Come for the pinball, stay for the frames: How one Concord small business’s creative pivot paid off

CONCORD — As California’s pinball elite battled head-to-head for the state championship title at The Flipper Room last month, an international audience tuned in to watch pinballs ricochet through mazes of colorful bumpers, habitrails, poppers and ramps.

But before those quarter-slot games became a full-scale business in Concord, Mike Moretti started with a single Star Wars-themed machine he lugged into the breakroom of The Art of Picture Framing, the wholesale frame shop he’s owned since 2006.