Josh Hoke's Arcade Adventure: Retro Rush, a Community Gem

Have you ever stumbled upon an unexpected treasure that propelled you into a completely new life chapter? That's precisely what happened to Josh Hoke when a Craigslist find of old arcade cabinets turned into the bustling Retro Rush Arcade in our community. Today's conversation with Josh isn't just about gaming; it's a tale of transformation. From his roots in Southern California to the tight-knit embrace of Richmond, Josh's leap from a secure job at Meyer to arcade ownership is a story of risk, passion, and community support that will leave you inspired.

Join me, Alfredo Diamond, as I share laughs and a deep appreciation for local culture with Josh, the heartbeat behind the arcade that's captivating our town. Discover the personal side of this mechanical wizard, who credits his father's influence and his family's unwavering support—including his wife, Chelsea, and their daughter, Evelyn—as the backbone of his venture. Josh's journey is a vibrant reminder of the joy that comes from pursuing what you love, and the powerful role a solid support network plays in making dreams a reality.

We wrap up this episode by looking at the big picture: the promising collaborations brewing between local universities and the gaming scene, and the potential for a downtown rejuvenation that has everyone talking. Josh embodies the spirit of this collective effort, extending his gratitude to all who've championed Retro Rush Arcade's success. You won't want to miss this heartwarming celebration of local charm, entrepreneurial spirit, and the sheer delight of turning a beloved hobby into a thriving hub for fun and community.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

Welcome back to another episode of our local podcast, our Community. I'm your host, alfredo Diamond, and just do me a favor Click the like and subscribe button for us so we can keep this moving. Also for your real estate needs, think Diamond Class Care. I'm here with today's guest owner, retro Rush Arcade, josh Hoke.

Speaker 2: 0:27

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 0:28

Welcome, Josh.

Speaker 2: 0:29

I appreciate you. Let me be on here talking to you for a little bit.

Speaker 1: 0:32

It's a pleasure to have you.

Speaker 2: 0:33

Thank you.

Speaker 1: 0:34

Josh, what's going on in your world right now?

Speaker 2: 0:37

Just busy, busy. We're kind of ramping up into the holiday season. We get a lot of parties and stuff going on for our local arcade. I've been doing this for a little over a year now, Kind of getting in the groove of things and figuring out how everything works. Yeah, it's been a fun time. Like I said, with the holidays it can kind of be a little different traffic, but it's been good traffic. We've been doing really good.

Speaker 1: 1:00

That's good. We'll talk about those parties and things. We've got a pretty interesting setup down there, way more than I expected. It was a really cool experience with you a week or so ago. Where are you from?

Speaker 2: 1:11

Originally I was born and raised in Southern California. I grew up a lot of my kind of young high school days in Victorville, it's kind of north of LA about an hour. Yeah, that's pretty much where I was for the most of my life. My family kind of picked up and wanted to move after high school 2005. So as soon as I graduated, about two months later, we were kind of picked up and moved to New Paris, ohio, just a little bit north of where we're at now. But yeah, it's kind of where I was from. It's a totally different environment.

Speaker 2: 1:45

When we moved here I had a lot of high hopes. I was kind of out of my element for a little while. I didn't really know what it was like here. I kind of got used to the way the town was and how people kind of treated each other a lot different. Here. It's almost like people kind of care a little bit more about each other and want to support one another. And when I kind of moved here I was a little scared but I was like man, this is kind of nice In California. It's different man People cutting you off in traffic and just flipping you to the bird every chance they got. It's just totally different and I think that's why I kind of liked Richmond just in general, because eventually I did move to Richmond from New Paris. But I just like the atmosphere here. But yeah, it's just awesome.

Speaker 1: 2:32

What ultimately made you move from New Paris over to Richmond?

Speaker 2: 2:37

Well, we were kind of out in the boonies man. We were up by New Madison, which is kind of like the Hollensburg area, a little bit middle of nowhere, but a lot of it was just kind of the drive. We had a lot of these snowy weathers that I was driving a 95 Mustang trying to go through these back roads and the snow. This is not working. But eventually I met my wife, chelsea, and we kind of got a place together over on South Fifth and that was our thing for a while. Eventually, unfortunately, my family ended up moving back. So my parents and brothers and stuff moved back to California because they didn't really like the snow and ice and stuff. So they moved and we were getting ready to have my daughter. So we kind of made that decision to kind of stay here and I liked it here, so that's kind of been here ever since.

