It’s Tuesday night in a cosy cafe in Oxford, and I’m sitting in what I can only describe as a library of fun. Stacked, floor to ceiling, are endless boxes of games I’ve never heard of. “Things have evolved since Monopoly and Scrabble,” explains John Morgan, a former social worker who decided he wanted to open a cafe where people could meet, eat and drink, while playing the newest board games available. Just over a year old, Thirsty Meeples (a portmanteau of “my people,” John says) currently welcomes more than 1,000 visitors a week. The first of its kind in the UK, it’s modelled on similar venues abroad, including Snakes & Lattes, a Canadian shop that has quadrupled in size since opening.
Tonight is open gaming night at Thirsty Meeples, in which visitors are encouraged to show up alone or in small numbers, and play with strangers. I join Anne-Marie, Kylie, Max and Polly, who have never met but are happily engrossed in a tactical trading game called Splendor.
Max tells me he loves how mixed the crowd is. “There’re couples on dates, young people on a night out, parents with children.” Looking around, I notice that the gender split is roughly equal too. “It’s very welcoming,” says Polly. “And it’s not all hardcore, five-hour strategy games.”
The cafe’s secret weapons are the game gurus – a crack team of gaming experts, constantly on hand to explain, adjudicate, and avert table-tipping. I meet the elegantly named Filip Falk Hartelius, who knows the 2,200 games here intimately (more are added every week). He narrows down my interests, away from wordplay, trivia, tests of mental strategy, and towards lighthearted party games.
And so it is I join a group of astrophysicists, post-docs and PhDs from Oxford university, who are attempting to balance construction blocks using hooks attached to their heads with string. They’re regulars. “Playing board games is great because it doesn’t rely on heavy drinking,” says Gemma Anderson, the group’s leader. Ricarda Beckmann adds, “And it’s better than gaming online, where you’re always basically alone.”
Tonight, Mexican hot chocolates and nuts are brought to the table as we play Cash’n’Guns, in which we divide the loot after a bank robbery.
Thirsty Meeples is set to expand, opening new branches to meet the untapped demand it has discovered. “It’s not about winning or losing,” says John, though I’m not sure I believe him. Having survived the Mexican standoff, I look at my new, welcoming friends and decide that it is about winning – at least for me. I pick up my cards: “Let’s go round again.”
Thirsty Meeples, 99 Gloucester Green, Oxford; thirstymeeples.co.uk
Three other board game cafes to try
Draughts, Hackney, East London, draughtslondon.com
Counters, Pontypridd, Wales, facebook.com/countersBGC
Afternoon Play, Birmingham, afternoonplay.co.uk
