Coffeecade, where arcade games and freshly brewed specialty coffee meet, officially opened its doors to Baltimore residents this year. But the process was no easy journey for owner Andy Lee.
Immediately following college Lee married and then joined the Marine Corps. After 10 years and three combat deployments, Lee and his family settled in Maryland. While working for the federal government, Lee was sent on additional deployments, ending his career in a total of five combat deployments. Each one harder than the last, these events inspired Lee to pursue a different career path with the creation of Coffeecade.
“Every single one of them [deployments] were really rough,” Lee said. “Friends didn’t make it. I go right, they go left. I’m the one that comes home, and I knew I had to find something else to do.”
The veteran grew up in both the Rocky Mountains of Colorado as well as the sunny beaches of California. Since his childhood in the ’80s, he always had an affinity for arcade games.
“My dad always took me to this old school arcade at the Santa Monica Pier and I loved it,” Lee said. “Tron, Pac-Man and Pinball, I grew up on that stuff, and would dump quarters in those machines literally all day long.”
Now as an adult who loves coffee and still an avid game lover, Lee decided to combine his two favorite passions and share them with others.
Lee acquired his first arcade game machine, Tron, after lugging it down five flights of stairs from a church in Hampden. The rarely found game, which Lee purchased for $50 and is now worth $13,000, was expected to be the first installation in his arcade shop. But Lee quickly realized the sole concept of arcades just wasn’t sought out anymore.
He found that today’s arcade bars that serve up alcoholic beverages and play loud music have grown in popularity. But the father of two little girls wanted to start something that was family friendly.
In 2014, Lee began the process to open his very first Coffeecade by signing a lease on a property in Pasadena, Maryland. Unfortunately, before they were set to open, the landlord decided to terminate the lease and those dreams were crushed.
“I put my life savings into this,” Lee said. “So that was kind of a gut punch there.”
Despite the setback, Lee pressed on and continued working on his dream. He worked with advisors to get a copyright and a business plan, and researched the best practices to run his business.
In 2017, Lee entered a “Shark Tank”-like business competition from Citibank, and he won. His monetary earnings from that competition were used for another lease, which didn’t work out in the end, but Lee still didn’t give up.
In 2018, Lee met LieAnne Navarro, owner of Dear Globe Coffee, who had a huge new location on Mulberry Street. The two developed a friendship which later turned business partnership, when Navarro offered Lee the opportunity to bring his arcade games to her already established coffee shop for a collaboration.
That collaboration officially launched in September 2023 at 422 W Mulberry St. in Baltimore’s Bromo Arts District.
“We’re trying it as a pop-up and trying it to see how long we can do it,” Lee said. “It’s been a great partnership. If it starts making a bunch of money hand over fist, we’re going to try and make it permanent.”
The current fee system is paying for room entrance. Patrons can pay $7 for one hour of free play or $21 for all-day play, with the latter option coming with a free coffee drink of choice.
The space currently has 25 games on site but they rotate between 50 games, including Pinballs, Tron, Mortal Kombat, Double Drag, Kung-Fu Master, Lethal Weapon, Congo Bongo, Pac-Man, Miss Pac-Man, Missile Command, Vulgus, Donkey Kong, Space Invaders, Tag Team wrestling, a Sega driving game, a mechanized attack shooter game, and many more.
Coffeecade also serves their own branded coffee, and all coffee packaging is arcade-themed. The light roast is a “Frog & Pac” blend; the medium blend, called “Jolt & Volt,” is Pinball-themed; and the dark roast is called “Taste Invader,” inspired by the “Space Invaders” arcade game.
The shop is a full coffee house experience with specialty teas, blended drinks, homemade muffins, baked goods, breakfast, and much more.
“I’d love the coffee concept to take off and be able to franchise or go to a much larger traffic area,” Lee said. “We could really bring the experience and brand it out to different folks. That’s the long-term goals, but the short-term goals are to host parties and events.”
Lee also hopes to bring in more customers from the Baltimore area.
“We have a crew of regulars that come in, but we also are getting a lot more folks from far away, like New York, D.C., West Virginia,” he said. “We’re really drawing a crowd of eclectic, nerdy, arcade folks looking for a new experience. But I’d love to see more local Baltimore traffic. We’re getting more out-of-town folks that are hearing about it and want to try it than actually local Baltimore folks.”
Coffeecade is open Tuesday through Sunday. Visit their website for hours and additional information.
Where thos place is located, it will be robbed put of existence.
This is the type of ill informed statement that hurts communities throughout the United States. This location is not that dangerous.