Speaker 1: 3:25

So what brought you to the RK business? What got you to where you are now?

Speaker 2: 3:30

My dad. He's always been kind of like the tinkery kind of guy. He's been an auto mechanic for gosh over 20 years Definitely a master mechanic by now. His nature was always just if something doesn't work, I'm going to find out why. In my life I've always seen that kind of mill role model.

Speaker 2: 3:47

in my life I was able to kind of watch him do some of the stuff he does and he's like tearing transmissions out of cars and stuff and I'm like, ok, that's kind of cool. I didn't really understand it in my younger age but when I kind of grew up that kind of transitioned to me a little bit. I got into cars and started doing that stuff and then I always kind of had a back hobby of video games and stuff like that. But eventually I saw a Craigslist ad one day for an arcade cabinet for like $100. I was like, man, I'm going to go get that. I want to see what this is like.

Speaker 1: 4:17

Now you mean arcade cabinet, like the actual game, Like the full on.

Speaker 2: 4:21

Yeah, like the full style wood cabinet and a group of buddies of mine and stuff. We went and just got it through it in the back of my buddy's truck and brought it home and my mind's always kind of working on how things work and so kind of transitioning to that into the arcade world. It was kind of interesting. It's a lot of research, but I like that kind of stuff. It's what I do. Yeah, for people like that who are taking advantage of private Signature just always learn how things work.

Speaker 1: 4:46

So now didn't you start out? You were telling me about when we were connected a week ago. That weren't. Didn't you end up having, like so many in your garage, around the space?

Speaker 2: 4:54

Yeah, yeah, so, uh. So when we moved here, um, you know, we kind of found a nice little house that was a pretty good space, um, and we kind of collected. You know, the first one was kind of like okay, this is kind of cool. Well then it kind of attributed into you know, what else could I find out there?

Speaker 2: 5:10

That's kind of cool, you know. So we, we have getting more and more arcade machines and learn how to fix them and stuff like that, and then eventually, yeah, I mean we ended up having a full basement full of just all these arcade machines that I'd fixed over the time. Um, so we, I think we got to about 43, um before it was kind of at a point where we're like okay, this is. This is a lot man Um, but you know, it wasn't like it was in my living room or anything like that, you know it

Speaker 2: 5:32

was in the basement and the garage and stuff. So it was like when you walk in my house it still looked like a normal house. You know it wasn't. It wasn't anything crazy but um, but yeah, so we had about 43. And then we just like well, you know, I kind of wish I would have had like a business at that time and uh, I asked around a couple of places you know downtown and stuff and kind of see what it was like. You know how much it cost to rent a building and stuff, and uh, it was hard yeah.

Speaker 2: 5:56

It was very hard, cause there's a lot of places that just weren't ready, you know. And and now, like with Richmond, you know it's really starting to revitalize and you start to see all these old buildings start to come to life and people care and they want to make it, you know, the best it can be.

Speaker 1: 6:09

So did you think you'd be where you are now. Looking back then, thinking back then, looking from back then.

Speaker 2: 6:15

I don't know, man, it's it's hard to say. You know I would say probably not. You know this. Everything that's happened in the last couple of years is kind of just almost, in a way almost fell into place.

Speaker 2: 6:24

Um, I met a lot of good people doing what I'm doing and, um, you know we've kind of tried to help each other going along the way and you know the building we're in now. You know we met some good people there, that kind of. You know they were easy on the rent, they helped with some of the remodels and stuff and you know it's just been a very fortunate experience that I was. I was actually at a point where I was about ready to give up trying to find a place to rent, just because I just didn't know what else to do. So the plan was to kind of start putting them in different places you know pizzerias, the bowling alleys, stuff like that just to kind of kind of get out there a little bit and that way I could still work on projects. Um, but you know it just it just kind of turned into what it is and you know I'm very fortunate, you know. I just happy for all the help that we've had along the way.

