By Annemarie Tompsen
Millenials, when was the last time you played a board game?
Smartphones and video games have replaced the popular Monopoly, Scrabble, Chutes and Ladders and Yahtzee board games of our childhood. In fact, board games of the 80s and 90s have gone virtually extinct, collecting dust in our closets and nostalgia in our hearts. Luckily, a global trend has found a use for them: board game cafés.
Scattered around the globe, board game cafés are popping up as a remedy for technology fatigue. Jia Han, a millennial and web addict told Independent Magazine, “You get excited when you first play online games. But you feel tired and bored after a while because you don’t know the players on the other side of the screen.”
Businesses like the esteemed Snakes and Lattes in Toronto, The Brooklyn Strategist in New York, Board Game Island in Texas and Cacacity in Taiwan bring millennials together with their favorite board games. Game options range from: traditional chess and checkers to more modern board games like Hedbanz and Cards Against Humanity. No matter your preference–there’s a game for that.
Here in the Boston area, Millenials are just as susceptible to boredom and lack of social contact. Eager to catch up with the nostalgic trend, the Knight Moves Café has nestled itself into the suburban streets of Brookline, aiming to be one of the greatest board game cafes in the country. Owner Devon Trevelyan, a millennial, established the café in 2013. A proactive businessman, he became passionate about business at the ripe age of eight after selling flavored ice to college students. Knight Moves Café was started as an indie business that aimed to bring together the community through coffee and old fashioned board game fun.
Like its familiar counterparts, the café holds hundreds of board games —nearly 1,000 to be precise. Staff members, also known as board game experts, are available for board game expertise and the café is open late hours. With access to all games, the standard entrance fee is $10 except on slower days, Monday through Wednesday, when admission is only $5. For avid game players, a monthly membership can be bought for $40, a bargain that includes unlimited access to the game cupboard with only the flash of a membership card. Great for a good cup of coffee and your next Friday night board game, this café is now a favorite among the Brookline locals.
Interested in supporting the indie business? Check out more about the Knight Moves Café here.
About the Writer
Annemarie Tompsen currently studies Publishing and Writing at Emerson College, where she also works part time at the Lacerte Family Writing & Academic Resource Center. A New Englander at heart, she’s recently moved to the Boston area from the small coastal town of Milford, CT. In her spare time she frequents local Boston coffee shops and has taken an interest in finding the diviest diners around. With the summer approaching she looks forward to exploring Boston and traveling along the coast any chance she can. Annemarie hopes to use her love for the written word to pursue a profession in the publishing industry and to further develop her writing career. Follow her on twitter.
Feature image of coffee cup and chess game via Shutterstock
