key":"","speechkit_error":"","speechkit_info":"","speechkit_response":"","speechkit_retries":"","speechkit_updated_at":"","_speechkit_link":"","_speechkit_text":""},"categories":[26,24,23],"tags":[278],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAchievement Unlocked: Custom Retro Arcade Espresso Machine - Fresh Cup Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An interview with Kelly Stombaugh, artist and roaster, on how she transformed a Synesso MVP into the retro arcade machine of her childhood dreams.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/achievement-unlocked-custom-retro-arcade-espresso-machine\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Achievement Unlocked: Custom Retro Arcade Espresso Machine - Fresh Cup Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"An interview with Kelly Stombaugh, artist and roaster, on how she transformed a Synesso MVP into the retro arcade machine of her childhood dreams.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/achievement-unlocked-custom-retro-arcade-espresso-machine\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Fresh Cup Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/FreshCupMagazine\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-08-14T15:15:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-09-04T14:57:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Main1015x575_ZenCafe_CreditBrennaHuff03.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1015\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"575\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jordan Johnson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@FreshCupMag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@FreshCupMag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jordan Johnson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"8 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/achievement-unlocked-custom-retro-arcade-espresso-machine\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/achievement-unlocked-custom-retro-arcade-espresso-machine\/\",\"name\":\"Achievement Unlocked: Custom Retro Arcade Espresso Machine - Fresh Cup Magazine\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-08-14T15:15:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-09-04T14:57:49+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/#\/schema\/person\/dc1d0e0f9b8b70b75a5966bed3633a55\"},\"description\":\"An interview with Kelly Stombaugh, artist and roaster, on how she transformed a Synesso MVP into the retro arcade machine of her childhood dreams.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/achievement-unlocked-custom-retro-arcade-espresso-machine\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/achievement-unlocked-custom-retro-arcade-espresso-machine\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/achievement-unlocked-custom-retro-arcade-espresso-machine\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Retail and Commerce\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/category\/retail-commerce\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Barista\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/category\/retail-commerce\/barista\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"Achievement Unlocked: Custom Retro Arcade Espresso Machine\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/\",\"name\":\"Fresh Cup Magazine\",\"description\":\"Coffee Industry Stories and Insights\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/#\/schema\/person\/dc1d0e0f9b8b70b75a5966bed3633a55\",\"name\":\"Jordan Johnson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/35b08e43e7b1e4ddcd0bb26ab8704822?s=96&d=https%3A%2F%2Fp194.p3.n0.cdn.getcloudapp.com%2Fitems%2FNQu4LeXQ%2Fd67247f7-9611-4038-b16a-7478cd067ca3.jpg%3Fv%3Dfdbe2c631762f9448134eee172d9efb5&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/35b08e43e7b1e4ddcd0bb26ab8704822?s=96&d=https%3A%2F%2Fp194.p3.n0.cdn.getcloudapp.com%2Fitems%2FNQu4LeXQ%2Fd67247f7-9611-4038-b16a-7478cd067ca3.jpg%3Fv%3Dfdbe2c631762f9448134eee172d9efb5&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jordan Johnson\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/author\/jordan-johnson\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Achievement Unlocked: Custom Retro Arcade Espresso Machine - Fresh Cup Magazine","description":"An interview with Kelly Stombaugh, artist and roaster, on how she transformed a Synesso MVP into the retro arcade machine of her childhood dreams.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/achievement-unlocked-custom-retro-arcade-espresso-machine\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Achievement Unlocked: Custom Retro Arcade Espresso Machine - Fresh Cup Magazine","og_description":"An interview with Kelly Stombaugh, artist and roaster, on how she transformed a Synesso MVP into the retro arcade machine of her childhood dreams.","og_url":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/achievement-unlocked-custom-retro-arcade-espresso-machine\/","og_site_name":"Fresh Cup Magazine","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/FreshCupMagazine\/","article_published_time":"2019-08-14T15:15:27+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-09-04T14:57:49+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1015,"height":575,"url":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Main1015x575_ZenCafe_CreditBrennaHuff03.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Jordan Johnson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@FreshCupMag","twitter_site":"@FreshCupMag","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jordan Johnson","Est. reading time":"8 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/achievement-unlocked-custom-retro-arcade-espresso-machine\/","url":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/achievement-unlocked-custom-retro-arcade-espresso-machine\/","name":"Achievement Unlocked: Custom Retro Arcade Espresso Machine - Fresh Cup Magazine","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-08-14T15:15:27+00:00","dateModified":"2019-09-04T14:57:49+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/#\/schema\/person\/dc1d0e0f9b8b70b75a5966bed3633a55"},"description":"An interview with Kelly Stombaugh, artist and roaster, on how she transformed a Synesso MVP into the retro arcade machine of her childhood dreams.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/achievement-unlocked-custom-retro-arcade-espresso-machine\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/freshcup.com\/achievement-unlocked-custom-retro-arcade-espresso-machine\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/achievement-unlocked-custom-retro-arcade-espresso-machine\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Retail and Commerce","item":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/category\/retail-commerce\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Barista","item":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/category\/retail-commerce\/barista\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"Achievement Unlocked: Custom Retro Arcade Espresso Machine"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/","name":"Fresh Cup Magazine","description":"Coffee Industry Stories and Insights","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/#\/schema\/person\/dc1d0e0f9b8b70b75a5966bed3633a55","name":"Jordan Johnson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/35b08e43e7b1e4ddcd0bb26ab8704822?s=96&d=https%3A%2F%2Fp194.p3.n0.cdn.getcloudapp.com%2Fitems%2FNQu4LeXQ%2Fd67247f7-9611-4038-b16a-7478cd067ca3.jpg%3Fv%3Dfdbe2c631762f9448134eee172d9efb5&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/35b08e43e7b1e4ddcd0bb26ab8704822?s=96&d=https%3A%2F%2Fp194.p3.n0.cdn.getcloudapp.com%2Fitems%2FNQu4LeXQ%2Fd67247f7-9611-4038-b16a-7478cd067ca3.jpg%3Fv%3Dfdbe2c631762f9448134eee172d9efb5&r=g","caption":"Jordan Johnson"},"url":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/author\/jordan-johnson\/"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Main1015x575_ZenCafe_CreditBrennaHuff03.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pf7LWY-6ct","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23837"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1145"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}