Speaker 1: 7:05

So I'm very passionate about entrepreneurship and I know there's our audience. Members are too. Can you kind of just dive in, like what you went through to get to where you are, like from you know funding to you know having the capital to get out there and find a place and lease and things like that and those monthly expenses Can you kind of share what you went through, maybe some sacrifices and things that you had to go through to get to where you are?

Speaker 2: 7:27

Yeah, so um, it really started. You know, we, we saw this business model in some of the bigger cities like Indianapolis and Cincinnati and stuff, where they were doing these arcades, where it was all set up on free play, you know, as long as you buy drinks and stuff. So when I saw that business model, I was like man, this is what I want to do. Like this was the perfect image. Um, don't do quarters and stuff like that. So, like you know, when I had that idea in mind, you know we went to um.

Speaker 2: 7:50

I went to the innovation center over here on main street, um, back when it was actually called, you know, the innovation center, um, and I talked to some good people over there that I was like this is the idea I have, this is what I want to do, help me, you know, give me an idea of what I need to do and and they were really cool, man, and they um, they kind of sat me down, was like okay, well, we need to get you a business setup either you know incorporated LLC something, and they're like, we think for your kind of personality and stuff, llc is a good way to go. And you know, I did a lot of research on the side just to make sure that it was what I wanted to do, um, but yeah, it was. It was interesting Um, there was a lot of things I had to do, a lot of hoops I had to jump through Um, but once I had that kind of established um, the capital just kind of mostly came from.

Speaker 2: 8:31

You know, I've been working at Meyer for almost 13 years and kind of, you know, I was making decent money and um kind of setting some of that aside. And uh, in the meantime I was also finding um some of these arcade cabinets that were just dirt cheap you know a hundred bucks here, 200 bucks there, so I would buy you know three or four a month.

Speaker 2: 8:48

I would say, um, and just kind of fix them up in the garage, get them ready. No-transcript sit there, okay. So you know, once I had enough working at Meyer, you know, with the funding and everything like that, it just kind of it got to a point where you know I had to make a decision of we're kind of getting more busy, you know we need me there at the arcade more often and I kind of had to transition away from Meyer because my work schedule there was just crazy. It's a retail environment, you know, holiday season West off, oh yeah, third shifts, it's been. It was crazy sacrifice. Yeah, that was a big sacrifice. Like I said, I made pretty decent money and it was one of those decisions I had to make where I was like you know, if I, if I leave this place, you know I'm sure I could come back, but it's like it just felt like I needed to take that step.

Speaker 2: 9:33

Yeah, you know into that world. And it was a struggle, you know. Luckily my wife was also kind of working. She's in the medical field. You know, and you know she was making some money too, so like we had to make sure that the bills were going to get paid if I quit my job. You know my, my kind of stable income. So that was kind of one of those things I had to kind of really think about.

Speaker 1: 9:54

What got you over that, Because I went through that too like, what got you over that fear? Like no, this is what I need to do.

Speaker 2: 10:00

A lot of it was the people. You know I, like I said, I met up with the people that own the building that we're in now and you know I was just kind of. I came to him. I was like man, like I don't know what else to do. Can I just put some arcades that you're building or something like that? And then, you know, talking to those people, they were like you know what, we got a spot, let's just get you set up.

Speaker 2: 10:19

You know I, so I went into this environment where I didn't even know what was going to happen. You know, I talked to these guys and they're just like you know, we're going to do this for you, we're going to help you. Wow, and I was. That's another thing about the whole Richmond thing is just like everyone just wants to try to help one another, and that's what I love about it. But yeah, just they were kind of a big part of that, kind of just like pushing me going. It's going to be okay. You know we can do this, and you're right. You know, early on I had so many fears you know, starting the LLC and stuff.

Speaker 2: 10:47

I'm just like I got to worry about this. I got to worry about that. You know what if this lawsuit happens or just random things? That would probably never happen, yeah. But you know, once I kind of let that subside a little bit, it was a little easier to kind of be calm about it and start actually making progress.

