Seth D.
Yelp
I have been here several times and it was my most recent visit that prompted this review.
The owner/founder lady was incredibly rude and made my recent visit very uncomfortable. She forced us out of our two player table and harassed us to leave after finishing a single game. I don't think I'll be coming back again because of this experience.
On my recent visit I went to play with a friend (2 people). We arrived around 5:00, which is pretty early. Since we're both board game novices, we asked the owner/founder (a lady who I had never met before) what two player games she would recommend. She seemed overall very impatient and frustrated and more concerned about making sure we swiped out cards at the iPad for the $10 cover charge. Previously, I had gone in larger groups where the barista would show us what games were available and briefly explain them before having us swipe, in case we didn't seem interested.
She recommended Splendor, which turned out to be a great choice. We got to sat down at the two seat chess table by the window, which is by far the best spot in the cafe. Our first game ended up being just about two hours long and finished around 7:00. The owner sat at a table right next to ours on her Macbook pro, and kept giving us mean glares and looking over our shoulders every 10-15 minutes, like we were going to steal pieces of the game or something. This unnerved me quite a bit, as I didn't know what I did to upset her.
After we finished, the owner immediately hawked over to us, took the game away from us, and then asked if we were going to stay and play another game. We were not immediately sure yet, as we wanted to take a bathroom break and see what other games were available.
What really upset me was that she then got very rude when we said we were staying to play another game and instructed us to move to a much smaller table in the back with two tiny stools, so that her friend could take our table by himself. When I tried to get a larger table (really any other spot), she protested saying those tables were for larger groups. This did not seem right, as there were several two player games going on at the larger tables.
At this point we decided to leave, since it was clear the owner did not really want us to stick around any longer.
The only pros of this place are the ambience / environment and the large selection of board games. The ambience is really the best part of this venue and the only reason I'd ever consider going again.
Otherwise, the owner is incredibly unfriendly and the cover charge of $10 is not justifiable. If the cover charge included a free drink/meal, I think it would be OK. Realistically, we've ended up playing some of the same board games each time, and so in some visits you pay more in cover charges than it would cost to buy the game outright. Try out a few board games on your first visit then buy these and play them for free at any cafe.