It has been almost two and a half months since a late August storm brought down the roof of The Pinball Shoppe in North Olmsted. Thankfully, no one was hurt, but the damage was significant.
We don’t just report the initial story—we follow through to its conclusion. Read and watch our previous reporting on this story below and see more stories that we've followed through on here.
The day after the devastation, the family who owns and operates the business vowed to reopen, and they weren’t kidding.
News 5 returned to check in on the business and the family who owns and operates it.
“There is absolutely a skill to playing pinball,” said Garry Foreman.
Foreman owns and operates the Pinball Shoppe in North Olmsted.
“I call it pinball geometry,” said Foreman. “You have to know where to hit the ball; the tip of the flipper or the heel of the flipper, and a good pinball player can hit almost everything on the playing field -- at will.”
While he sells them, Foreman says he is not a good pinball player but is very good at fixing them.
“I’m a good repairman,” he laughed.
Foreman has been fixing and selling pinball machines for 44 years. He started the Pinball Shoppe, where his family now works too.
Much like a playing turn in a pinball game, sometimes life too can plunge you into circumstances out of your control.
“You think you have it all figured out, and at the last minute it all goes to hell.”
Foreman is talking about the night he got the call that the roof of his business had collapsed.
“My heart sunk,” he recalled. “There were a lot of sleepless nights.”
Foreman says the roof had recently been replaced. To the best of his understanding, he says debris clogged its drainage system, and massive amounts of rain that stormy August night pooled and caused the flat roof to collapse.
“You do the best you can, try to keep a positive attitude; it’s not the end of the world, you know; you keep going.”
They promised they’d be back the day after the collapse, and they weren’t kidding.
“Here we are,” smiled Melissa Rossi, co-owner.
“We want you guys to come check us out.”
Rossi is Foreman’s daughter and co-owner of the Pinball Shoppe.
Their new location is 31441 Lorain Rd. Suite D, at the corner of Lorain and Industrial Parkway. It is just a few miles west of the old spot on Butternut Ridge and Porter Roads.
“We went through a rough time,” said Rossi. “We are a family business, and the family stuck together, and we’re back!”
She said the damage was devastating, but it could’ve been worse. She says she was surprised by what they found when they were able to get inside their old building after the collapse.
“When I walked into the showroom, it was pretty untouched,” she said.
Rossi says most of their games survived the collapse and flooding. However, She said they lost almost a third of the parts and pieces used to repair and refurbish the old pinball machines and arcade games.
But just like the games they sell and fix, it’s not game over for the family-owned and operated pinball shop.
They said they primarily sell to families. The nostalgic fun brings generations together.
“Anybody from three to 103 can play,” said Rossi.
They said the losses The Pinball Shoppe has experienced have been replaced with gains.
“Me, my brother and my husband plan on keeping my dad’s legacy going,” said Rossi. “He made this successful, and we’re going to keep it that way!”
It has also given them an even more profound gratitude for each other, their team, and all the support they’ve received from the North Olmsted and pinball communities.
“The community, the people were all great,” said Foreman. “I mean, yeah, it was pretty amazing.”
The old building will be torn down. It is in the process of being demolished.
Foreman owns the lot and says it’ll remain empty for the foreseeable future.
The Pinball Shoppe moved into the old historic building in 1995, but it was several things before then.
The chairman of the Landmarks Commission for the City of North Olmsted says the building was initially built as a bank in the 1920s, along with plans for a neighborhood around it. However, he says the Great Depression doomed the bank and the subdivision until development started again after WWII.
