Board game enthusiasts gather to play every Tuesday and Wednesday

Board games, beer and a good time — what more could you ask for? 

Every Tuesday and Wednesday night, The Gathering Place on Rosemary Street hosts a Board Game Night, inviting any and all game lovers to join the fun. 

The Gathering Place has been open for a little over two years, and functions as a bar, as well as hub for all kinds of board games. The bar has a 30 tap system, offering a wide variety of beers to choose from, including non-alcoholic options. 

What started small has become a shockingly large board game collection to choose from.

“It just kind of evolved,” two-year employee Becca Brantley said. “We started with, I think, two board game shelves, and it’s just skyrocketed over the years.”

With over a dozen shelves filled, the collection ranges from simplistic card games, like UNO, to more complex, intricate games, like Dungeons and Dragons. 

John Fulgheri, a regular attendee for the past two years, has a greater passion for the more complicated games, as there’s more at stake.

“I feel like a lot of them are just usually puzzles where you have to basically outthink your opponents, or sometimes cooperate just enough that you're ahead of them,” Fulgheri said. 

Tuesdays are more casual game nights, where people can make new game-loving friends, with a system to make it easier.

“We have signs. They're over on our little loan library,” Brantley said. “They're like, 'looking for people to play board games with,' they're 'looking for people to play Magic the Gathering with.' So you can always grab one, put it on your table and just meet new people, meet new friends.”

However, on Wednesdays the venue is likely to be occupied by returning game players.

Brantley stated that the games start around 6 p.m., when groups of gamers make their way to a table that they will occupy for the next few hours. The regular Wednesday groups usually take on the more strategic games, sometimes even bringing their own.

“We play a lot of different kinds of games, but we definitely advertise ourselves with playing big strategy games,” longtime board game-lover Felipe Sanchez said. “Because that's kind of the point of the group is to find other people willing to play those games, because there is a smaller audience for that. It takes more dedication to play those games.” 

Sanchez has been playing board games with the same group since 2019, with new members joining them since the iteration of the group first got together. With new members entering the game world, there are just as many leaving.

“Sometimes you have, somewhat, a consistent person,” Sanchez said. “They end up moving away, or they end up having a kid, so they'll disappear for a while. You'll feel that, we'll miss them.” 

Regardless of the circumstances, the connections that have been made at The Gathering Place stretch beyond the games.

“We've had a lot of good memories,” Sanchez said. “I made a lot of good friends here.”

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