Speaker 1: 11:02

So what is thinking about your experience and where you are now. There's someone out there that's listening, that's on the edge, thinking about man. I really want to do this. I want to get out and do my own thing. What? What is one piece of advice that you could share, that you can inspire someone else? What would you share?

Speaker 2: 11:17

Try not to get too overwhelmed with the small details, you know, because that was one of the things that happened to me is just, I felt like I was more worried about the planning stages of everything than the actual execution of everything.

Speaker 2: 11:29

So I feel like I probably could have got started a little sooner had I just jumped you know, and just made that leap and I know it can be hard, but really that's that's what you got to do. You know it's, you know, definitely do your research, but you know, don't let all your fears kind of take over and, you know, take that wheel away from you from where you want to be.

Speaker 1: 11:47

So that's great advice. That's great advice, Josh. Let's have a little fun. It's time. It's time for a segment that. I got. I call it the Rose City Hot and Ready Cold and Steady segment here, oh boy. So I'm not sure if you've seen it or not yet but, I'm going to just ask you some questions and you just blur out what comes to mind, what's your favorite place, and then just kind of talk about why, and we'll go through that.

Speaker 2: 12:06

Okay, we'll give it a shot.

Speaker 1: 12:07

Okay, okay, favorite fast food restaurant.

Speaker 2: 12:11

Oh man, that's definitely Taco Bell, man, Taco.

Speaker 1: 12:14

Bell.

Speaker 2: 12:14

Yeah, I don't know what it is, but when I worked at Meyer it was just one of those właśnie was like cheap, easy foods five bucks here, five bucks there for lunch. Yeah, love it.

Speaker 1: 12:22

Okay, okay, taco Bell, I haven't had that yet. All right, uh.

Speaker 2: 12:25

I haven't had Taco Bell no, I've had Taco Bell no.

Speaker 1: 12:28

I haven't had that come up on the show.

Speaker 2: 12:31

Well, if it's fast food, you know I've got different for like restaurants and stuff, but I think, uh, yeah, that's just. It was always just a quick meal that you know, when I was at Meyer. Like I said, I had to run over, get something come right back, so it was just right over there.

Speaker 1: 12:42

So uh, we've got several parks in our area. Which ones are your favorite park?

Speaker 2: 12:47

Favorite park. Well, I like the, uh, the Elstrow Plaza. I mean it's not really like a park per se but um, but I think you know, I've seen what it used to be.

Speaker 1: 12:54

Yeah, it used to be a parking lot.

Speaker 2: 12:55

I used to park there when I cashed my checks at manpower and uh, that was a long time ago, um, but yeah, seeing it now, it's amazing, like the the restructure of the entire area. So I mean, I would consider that a pretty cool park because it's got a splash pad and stuff, you know.

Speaker 1: 13:09

So I would agree, that hasn't come up yet, but that's a good idea.

Speaker 2: 13:12

Yeah, look, I'm two for two. Yeah, Uh.

Speaker 1: 13:15

So if you had to uh go recommend a first date to someone moving into town, what would the ideal date look like. I mean the classic movies is always a good one.

Speaker 2: 13:27

As long as there's something good playing at the movies, you know. I mean so you do that um you know if, if you're more of like a downtown field coming down here on main street, you know hitting some of these places, you know, um, I would say you know, even Susie's now opening up. That's a pretty good little date spot. You know, little pizzeria, um, and there's a lot of other little businesses down here, so I think that'd be kind of movies and a dinner right there.

Speaker 1: 13:47

All right, oh, we've got several university colleges here. We have Erlum Ivy Tech, iu East to come to mind. What what's one comes to mind for you? Um so, currently I would say IU East, um you know they've.

Speaker 2: 13:57

They've always been really cool to us. Uh, as far as like working with the eSports team and stuff.

Speaker 1: 14:02

Okay, we did some charity events with them, which was kind of nice.

Speaker 2: 14:07

They did like a gaming convention, which was pretty cool, yeah, um. So we thought we'd be able to do that.

