Playing Off of Nostalgia
The ssssss of milk being machine-steamed, the whole “triple nonfat cap” scene--it’s so irritatingly ‘90s. Being a coffeehouse, Hub Cafe couldn’t exactly give up caffeine, but the owners did kindly create an escape hatch. Through a door in the back and down a short corridor lies a throwback to the ‘80s called the Reagan Years.
Dozens of vintage video games, from Pac-Man and Donkey Kong to Space Invaders and Centipede, dot this darkened annex near the Fullerton train station. The pah-pah-pah of exploding artillery bounces off the walls. “I love this place,” says regular John Hulen, face aglow from the cartoon colors of an illuminated screen. At 25, he is the Reagan Years’ target customer. “When they opened it, I knew it was going to do well.” And it has, allowing former homework dodgers to relive days of Donkey Kong binges at the 7-Eleven, chased by a round of Galaga on the Atari console at home.
If the Tomb Raider III generation feels out of place here, it’s not because posters of Max Headroom, Menudo and the lacquer-haired Duran Duran smile down on the action. “The younger kids always ask where Street Fighter is,” says Sean Francis, a boyishly handsome 26-year-old. “But once they get into Dig Dug, they’re hooked for hours.”
Francis and his business partner, Carlo Terranova, got the idea for the Reagan Years after raking in quarters from a tabletop Pac-Man they had set up in Hub Cafe. When the antiques store behind the downtown coffeehouse closed, they pounced, knocking out a wall and adding electrical outlets. Since the April opening, a few ‘80s faces have popped in, including “Diff’rent Strokes” actor Gary Coleman and TV talk-show host Wally George. It’s also a hangout of off-duty cops. Francis acquired his stock, which is also for sale ($550 to $2,500), by scouring newspaper classifieds and coin-operated machine conventions. He hopes his next big acquisition will be Pong.
“The ‘80s games are totally more creative,” he says. “Who would ever think that a little Pac-Man eating dots would be so much fun?”