Guess what I found in my backyard?

I have been to Oz and walked in the Emerald City. I could not believe the things I saw there. I have been considering an upgrade and have been searching the Bay and the List for something suitable. I kept seeing ads from a place in Arlington for all kinds of refurbed commercial espresso machines. I looked at their site and saw they also had some prosumer machines listed. I finally broke down and called them because of a listing for a rebadged Zaffiro and Amica set they had at what seemed an unbelievable price. When I called to inquire I was sadly informed the page had not been updated in quite some time and the machines in question were no longer available. When I inquired about a couple of other machines listed and finally asked if they had a show room the person on the phone asked if I was local. When I said I was, he insisted it would be best to come by the shop. I politely thanked him and decided to try and make it over in the next day or so.
I am sure someone here is familiar with the place I went to. The business is called SRE corp (Specialty Restaurant Equipment) and is located in an old building in the Arlington warehouse district, near 6 Flags and the new Cowboys stadium.

Unfortunately the owner was not in when I stopped by, but the office attendant took me back to the showroom and said she would find someone to assist me. She left me standing in a warehouse literally full from floor to ceiling and wall to wall with various types of restaurant equipment. As I looked around I could not help but notice the entire west side of the building was nothing but different single and multi group espresso machines. There were a couple of smaller machines like an old Office Pulser, a sweet Elektra La Deliziosa (precursor to the Sixties apparently) and an Astoria Compact. Mostly there were a bunch of machines I did not recognize at all. There were Futurmats and big commercial Gaggias and a bunch of 2 and 3 group Lineas, some Nuova Simonellis, and countless others. After a brief time a gentleman came to my assistance named Bill and immediately began to apologize that the owner was not there, and that he (the owner) was the one who really handled the sales. Bill was more than happy to show me the machines that were available but was not really able to discuss specific prices. This is totally ok because it turns out Bill is the guy who does all of the service and repair, so in that regard alone he was very interesting to talk to.

After looking at the few machines on the floor that were small enough to be considered reasonable for home use Bill suggested we go look in the other showroom. Now I am currently standing among what must be more, maybe a lot more, than 100 beautiful and not so beautiful, old and not so old machines and he suggests we go and look at the other showroom. The OTHER showroom!!! How can there be enough espresso machines left in the whole world for there to possibly be another showroom. Smile and nod boy, just smile and nod. Out of the warehouse and up above the offices and we're not in Kansas anymore.

The Other showroom has items the likes of which I have never seen. This is where they keep the old hammered copper machines. Athenas, Bell Epochs, vintage Commercial Gaggia lever groups, a vintage Faema Legend 2group and a 3 group. The 2 group looked like it was from 1961. I even saw a polished Francis Francis 2 group like the one that is pictured in the Craziest thing I ever saw thread in the KnockBox. Along with all of these pretty high dollar vintage commercial machines they also had a wall of old consumer machines waiting for the occasional refurb for fun project that Bill does every once in a while. On the wall were countless Pavoni levers, a Cremina, an old Gaggia Coffee and a slew of things I did not recognize.

I was quite overwhelmed by everything I saw and I hope to go back for a second look. It was amazing to see all of these machines and to get a scale for what they are really like in person.

I wish I would have known what I was walking into, because I would have brought a camera. I was like an espresso machine museum. To any of you who think you have an over the top collection rest assured that there are others (at least 1 that I know of) out there that have been bitten by the bug worse than you.

Yes, it's been mentioned before on-line (but not for a while and maybe it was on alt.coffee). Quite a treasure trove.

FYI, Domenic hosts a website SRE Corporation that is undoubtedly as "colorful" as his business locale.

Sounds incredible. You need to pay another visit to SRE, and this time bring your camera. We need to see pictures!

Wow, this IS a small world!!

I bought my Mazzer Major from domenic, off of ebay. It was definitely in need of some Extra-TLC, but he (domenic) did say that if I was ever in texas, to come see him. nice guy.. colorful is a perfect description too!

I've seen srewebcorporation and d_bestforless on eBay quite a bit, generally with BuyItNow prices that suggest that the listings are more "teasers" than anything else (prices of $75,000-100,000).

Has anyone done business with SRE in recent days? I'm looking my "Holy Grail" and checking all the stones I can find to turn over, even the ones that my not look terribly promising, as long as I have reasonable confidence there isn't a scorpion underneath them.

I tried to buy an old wheel counter grinder on ebay from Domenic that they had just listed at a good price BIN. After buying it he returned the money. He didn't really want to sell it. He likes to "show" some of the collectibles he has on ebay(usually at high prices) along with the stuff he is willing to actually sell. I spoke with him on the phone for quite a while. He is quite an interesting character. But no matter how hard I tried I couldn't get him to part with the old grinder.