Robert Schowengerdt and John Simon had decided they were tired of being grownups. The former was a collector of vintage arcade games who was burnt out at his day job animating training videos for the CDC; the latter was a microbiologist in the pharmaceutical industry who daydreamed about getting back to his hobby of homebrewing. When they were both laid off around the same time in 2014, Schowengerdt called Simon with an idea: Why not combine their diversions and open a business together?
"I had always dreamed of opening an arcade, but I could never figure out a way to make enough money to stay in business," Schowengerdt says. "So I told John if he'd give up having a real job and come work with me, I'll do all the paperwork. I've got all these arcade games that nobody plays anymore; we can throw them in the bar and be different than any other brewery. There are bar arcades popping up all over the country, and there was only one other brewery arcade in the country that we knew of. Maybe it's a good idea? Worst case, they'd look cool in the background if no one played them. We got lucky and hit the nostalgia nail on the head, timewise."
In March 2017, Two Plumbers Brewery + Arcade emerged from the green pipe, took that running leap from the top of the stairs and grabbed the castle flag, pulling in beer nerds, gamers and pinball wizards from all over the metro area. Warp ahead six and a half years, and Two Plumbers (745 Friedens Road, St. Charles; 636-224-8626, twoplumbers.com) has just leveled up to a new 8,200-square-foot building with more than twice as much space for brewing, events and just about any kind of game you can imagine.
At the time of its inception, the barcade was indeed a novelty. Outside of Trailhead Brewing Co. (downtown St. Charles), Exit 6 Brewery (Cottleville) and Friendship Brewing Company (all the way out in Wentzville), there wasn't a lot of craft beer on that side of the Missouri River. And if you wanted to drink while leaning on a joystick, you were either at a holiday work party at Dave & Busters or you were "that person" ordering a Bud at Chuck E. Cheese or Kokomo Joe's.
But that wasn't the only thing that set Two Plumbers apart. The partners launched with the goal of keeping it 8-bit-authentic. Simon's core beers were classic English styles, such as the sweet and easy-drinking blonde ale Pauline (named after the distressed damsel from Donkey Kong), the roasty and smooth Braunem Mantel brown ale and the slightly smokey Irish red ale Magic Potion (originally dubbed "Healing Potion" until the state squashed the moniker for suggesting medicinal properties).
Likewise, the gameplay was straight out of a 1990s mall arcade, with chip-music-blaring cabinets including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ("Cowabunga!"), NBA Jam ("He's on fire!") and even Michael Jackson's Moonwalker ("Woo! Shamone!"). There was also Skee-Ball and bubble hockey, and thanks to Katie Schowengerdt, Robert's wife and Princess Peach to his and Simon's Mario and Luigi (and not the helpless, thankful princess from the original Super Mario Bros. but the badass levitating, telekinetic playable character from the sequels), there has always been a wall of flipper-flapping pinball machines.
And there are no loadable cards or wristbands, just a change machine — all games run on cold hard quarters. "I assumed the games would lose money," Schowengerdt says. "But they make enough to pay for their parts and for someone other than me to come in and maintain them."
While the arcade side of the business might not be a spreadsheet jackpot, it has proven vital to creating the unique atmosphere and faithful following that has kept the business in 1Ups through the years. Schowengerdt says the clientele ranges from gamers who only drink soda to beer geeks who belly up to the bar and ignore the din to board gamers who park at the communal tables and do their own thing. In 2018, the bar started a weekly beer pinball league that has proven fire-flower hot — 45 players are currently signed up for the latest 10-week season.
Eventually, enough people asked about renting out the entire barcade at its original First Capitol Drive location that, in 2020, just before the pandemic hit, the owners decided to buy a former Jehovah's Witness church across I-70 at 745 Friedens and create a separate event space (Schowengerdt has no shortage of games, with more than 100 at home and in storage). The expansion also allowed Simon to grow his tiny two-barrel system to a seven-barrel that enabled the bar to slake their customers' growing thirst while staying nimble enough to create small-batch specialties such as the chocolate-cinnamon-y Montezuma's Blessing, the Dave cherrywood-smoked beer and a wide spectrum of popular ciders.
Coming out of lockdown, it made sense to consolidate locations, and the cramped, leaky, rented strip-mall space at First Capitol was the odd property out. The plumbers (and many actual contractors) converted the first floor of the Friedens building into a more spacious replica of the original barcade layout that, as of October 28, entertains gamers and drinkers 21 and over during the week (it's closed Monday) with special all-ages hours between noon and 6 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. Meanwhile, the owners are outfitting the second floor as an event space geared toward work parties, birthdays and weddings.
But no matter the occasion, what Two Plumbers is selling is nostalgia — and not just for small-batch craft beer and '90s arcade vibes.
"When people walk in here, there's always a smile on their face, even if they don't play the games," Schowengerdt says. "No one's on their cell phone. They're just communicating with each other. They're just happy to be here. This is their time to be a kid again."
Subscribe to Riverfront Times newsletters. Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed
