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America’s Oldest Game Store
Castle Croquet
Fictionary, the Dictionary Game
Games vs. Puzzles
Live Mystery Games
Pencil & Paper Games
Now playing in NYC
Bars are serving board games for laughs and a healthy dose of nostalgia
by Calla Salinger
excerpted from the New York Post
March 5, 2011
New York:…As 20-somethings increasingly roll the dice at bars — enjoying games like Trivial Pursuit and Operation, many city watering holes are starting to look less like dens of inequity and more like, well, dens.
“People are crazy about the board games,” says Kristy Barry, a bartender at the Upper West Side haunt Dive 75. “They create this little fire of competition that connects people much more than just sitting down together and having a drink.”
She’s never surprised by what she sees on a given night. “I’ll look over and people are doing the chicken dance, the next minute they’re jumping up and swapping shirts, or yelling out random words,” explains Barry.
But the bar isn’t serving up illegal Four Lokos or some hallucinogenic drug. The regulars are playing Jenga — with a twist: Truth or dare questions are written on the wooden pegs.
Even as patrons breath a sigh of relief after pulling a wooden block without making the tower fall, they still have to perform the silly task scrawled on the piece. For example, “Buy a random girl a drink at the bar” or “Give the person to your left a kiss.”
Still, there are those who embrace the nostalgia of a game night. Camp, a bar Camp in Boerum Hill, delivers on its name. The cozy room, with kayaks and deer heads lining the walls, has a wood-burning fireplace, and you can roast s’mores at your own table. You won’t find any 12-year-olds wrapped up in sleeping bags in the back, but you’re sure to see groups of bar-goers crowded around intense games of Connect Four and Battleship.
“I’m a Connect Four genius,” boasts Williamsburg resident Yosef Becher, 25, on a recent Saturday evening. Becher and his opponent Deedra Veerathanongdech, 26, also of Williamsburg, have been playing for more than 20 games, and they’re still going.
“Bars are really loud, but when you’re playing games you can have fun without trying to talk over the noise,” says Veerathanongdech.
And while it’s true that taming a night of debauchery with a little board action can make you feel like a kid again, it’s not all fun and games. There are some hazards — for the bartenders at least.
“One time a guy thought he was being cute by tipping me in Monopoly money,” laughs Barry.
Get on board at these game bars
* Dive 75, 101 W. 75th St.; 212-362-7518.
The games: Connect Four, Jenga, Pictionary, Yahtzee, Taboo, chess and Othello
* The Levee, 212 Berry St., Williamsburg; 718-218-8787.
The games: Connect Four, Jenga, Sorry, dominos, “Bushwick board game,” huge outdoor Connect Four
* Camp, 179 Smith St., Boerum Hill; 718-852-8086.
The games: Battleship, Connect Four, Jenga, Bubble Talk, Trivial Pursuit
* Common Ground, 206 Avenue A; 212-228-6231.
The games: Monopoly, Scrabble, Clue, Life
* Blue and Gold, 79 E. Seventh St.; 212-777-1006.
The games: chess and checkers boards painted on tables, Connect Four
* Dram Shop, 339 Ninth St., Park Slope; 718-788-1444.
The games: Candy Land, Operation, Cranium, Bubble Talk
To read more at the New York Post online, click on Lifestyles.
Do you know of a bar, pub, restaurant, or café where people play games? Tell us in “Leave a Comment” below and click on “Post Comment.”
Bingo online
While the local bar down the street is filled with 20-somethings yelling random words during a competitive game of Trivial Pursuit, bingo halls still draw a quiet crowd of retirees on Friday night to play bingo.
Caprice Fix
An Uncapricious Variation
by Bruce Whitehill
If you have tried the new game of Caprice (Goldsieber/Rio Grande), which has received mixed reviews in G3, try it with these rules: 1. choose three tiles (instead of four), replacing one if all three are the same; 2. allow the towers to get to four levels high, but score only the three levels up from the gameboard–the fourth piece freezes the stack (no piece can be moved); 3. when you relocate a piece, always cap it, even if that piece makes the fourth level; 4. end the game when five towers have reached the fourth level; 5. if each of your three tiles is different, score one point for any pieces on a level that match your appropriate tile, and a bonus of three points for any tower (stack of the bottom three) that matches all your tiles exactly; if two of your tiles are the same, score two points for each piece on the appropriate level matching one of the duplicate tiles.
Here’s an option using glue: glue together (side by side) four sets of three different tiles: white circle-black circle-black cloud; black circle-white cloud-white circle; white cloud-black cloud-black circle; black cloud-white circle-white cloud. Each player picks one strip, which can be turned upside down allowing for two possibilities. Two players may want to place the same piece on either the bottom or the third level, but no two players will want the same piece on the second level.
