It’s no myth: the Red Griffin lives

Published 3:00 pm Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Computers, cards, candy and caffeine.

There’s a new shop on Madison Avenue roaring with the sounds of battle.

Staccato bursts of machine gun fire from American G.I.s rip through burned homes hiding German snipers. Nearby, another 10-eyed, hunched-back invader feels the heat of a laser beam.

“It’s a space station on Mars,” says Greg Mills, fingers tensed on his controller. “Some silly scientists released hell and demons.”

Mills hits them with another round, making a sector of the space station safe from interstellar evil.

Josh Philips looks on approvingly. While most teens his age simply play video games, the 17-year-old entrepreneur is running the show. He owns the business license for the Red Griffin hobby shop, runs the till, does the books and frets about monthly profit margins and expenditures. But he also bears the thumb calluses of a hard-core gamer.

“This takes my passions and skills and combines them,” he says. “I set my own hours, I talk all day about what I want to talk about and when I wake up to go to work, I look forward to it because I’m not working for someone else.”

The Red Griffin, which replaces Island Pastimes, is a mixed bag of fantasy and technology. It’s a card collector’s paradise, a video game arcade, an internet cafe and a computer repair shop. It also sells candy and, in the coming weeks, caffeinated beverages to help fuel the frenetic pace of computer game play.

Frequented mostly by teens and kids, Josh sees his business as the hangout he never had.

“Bainbridge is a great place, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world,” says Josh, who graduated from high school over the summer and will turn 18 later this month. “But everybody says there’s not much to do. I felt the same way. There’s a lot drug use and alcohol and a lot of lazy days spawns that.

“This is my way of giving back to my peers.”

The Red Griffin draws kids seeking entertainment after school and many older teens who link up with other video game players around the world for Internet-assisted adventures. Baseball and football card collectors also stroll in to stock up on the latest rookie picks.

Josh’s dad, Al Philips, is proud of his son’s entrepreneurial initiative.

“He decided he didn’t want to go to college and always wanted to run a business,” Philips says. “So I loaned him the money if he’d develop a business plan, develop contracts, get the licenses and do everything a small-business owner has to do.”

It was a daunting process, Josh admits.

“The biggest challenge was not the paperwork and buying the business, but just having the self confidence,” he says. “I wasn’t sure it would work, but it’s doing well so far.”

Josh sought the advice of his dad, who runs an electrical contracting business, and his former boss at the Bainbridge Computer Center. He also apprenticed for a few weeks with Island Pastimes’ owner before she sold him the business.

While business management came with a steep learning curve, computers have always come naturally to the young business owner. Josh got his first computer at age 11. Within a year, he’d built an upgraded version.

“It was like building model airplanes,” he says.

Josh will put that know-how to use repairing home computers at night, when the shop closes.

“It’s a small place, so I’ll close up and sit on the floor and do the work,” he says. “Hopefully, I’ll move to a bigger place and do more work.”

He envisions a shop three times the size of his current spot.

“Four computers in a shack isn’t much, but I want to expand into a good, solid hang-out spot,” he says.

While he hopes his clientele will expand, Josh says the Red Griffin will stay rooted in his passions.

“What I’m trying to bring to the table is a social environment for kids and people like my peers who are passionate about video games,” he says.

Call 842-5873 for more information.