Speaker 2: 14:11

Um, so we took some like arcade machines down there and kind of had some fun with it. But, um, but yeah, like the uh, the eSports guys and everything, andy and all them, like they've been really cool with uh, with working together and you know kind of that collaboration with businesses to to environment kind of thing. So but yeah, iu East, I think it's pretty cool. I myself I went to Ivy Tech and didn't really do much with it. Um, it was just a couple you know classes here and there for you know automotive and stuff, when I was kind of learning the cars and stuff. But no, it's I would say Ivy. You know, iu East would probably be pretty cool.

Speaker 1: 14:43

So all right, great, you did a great job with that segment. So, uh, shipping gears, thinking about the community, uh, community involvement and things like that. So, um, as far as you mentioned downtown, uh, where, where would you like to see this community within the next five years?

Speaker 2: 14:59

Well, I mean the main street, really, it looks like it's kind of up and coming right now. Um, and I've heard there's a lot of good things in the works, you know, with grants and stuff, um, you know the thing that uh Erlen was doing, you know that's. That's really cool, so, um, but now I I think, um, I think we're on the right track. You know, as far as the city goes, um, making a lot of great progress over the last couple of years. Even so, I can only imagine what the next five years will bring, you know to what things will look like. You know a lot of these buildings are for sale. They're not completely dilapidated. I mean they, they need a little work, but I mean, you know a lot of these buildings are amazing, um, you know, and sometimes you know if it is too far past that point where it needs to kind of be you, know, maybe considered tear down to be rebuilt.

Speaker 2: 15:40

Um, I hate to see that happen to some of the buildings but I think you know in the future that would be kind of nice to see. You know everything down here kind of looking nice and pristine, and unfortunately I wasn't here when the promenade used to be the promenade, you know, when you got to walk around.

Speaker 1: 15:53

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 15:54

With all the you know, umbrellas and all the shops and stuff, and I wish I could have been there to see that, Cause I think that's that's kind of what it would be in my mind, but I know how it can be with like the traffic and stuff, so it's it's probably not an idea that's gonna happen like that, but, um, but yeah, I think in the next five years I could really see you know Main Street kind of kicking it up a notch and really be in the place Everyone wants to go, because it used to be, you know, a long time ago. It used to be one of those you know places where people used to be, and then kind of the road construction and stuff Kind of set that back a little bit and people just kind of avoided it, yeah. But I think now people look at and go, okay, this is what kind of we were imagining, yeah, when we, when we envisioned it.

Speaker 1: 16:31

So it's highlighting downtown. You know this next question I usually it's usually pretty broad. You know thinking about, you know your businesses and places you visit. Now, yeah, maybe you, maybe there's a place you like going to that we don't have here. But let's take it a step further, thinking about downtown, is there a business that we do not currently have in our community? That is one of your favorites, that you would think would be great Downtown?

Speaker 2: 16:58

man, that's a good question. For a while there, I mean in the axe throwing thing was it was kind of neat because we didn't have that for a while.

Speaker 2: 17:04

And that literally he's only been here for a couple months, you know, and some of the bigger cities were doing a lot of that and you know, with triax moving in, that was kind of filling that gap. So that was kind of what was on my mind until you know, they showed up. But Besides that I I really can't think of too much. I think we need some more places that are kind of more of like an event center, which in a way is kind of what we were envisioning for our building.

Speaker 2: 17:28

Where we're at now is to kind of a venue where it has multiple Audiences, you know, you can have you know, golf simulator, axe throwing, arcade, just all a whole bunch of things in one building that would kind of serve as a venue purpose, almost like a scene 75 or something that it's kind of on a smaller scale. But I think something like that, somewhere where people can go and kind of collaborate together, would be something that I think would be important.

Speaker 1: 17:52

So great idea, great idea I like to talk about with our community. So this next one, I'm not gonna not trying to stump you up here, but don't make the mistake. Like I did, I gave a number, but I actually the letter grade a through f, what. Where would you give our? What grade would you give our community, and why?

Speaker 2: 18:10

okay, so I mean for effort all the way. I'm going to say A on that man.

