Boardgame Cafes are becoming more and more common. Do you have any close by? Have you been there? How did it go?
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We live in Madrid, Spain and have one boardgame cafe in the city center. Its called Replay
We have gone a couple of times, usually just because we were in the area and jumped in to play something quick. The collection of games is pretty massive. Many casuals but lots of deeper games too. There is also an outlet section to buy games at a discount. The food is OK, nothing special but fine for a session.
Since its downtown, we do not go that often. Wednesdays they even organize an english-speaking evening which is handy if you want to meet a more international crowd.
My post earlier about the “Evolution of Boardgames” is painted on the wall of this cafe.
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Vancouver has a boardgame pizzeria out of all things: https://www.ludica.ca/
You’d think that handling pizza slices and handling boardgame components at the same time would be a recipe for disaster but it works pretty well somehow. They have a good collection of games and the pizzas are great too.
Sounds like an awesome combo!
They are decently often in Greece, either as boardgame cafés, or (more often) cafés with boardgames. On the latter it’s rare to have someone to suggest a game or explain the rules so you have to read them yourself. Used to go very often while a student
Sounds cool. What kinds of board games are played there? Classic card games, modern strategic Euro games, party games or any of those?
If you mean in boardgame cafés, they have pretty much everything. In cafés with board games, it is mostly faster card games, some games like Jungle speed or 7 wonders and similar, maybe Catan as well
If you mean in Greece in general, all of those that you mentioned I would say. It depends on the group
Thanks for elaborating. I’m just generally curious what is being played in other countries. As a German, I always played lots of board games and I for myself prefer complex Euro games.
It’s interesting that you distinguish between those café types since here in Germany, there is no such distinction. I only know boardgame cafés.
I would say there is that distinction here too, depending on your city. In Hamburg we have at least one of each kind.
Ok, it might be the case that I just didn’t realize they exist where I live. In Hamburg, I just know the boardgame café Würfel & Zucker.
It’s very usual for many cafés to have a couple of board games, especially if they are near a University
I think there’s about 3 in my city. Always seems to have people in it playing something, and event nights look more packed when I go past. But I don’t really have the friend group for that kinda thing though
I would go during event nights! Unless these are different in your area they should be a great opportunity to game with strangers.
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sounds cool! We have some boardgame shops that have some get-togethers once every weekend. These are nice but most that we have gone to have a very limited selection of games.
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My wife and I’s first date was at a boardgame cafe. We haven’t had a chance to check out any of the cafes in our new city yet, though.
sounds like a new date is in order!
There’re plenty of boardgame cafes, and plain straight out boardgame playing spaces here in Singapore. I’ve been to quite a few, the latter I much prefer because the staff/owner are invested in the games, are long-time gamers themselves, and are very good at recommending and introducing games. Being able to concisely introduce rules and mechanics and have a group of people understand them is not as easy as it looks!
One just opened not too far, planning to check it out soon.
There’s a few in my city. Both cafes and bars. They’re packed all the time. I personally can’t get into them but I’m glad people are enjoying them.
Yes, in Santo Domingo! I didn’t know it was a more widespread thing, but one showed up around a year ago and has grown more popular this year. It’s called “Playboard Café”, and their food is also great.
No, never been. I just looked whether there are any in the wider region but looks like only bigger cities have any, so an hour by car minimum.
I don’t even have any LGS though, so a BGC would have positively surprised me.I think I would like to visit a really nice one at some point just to try the experience. On the whole I prefer to play my own games - and to buy the games I prefer to play, needless to say - but going to a café with a nice small group and seeing what games they have could be neat.
i pass by boardgame cafes and sometimes step inside for a tour. Invariably, they smell funky and dirty, and have some seedy smelly dirty people inside. I’m not sure why. But the boardgame (aye even the dnd crowd) is typically filthy hairy and carrying some weird infections. It’s sad, since I’m very very clean (Japanese), and smelly hairy dirty males make me feel somewhat nauseated.
We have two near us and both are a great time! My wife is more into board games than I am but the food is delicious usually and their selection has both old favourites alongside new board games to try for the first time as well! It’s a really great outing idea whether for a date, a social get together with friends, etc. Highly recommend going if one’s close by!
for sure! Nice of you to support your wifes passion! And as a bonus you get some good food :)
I have a board game bar in my city. It’s pretty nice. They have staff to introduce you to the games. they serve lots of mixed drinks. Those tend to be expensive, but hey it’s to cover the cost of the board games and non wait staff.
The city I used to live in had a couple, one was more focused on trading card games and running tournaments and just had a smallish board game collection, but the other was a proper cozy little cafe with walls full of great games. Sadly the latter one has had to shut down because of increasing rents.
My current town is a bit too small for something dedicated like that, but we do have a sort of hybrid place that hires out console time as well as has a small collection of board games for the cafe area. Since it’s a small town and not exactly moving with the times, a lot of the games are your basic family classics but I appreciate them trying. I’m sceptical that the place will last long though, most new businesses round here don’t.
Generally I do really like these places but our local one now isn’t the friendliest. And anywhere with a big focus on trading card games like the one in our previous city does, as much as I wish it wasn’t true, tend to attract a crowd with less than amazing hygiene. Plus they often seem more hostile to women than dedicated actual board game spaces, in my experience. It’s hard to attract a wider customer base when your core clientele are actively putting people off.
Yes, it’s called Pieces. I’ve gone mostly just for drinks because they have good cocktails but I did go with a group to play a little Cards Against Humanity once. My friends live way out in the suburbs and I live in the city so they don’t come here to go out much.
