MANSFIELD — A Mansfield couple wants to open their own café — but not just any café.
The Schwartfigures want to open a café-style tabletop gaming lounge to accommodate the almost 400-person strong Facebook group for the Mansfield Area Tabletop Society. The online group was started May 26 and interest is growing.
“We’ve both been into gaming since we were kids,” Jake said. “And games are always more fun with friends.”
The goal is to create a Kickstarter webpage to generate around $8,000 for the idea. The money would then be used to build up a substantial board game collection, around 300.
“We have around 100 right now,” Jake estimated.
Once the game repertoire reaches the goal, the couple would like to open a shop in either Ontario or Mansfield. They have already started looking at potential buildings. But the Schwartfigures want to gauge the community’s interest before investing that kind of money.
For the summer, the couple will host pop-up events for people interested in playing board games. The first such event will take place on Saturday at the People’s Community Center at 597 Park Avenue East from 4:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Those planning to attend the free event are encouraged to bring a favorite dish and/or snack.
“We just want to gauge interest right now,” Valerie said.
The Schwartfigures first began playing board games together a few years ago. They were introduced to board game cafés when they visited Tabletop Board Game Café and The Malted Meeple in Cleveland and Kingmakers in Columbus.
After getting a taste of the gaming culture, the couple tried hosting an event at their Mansfield home on International Tabletop Day last year. It was a success.
“There was more table space then floor space and it was packed. It was good thing it was nice outside because we needed more room,” Valerie said, laughing.
Their café would serve coffee and snacks. The plan is to charge $5 for the entire day and would furnish the facilitiy with comfortable seating.
“We want to do a lounge style where you can kick back — where you feel like you want to stay all day,” Valerie said.
The couple’s motivation to start a gaming café is not limited to their love for games — they have noticed a decrease in something essential to life: face-to-face interactions.
“We like the face-to-face contact that we miss out on with social media and everything. People used to go bowling and stuff and just get together and hang out and that’s something we’re missing,” Valerie vented.
Journalist, memoirist, essayist, critic, poet, teacher and self-proclaimed geek Ethan Gilsdorf agrees.
Gilsdorf argues in a TedX Talk “the quintessential nerdy pastime of Dungeons and Dragons (also called D&D) can actually be the secret to life success.”
He described the adolescent pastime as a coping mechanism for a time in his life when things did not make sense.
“These games allowed me to escape my fears. And to enter into a fantasy world where I could be someone else. Someone with power, someone with control, someone with agency,” he said in a TedX Talk.
But the Schwartfigures believe board gaming is not just a pastime for adolescents. They believe their café idea could attract people who are interested in experiences.
According to a Scene article, board games fit into the entertainment category of “experiential,” which is a popular trend all its own. The trend is supported by a general dissatisfaction with technological, or virtual, entertainment options.
“Our generation is somewhere in-between the generation where people gathered face-to-face to have conversations. The face-to-face relationship is important to us and we’d like to see people getting that,” Valerie said.
To show support for the Schwartfigure’s board game café idea, join their Facebook page.
