A board game café is a type of café in which patrons play

board Board or Boards may refer to: Flat surface * Lumber, or other rigid material, milled or sawn flat ** Plank (wood) ** Cutting board ** Sounding board, of a musical instrument * Cardboard (paper product) * Paperboard * Fiberboard ** Hardboard, a ...

and

card game A card game is any game that uses playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, whether the cards are of a traditional design or specifically created for the game (proprietary). Countless card games exist, including famil ...

s while being served food and drink. Customers usually pay an entry fee or rent a table in order to access a large library of games and instruction from the staff on how to play them. Many board game cafés also sell the games.

History

Board game cafés seem to have begun in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

; in 2004,

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

had 130 board game cafés. This was followed by many other large cities in East Asia, and by 2012 there were estimated to be more than 200 cafés in Beijing. Many of these cafés offered 24 hours of gaming, instructions from staff and free drinks for around 30 yuan. While it was not the first board game café in North America, Snakes and Lattes in Toronto, established in 2010, is often credited with proliferating the idea of board game cafés to various entrepreneurs in the city and the western world. These include Draughts in London, Thirsty Meeples in Oxford, the Tabletop Board Game Café in Cleveland, Loot & XP in Oklahoma, Small Print on Prince Edward Island, and Bonus Round Games in Chicago. Snakes and Lattes' business model was replicated in many of these cafés. In 2016, over 5,000 board game cafés opened in the U.S. alone.

Clientele

Board game cafés often cater to a wide audience of all ages, particularly to people unfamiliar with the hobby. They tend to be more successful in attracting newcomers to board games than board game hobby shops, although they are also frequented by experienced hobbyists. Customers in board game cafés can include dating couples, groups of students, as well as veteran regulars.

Asia

India

Board game cafés in India were becoming popular in early 2020, with the establishment of The Board Room and The Board Game Lounge in

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

, Creeda BGC (2015) and Pair A Dice (2017) in

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

, Dice N Dine in

Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

and Board'em in

Gurgaon Gurgaon (), officially named Gurugram (), is a satellite city of Delhi and administrative headquarters of Gurgaon district, located in the northern Indian state of Haryana. It is situated near the Delhi–Haryana border, about southwest ...

. ''Shasn'', ''Mantri Cards'', ''Manifesto'', and ''The Poll: The Great Indian Election Game'' are Indian board games that feature in many of these premises.

Iran

According to ''

Polygon In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure made up of line segments connected to form a closed polygonal chain. The segments of a closed polygonal chain are called its '' edges'' or ''sides''. The points where two edges meet are the polygon ...

'', privately owned businesses such as board game cafés have become "safe havens" for Iranian youth against the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance (often referred to as the "morality police"), and board game cafés in particular were said to "provide excellent escapism". Dressage Café in

Tehran Tehran (; , ''Tehrân'') is the capital and largest city of Iran. It is the capital of Tehran province, and the administrative center for Tehran County and its Central District (Tehran County), Central District. With a population of around 9. ...

is one such establishment which involves playthroughs of ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical ...

'' and

Mafia "Mafia", as an informal or general term, is often used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the Sicilian Mafia, original Mafia in Sicily, to the Italian-American Mafia, or to other Organized crime in Italy, organiz ...

as well as a library of mostly Iranian board games.

Japan

Jelly Jelly Cafe is a large board game café chain across Japan, led by Sho Shirasaka. Its first venue was established in

Shibuya is a Special wards of Tokyo, special ward in Tokyo, Japan. A major commercial center, Shibuya houses one of the busiest railway stations in the world, Shibuya Station. As of January 1, 2024, Shibuya Ward has an estimated population of 230,60 ...

in 2011, and in 2016 the company began to expand its venues. In 2018, the company supervised the establishment of an in-house café for the

mobile game A mobile game is a video game that is typically played on a mobile phone. The term also refers to all games that are played on any Mobile device, portable device, including from mobile phone (feature phone or smartphone), tablet computer, table ...

company Delightworks, aiming to induce creativity in the company. Jelly Jelly Cafe opened its 13th venue in 2022. To protect its games, the café only serves drinks. It has a target audience of regular college students and office workers. A Japanese

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

series, '' After School Dice Club'', depicting a group of teenage girls and their efforts to set up a board game café, was first released in 2013 and released as an

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

in 2019.

Singapore

The Mind Cafe was a chain of board game cafés in Singapore. It established an international outlet in New Delhi in 2012.

