Straddling the Burlington/Winooski border, a quaint brick building is tucked in an alley. A small black and white sign is adorned with dice, cards and a chess piece. This is The Boardroom, Vermont鈥檚 only caf茅 dedicated to board games.
鈥淲e have about 700 games to play,鈥� says Kerry Winger, owner and founder of The Boardroom.
Winger says she wanted a place for people to meet and hang out. She got the idea in 2019 after reading a book about the history of board games.
鈥淎nd to me that just sounded perfect because people are on their phone too much,鈥� she says. 鈥淲e don't have Wi-Fi; we have signs that say, 鈥楴o Wi-Fi. Play board games, talk to each other.鈥欌��
The Boardroom鈥檚 collection goes far beyond favorites like Monopoly, Clue or cards.
鈥淚 think the pandemic definitely pushed board games to the forefront,鈥� Winger says. 鈥淚 think when that happened, people were looking for stuff to do, and that's when they started getting into board games.鈥�
She says customers range from the curious to diehard fans.
鈥淚鈥檓 here every night鈥've just been a gamer all my life,鈥� says Dave Goodwin, a regular at The Boardroom.
He鈥檚 seen first-hand the evolution of the modern board game from, 鈥渢hings that you could pull out of your closet on a Saturday or Sunday evening with your family鈥� to more varied.
He says starting in the early 1970s, game developers began to branch out.
鈥淎nd you started to see more complex gaming, where mechanics became very important,鈥� Goodwin says. 鈥淎nd now you can classify games that way a lot. It's a deck builder, or it's a resource management, or worker placement, you know, there's all these terms for various mechanics.鈥�
Winger knows that for some visitors 700 board games can be intimidating, which is why The Boardroom staff are trained to teach specific games.
The caf茅 also offers 鈥渢each me鈥檚,鈥� open opportunities for people to learn a new game.
鈥淭he more games you play, the more games you can learn, because as soon as you learn certain mechanics, that will transfer over to other games,鈥� Winger says. 鈥淚t's a great way to meet people. I mean, people have made amazing lasting friendships in here, just by gaming.鈥�
Learn more about The Boardroom by watching the video and weigh in with your board game experiences .
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