Speaker 2: 18:16

Cause like, I think I watch all these things you know on Facebook and everything, and there's so much community effort trying to make this better. So I mean like, if you're talking from an effort standpoint, oh yeah, that's an A all day long, um, but I think where we're at, um, from where we've been, I think you know we're at probably about a B status. Um, I think there's still some things that need to be, you know, changed up a little bit, cleaned up a little bit, um, but I think we're almost there. You know, I think we're very close to being just A's across the board, um, because Richmond is is really up and coming and I think, uh, I think we can do it just a little bit more, but it's getting there.

Speaker 1: 18:52

So I love how you broke that down. You gave more of like every poor car, but that was great.

Speaker 2: 18:57

Great, five different categories. Yeah, I love that. Got an F in science, love that man Are there?

Speaker 1: 19:03

are there any upcoming events, projects you're working on that you want to bring attention to or highlight while you oh, I got you here.

Speaker 2: 19:10

Oh, for, like the building and stuff, yeah, um. Yeah, I mean, like I said, we're we're trying to change it up a little bit in that building. It's. It's an old building, man. I think it used to be the, the W I, c, a, um, but it used to be so many different things through the the course of ownership. Um, it was even a daycare at one time, but I think that it's a it's 30,000 square foot building and I think that is not fully utilized for for what it can be.

Speaker 2: 19:32

So, um, when I mentioned the event center thing, you know, where it has multiple audiences and multiple businesses that are kind of working together to achieve one goal of just kind of being one cool place, um, I think that would be uh kind of what we're working towards.

Speaker 2: 19:46

So, um, we've redone like carpet and tile and paint, so I mean it's definitely way better than when we first moved in, um, and working with the building owner and stuff like that. So, um, but yeah, I think that's that's kind of where we're headed. Um, we want to be that cool place in town that kind of helps those, uh, those community efforts, so uh, and just continue to work with all these local businesses. Man, I mean there's there's so many local businesses here that we'd like to work with, um just kind of collaborate ideas and um you know we we're good partners with main street organization and all those guys and um, they've been a great help. So I think, um going forward we're going to keep kind of working with them and kind of spitball and ideas of what we can do together.

Speaker 1: 20:25

So so that kind of segues into my next question Do you, do you write on? You're right on cue man. You're making this so easy for me today, oh boy. So, uh, who, who? What is one who? Who is one person that you would like to collaborate with on the project? Or, uh, an idea or adventure?

Speaker 2: 20:41

Um, well, I mean, there's a lot. I mean I I thought about kind of going down and talking to the bakery and, you know, maybe older ease and some of these other places that are just local downtown hardworking people, that, um, I think you know we could probably come up with something pretty cool together. Um, but just kind of make those connections and some of them we already have and I think, uh, going forward, I think that would be kind of cool to be able to work with some of those people and, you know, bring a little bit of them to us and a little bit of us to them.

Speaker 1: 21:05

So yeah, man, what no? You want to shout out where your location is? Give the address.

Speaker 2: 21:10

So we are at 100 North ninth, um, over here right on the corner of ninth and a uh, it's right before the bridge. Of course, there's not a bridge there right now, but, um, but it will be eventually. So we'll kind of be in the main street right there. So, uh, but yeah, 100 North nine street here in Richmond. So, um, definitely got to check it out so.

Speaker 1: 21:28

Josh. One last question I'll let you get out of here, man. It's been a pleasure to know you here. Is there anyone out there on your team, on your side, family friend staff, that you would like to shout out publicly, publicly, today?

Speaker 2: 21:41

Oh man all of them. They've all been great. I mean Troy, susie, my wife Chelsea, uh even my daughter Evelyn. You know she comes down and helps out from time to time. So uh landed my nephew. He helps out quite a bit. Um, you know, uh, we got a lot of good staff, a lot of good people trying to do a lot of good things. So I think, uh, I think we're on the right track, so I think, all good people.

Speaker 1: 22:01

So All right, man Sounds good. Hey, I really appreciate you taking time of your day to be here. This was a great interview and I'm so glad that you can come join us.

Speaker 2: 22:10

So thank you, I appreciate it. Man Appreciate your time. Thank you, thank you.