South Korea

Korean cafés often discourage the play of classic titles popular with the older generations, such as

Mahjong Mahjong (English pronunciation: ; also transliterated as mah jongg, mah-jongg, and mahjongg) is a tile-based game that was developed in the 19th century in China and has spread throughout the world since the early 20th century. It is played ...

and

Go-Stop Go-Stop (), also called Godori (, after the winning move in the game) is a Korean Card game#Fishing games, fishing card game played with a Hanafuda, Hwatu () deck. The game can be called Matgo () when only two players are playing. The game is ...

, because they risk the cafés needing gambling licenses and are seen as generally lowbrow. The Dice Latte in

, which opened in 2015, sells western comic books alongside access to tabletop gaming. It developed this model to support its business when in-store gaming activities decreased during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

Europe

The Netherlands

Spellenhuis opened in 2017 in

Haarlem Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English language, English) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the Provinces of the Nether ...

with a board game cafe and store. In 2020 they opened a second location in Den Haag.

Poland

Board game cafes became popular in Poland in the late 2010s, with many cities and towns in Poland sporting several such venues.

United Kingdom

Thirsty Meeples opened in Oxford in July 2013 as the UK's first board game café, directly inspired by Snakes and Lattes. In 2014, it had more than 1,000 visitors per week. By 2015, it stocked over 2,000 board games. Geek Retreat, first founded in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

in May 2013, is a chain of franchised combined gaming hobby shops in the UK that later adopted the structure of a games café. It joined the British Franchise Association in 2021, and by June 2021, it had 27 venues. Entry is free but guests are asked to purchase food and drink. Established in 2014,

Draughts Checkers (American English), also known as draughts (; Commonwealth English), is a group of strategy board games for two players which involve forward movements of uniform game pieces and mandatory captures by jumping over opponent pieces. ...

was the first café to open in London. It has two locations, in Hackney and Waterloo, both of which were originally situated under railway arches. It allows a £5 entry fee for 4 hours of gaming, and offers craft beer, cocktails, and a food menu named after various board games. Chance & Counters is a chain of cafés based in

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

since 2016, with branches in

Cardiff Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...

and

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

. It has received significant funding from entertainment company The Yogscast as well as game company Ndemic Creations.

North America

Canada

Snakes and Lattes, a chain headquartered in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, is one of the largest board game café chains in North America. Originally, Wi-Fi was intentionally not available at the first café. In 2014, the chain opened the board game bar Snakes and Lagers, later Snakes & Lattes College, which offers alcoholic drinks as well as coffee. In 2018, YouTuber and animator Domics opened Domics' GG Gaming Café, a board game café in

Mississauga Mississauga is a Canadian city in the province of Ontario. Situated on the north-western shore of Lake Ontario in the Regional Municipality of Peel, it borders Toronto (Etobicoke) to the east, Brampton to the north, Milton to the northwest, ...

United States

The Brooklyn Strategist is a café in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, opened by

neuroscientist A neuroscientist (or neurobiologist) is a scientist specializing in neuroscience that deals with the anatomy and function of neurons, Biological neural network, neural circuits, and glia, and their Behavior, behavioral, biological, and psycholo ...

Jon Freeman in 2010. It is focused on attracting children for after-school activities, and school administrators in the area have recommended that children visit the café. Parents pay for their children to be taught how to play board games at the venue, developing their

socialization In sociology, socialization (also socialisation – see American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), spelling differences) is the process of Internalisation (sociology), internalizing the Norm (social), norm ...

and

problem-solving Problem solving is the process of achieving a goal by overcoming obstacles, a frequent part of most activities. Problems in need of solutions range from simple personal tasks (e.g. how to turn on an appliance) to complex issues in business an ...

skills. The venue shifts toward an adult crowd at night. The Uncommons is allegedly

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

's first board game coffee shop, established in 2013. It was supported by a

Kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...

funding campaign, and claims to be the largest board game library on the East Coast. Co-founder of the business Greg May also co-owns Hex & Co, another café in Manhattan with two large uptown locations. The Chicago Board Game Cafe was a restaurant, bar, gaming venue, and retail shop created by the team behind '' Cards Against Humanity'' and opened in February 2020. It served Vietnamese, Mexican, and Spanish dishes. In September, the company sold the location to Snakes and Lattes, citing a lack of "expertise" and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Board game cafe Types of coffeehouses and cafés