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With rows of board games prominently displayed on shelves, a new community space recently opened in downtown Mountain View that aims to bring people together over casual fare, beverages and tabletop fun.
Next Level Board Game Cafe launched as the newest addition to the Bay Area’s gaming scene, where, for a $7 entrance fee, players can hang out with friends and family, learning new games and playing their favorite old ones.
Located off of Villa and Bryant streets across from Stein’s, the game cafe had its soft opening two weeks ago, with more than 200 games available for customers to play. The restaurant portion of the business is still under construction.
“There are game cafes in San Francisco, Berkeley and San Jose but not many in the Peninsula,” said Rebecca Wang, a Los Altos native who developed the business concept with her husband, Sean Forman.
The couple chose Mountain View for its close-knit community feel and for the opportunity to offer something new. “There’s nothing like it here,” Wang said, adding that they already have received an enthusiastic response from customers.
With the nominal entrance fee, customers can stay as long as they want, trying their hand at a carefully curated selection of games. As part of the experience, staff will greet customers at the door and offer to teach them new games.
But not just for novice players, Next Level also caters to those with more experience. “We get players who like to test out a game before purchasing it,” Wang said, noting that some of the larger and more complex games can cost a few hundred dollars.
Always looking for new ideas, Wang and Forman installed a white board at the front of the cafe, which already is filled with game suggestions from customers. They also have fielded requests for meet-up events, where single players can get to know other players. And there are opportunities to reserve private game rooms for larger groups too.
The community-building is a big part of their motivation for opening the store, they said.
But getting the store off the ground has been a bit of a challenge. The permits have taken longer than expected, Forman said, noting that the county permit and city planning permit each took about four months to obtain, or eight months in total. They now are working on the building permit. “Everything is going kind of slowly,” he said.
The games and tables are ready for players to use, while the restaurant part of Next Level is being built. Once completed, the cafe will offer paninis, rice bowls and salads, as well as beverages that includes wine and beer options.
“We’re really excited for this next step,” Wang said, adding that the grand opening will coincide with the completion of the cafe, at which time they will extend the store hours and hire more staff too.
For now, Wang and Forman are running the game cafe, working around their day jobs.
Next Level Board Game Cafe, located at 888 Villa St., is open Thursday and Friday evenings from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., as well as Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
I wish them success. If they want to expand their offerings of classic games, or have more than one copy of frequently-played favorites, I bet they could get most of them for free by making a request to the Facebook group “Buy Nothing Mountain View (Central) CA” which is a place for folks to give away things they no longer want and to try to obtain things they need for free! The URL is https://www.facebook.com/groups/745523216377192