Heather Mack (left) and Jarvis Zazalack are preparing to play RWBY Combat Ready at Round Table Board Gamerie on Sept. 26. The deckbuilding game is just one of the hundreds of games that patrons of Round Table are able to play.
The door opens, a bell rings and the nostalgic scent of chicken fingers and cheesy macaroni wafts from the kitchen.
A cheer goes out across the room and a groan follows; it’s game night and somebody must lose.
Round Table Board Gamerie in downtown Lethbridge is the only restaurant in the city to give their customers access to hundreds of board games. Owners Bryn Watts and Casey Rupps started the board game café three years ago, after over a year of planning.
“A night of sitting in Bryn’s living room drinking, turned into spitballing ideas back and forth on how to do it,” said Rupps.
Watts has experience in the restaurant industry, having formerly co-owned Joey’s Only.
The restaurant pumps out the usual casual pub-style food – hamburgers, poutine, mozza sticks and mac and cheese. Most of the menu items are the brainchildren of Watts, who wanted the food to be the kind that you’d serve to a group of friends playing board games.
“The concept of Round Table originally was, it’s like our kitchen table,” said Watts.
They believe there is a certain amount of nostalgia to the style of food the restaurant serves, although some of the items were created with a certain wow factor in mind.
A gaming fee of $10 is charged for use of the board game wall, but patrons are welcome to bring their own items for free.
Round Table also offers several events throughout the week as well as monthly. Mondays feature a Super Smash Bros. league with tournaments every week going into a bracket. Tuesdays are Casual Card night, bringing together the plethora of trading card games. On Wednesdays, there is a Board Game Club, which allows for people who otherwise don’t have people to play with to come together. Starting in October, Saturdays will feature a Pokémon trading card game league.
Kapow Comics hosts events with a similar appeal. Wallie Desruisseaux, owner of Kapow, offers events almost every day of the week.
“We host stuff every night we’re open,” he added.
The store offers miniature gaming on Tuesdays and Fridays. Kapow also has a custom Dungeons & Dragons campaign that runs on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
Concerts and comedy shows are just some of the special events that Kapow runs, off and on. Another concert is being hosted on Oct. 4, featuring several bands from southern Alberta.