We just had a blast hanging out with the cool crew at Outer Orbit! If you’re craving a wild mix of edgy pinball, Hapa-Hawaii vibes, and top-notch craft beer, make your way to Mission Bernal. It’s the place to be!
Origins of Outer Orbit: Christian, can you share the story behind the inception of Outer Orbit and what inspired you to blend Hawaiian culture with the San Francisco vibe?
Elisabeth and I just plain love pinball. About six years ago, we decided we wanted to take a chance and open a little pinball place in Bernal Heights, the neighborhood we live in and want to enrich. Some folks may remember we were first slated to open at Folsom and Cortland at the old Cutting Edge salon, where we would have craft beer and snacks. Ultimately, the space we found had a full kitchen, and we just went with it. Today, the food component of the business has become very popular, so we’ve leaned into it, but pinball will always be a part of the business’s identity.
Hapa-Hawaii Influence: Having grown up in Hawaii, how do you feel your heritage has influenced the overall atmosphere at Outer Orbit?
Good vibes are synonymous with the Hawaiian attitude, but I feel it’s as common to catch that in Northern California with its strong skater, surf, and post-hippy population. We like the word Hapa as a descriptor for us because Hawaii has a big influence, but NorCal/SF culture has just as big of an impact, and we’re trying to honor both cultures in all aspects. We hire folks with that same easygoing attitude but also happen to be hospitality professionals and love all the amazing craft goods you can find in the Bay Area. I’m not sure we do much to port over a vibe from Hawaii, but I have a personal motto, ‘Fluffy, not stuffy, ‘ which probably affects my management style and hopefully trickles down. It probably also helps that Elisabeth and I went to art school and are mindful of capitalism and its benefits and risks. We wouldn’t have such a unique, quirky place if it weren’t for this society’s flavor of capitalism, but there’s a balance between the requirement to generate profit and our conscience. We’re often very pleased with ourselves over how successful our business is, save for the part about making money.
Craft Beer Selection: With an emphasis on craft beer, how do you curate your selection to complement the unique fusion of Hawaiian and San Francisco flavors?
Elisabeth is the beer buyer and works with many local brewers and distributors to find styles and flavors that work with our food. You’ll find a lot of tropical influence in our beers, as many sour beers bring that tropical tartness to the table. She’ll also go out of her way to find a fruited cider that might have guava or pineapple in addition to apples. Of course, IPAs are also really important to SF folks, so we’ll always have a couple of those on draft, but we try to ensure we have something for everyone. We usually have some wild ales, saisons, and barrel-aged stouts on our specialty bottle shelf, our Untitled Art non-alcoholic beer selection (quite tasty), and gluten-free offerings.
Pinball Passion: Outer Orbit is known for its love of pinball. Can you tell us about the San Francisco pinball community and its integration into your establishment?
San Francisco has an amazing pinball community. We first started meeting folks from that community around 2008, and everyone was so welcoming and generous with their knowledge of where and how to play. We started competing in small social tournaments, then larger leagues, and the community has grown and grown and become more diverse. The Belles and Chimes women’s league just turned ten years old and meets at Outer Orbit on our day off. And there’s now a San Francisco Queer Pinball League!! And it’s huge! We can barely contain all the players when they visit us. We’re super proud and in awe that we can host these leagues and look forward to the future of pinball in the Bay Area.
Music and Ambiance: Your establishment is noted for its synthy-gothy-punk music. How does this musical choice enhance the dining and gaming experience at Outer Orbit?
People like a party atmosphere now and then, and part of that is having good music (at the risk of failing terribly at a veneer of modesty, I’ll state that we think we have good taste)- but another big part of it is still being able to have conversations with the people you’re partying with. So, I’m not answering your question. Still, relatedly, we invested a fair amount of time and money into sound dampening, which was installed discreetly throughout the space, and we have speakers that are well distributed. This allows the music to be played moderately loud enough to shroud the inevitable clack-clacks of the pinball machines and provide privacy to neighboring groups while allowing intelligibility of conversation without shouting. Christian has trouble focusing on conversations in restaurants that don’t have sound dampening, and even though the decibels at our place may be higher than your average restaurant, you will probably be more present with the people you’re with. Better living through louder music.
Hawaii Food Scene Inspiration: You’ve mentioned a love for what’s happening in the Hawaii food scene. Could you elaborate on specific elements or dishes that have inspired your menu?
When we lucked into our current location with its full kitchen and had to get serious about a real menu, we went with the one cuisine we knew most about and had the most opinions about Contemporary Hawaii Cuisine- Most people may not realize it, but “Hawaiian BBQ” is a loosely codified set of dishes unique to a milieu that no longer exists. We all still eat it (L&L is just as prevalent in Hawaii), but food has continued to evolve on the islands, and we wanted to bring some of that to the mainland. We’re also careful to say that we don’t make “Hawaiian” food, which should be understood as food belonging to Native Hawaiian traditional culture. Anyway, the food scene in Hawaii is pretty expansive, and I was raised with a lot of the Japanese influence within that multiculturalism, so many of our dishes skew in that direction. That said, I did grow up eating Lumpia, so that’s on the menu. We wanted to honor San Francisco, so we have dishes like Garlic Noodles and a strong investment in developing vegan and vegetarian dishes. Quite a few of our dishes are vegan that we drop meat onto for the meat-eaters. Molecular gastronomy gave us the tools and techniques to make our own spam and vegan spam from scratch using quality proteins. So, there is a lot of acculturation going on.
Evolution of the Menu: How has the menu at Outer Orbit evolved since its opening, and how do you balance staying true to Hawaiian influences while incorporating new ideas?
The menu has evolved since we first opened, especially during the pandemic. When we first opened, some dishes were overly classy- like octopus carpaccio, oysters on the half shell, and complex low-abv cocktails. There were a lot of dishes that didn’t make sense to go. Once the reality was that this would be a long period closed, we completely overhauled the menu to make more comfort-centered and portable food. A silver lining of the pandemic was that folks were accommodating to whatever changes we made, allowing us freedom to evolve quickly. We cut a lot of dishes and added a few sandwiches and apps like fries. Once re-opened, we introduced entrée-style plates like Yakisoba, Fried Rice, and Garlic Noodles. And through it all, we fed it to our staff and got their input or took their suggestions. The Hot Mess version of the Togarashi Tots with its nacho cheese, Japanese curry, pickled shallots, jalapeno, and cilantro resulted from our longtime staff member Dave adding all the sauces to everything. We have high standards for execution and flavor balance, but we’re not opposed to indulging the sometimes wacky whims of staff trying to mix things up. We have a large secret menu with power bowls, chopped cheese, and burritos.
Outer Orbit Otters Pinball Team: Can you tell us more about the Outer Orbit pinball team and what it means for customers getting into competitive play?
We have a pinball team! It belongs to the Bay Bridge Pinball League. A team can adopt any venue in the city with five or more machines. You then play home and away games at our spots. It’s a brilliant idea, and we’re lucky enough to have a team that focuses on bringing people into the scene. So we’ve added players to the team that started as regulars. And we’re more focused on developing skills and getting players accustomed to competing than we are to winning games. There are a lot of skills to learn and develop; like any sport, the moment you compete against a stranger, your brain forgets which way is up.
Future Visions: What new developments or ideas are you excited to bring to Outer Orbit in the coming years?
We want to bring money to Outer Orbit! And then maybe hire a manager so we can work less? Please come and give us your money. And what is this ‘years’ thing? We’re just trying to adapt and survive. Everything is so expensive! Support your local restaurants! And support Maui!
xoxoxo, Elisabeth and Christian