boardgames

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.

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.

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

One just opened not too far, planning to check it out soon.

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.

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.

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

There’s a boardgame bar around here. It’s fine - but attached to a LGS so that may not meet the definition that you’re looking for.

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.

Yes, there’s one in my town. But after they charged me £4 for a latte all whilst struggling to make it - I’ve never gone back.

It does seem popular with others though.

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!

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.

There's a bar and grill with board games near me. Never been. Honestly didn't know about the place until your post. Thanks for the date idea. ;)

Unfortunately no. I'd love if there was a place where I could try a game before buying it but unfortunately the local scene is really scarce where I exist.

I do have some LGS 20-30 mins away (by car) but with a 30 euro markup I don't see the point of even going.

No cafes and sadly the closest store that is anything more than a MtG/Pokémon shop is an hours drive away.

We’ve had a couple of people try to open stores but they’ve never lasted. A cafe might actually fair better in the college town nearby but no one has tried for some reason.

At least I save a lot buying online..

Unfortunately not. Until just now I wasn't aware of any in my country but it turns out there are in some now but the closest is 1.5h away.

https://ragnaroek.cafe opened in my city (Kiel, Germany) last year. Been playing Magic over there a lot and a few of their games. Great experience so far and they have a great palette of games.

Theres a gamestore called die spieleburg (the gamecastle) nearby, they also do gaming evenings etc

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.

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.

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!

I recently visted one in my home town for the first time. I didn't expect much, but it was actually a lot of fun. The food was meh tough (mostly fast food).

Yes there is one in the city Nearby. It's about half an hour from where I live. I've been there several times and it's a fantastic place. Over 300 games to play. Nice selection of non alcoholic drinks from teas to fancy lemonades or coffee. Some beers too but only bottles. The food is surprisingly good as well. They make fresh sandwiches and pizza for example as well as a selection of sweets as well as chips etc.

I've only been there to play board games once. The other times we were there for TTRPGs.

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.