Business analysts Lesley Sutton and Mieke Mynen face off weekly over lunch-time board games in a downtown Victoria café that is attracting customers of all ages, despite the massive popularity of digital media.
The friends choose 30-minute-long games to get a break from their demanding jobs, to visit and enjoy a quick meal, Mynen said.
“The game requires your focus,” Sutton said. “It’s like a mediation. … It’s a stress break, I guess.”
Co-owners Jack Pinder and Bill Heaton opened the 90-seat Interactivity Board Game Café, 723 Yates St., in October last year in 2,700 square feet of rented space.
More than 700 board games fill shelves. Categories include kids, co-operative, zombie, science-fiction, party, strategy and fantasy. One is concerned with worldwide railroad building. There are old favourites like Scrabble, too, as well as some one-person games.
In an age where electronic gaming is hugely popular, board games are holding their own.
That’s no surprise to Pinder and Heaton, friends who played board games prior to opening the café.
Pinder, who previously owned Interactivity Games and Stuff on Fort Street, had dreamed for about 15 years about opening a board game café.
People have been playing types of board games for thousands of years, Heaton said. Their appeal lies in the fact that “games are really fun and people are really fun.”
This is old-fashioned social media. “This is just an alternative way to spend time with people.”
The café has plenty of regular players, as well as drop-ins.
“Victoria is a very strong board-game community,” Heaton said.
The cost is $5 per adult to play a game and $2 per child under 12 years old. They can stay as long as they want. While most stay two to four hours, some have settled in for almost 12 hours.
It’s a family-friendly place. Heaton led a group of youngsters on Tuesday through a game that saw each child use the arm of a plastic monkey to try to throw a coconut into a container. They all played happily and were clearly having fun.
If you don’t know how to play a game, that doesn’t matter. Staff are on hand to teach people new games.
Players’ ages run from young children to seniors. Many are in their 20s, Pinder said.
All items on the café menu, except for shared platters, are less than $10. Customers can order milkshakes made from in-house ice cream, plus sandwiches, salads, cookies and more.
“Students like it because it is low-cost and fun,” Heaton said.
Other board game cafés exist with more in Canada than in the U.S., he said. “Canada seems to have a real thing for it.”
