{"id":3208,"date":"2013-03-14T10:06:25","date_gmt":"2013-03-14T15:06:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/?p=3208"},"modified":"2017-11-19T19:25:38","modified_gmt":"2017-11-20T00:25:38","slug":"building-a-board-game-haven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/?p=3208","title":{"rendered":"Building a board game haven"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s billed as the capital city\u2019s first board game caf\u00e9, serving up lattes, beers, paninis \u2013 and about 700 different board games.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI thought Ottawa needed something like this, some place where you could go meet people, but wasn\u2019t necessarily a bar scenario,\u201d says David Narbaitz, the owner of Monopolatte. \u201cSomeplace that you could go play a board game with someone and make four new friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso, I needed a job that would be social and not stick me in a cubicle all day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Located on Somerset St. West, Monopolatte is Narbaitz\u2019s first crack at starting his own business.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone says the second one will be easier,\u201d he jokes.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s had to learn as he goes, and has hit plenty of bumps already \u2013 the caf\u00e9 was originally scheduled to open last August. But Narbaitz was forced to push back opening day, partly because of complications with renovations to the building.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Ontario building code is very convoluted. Even the experts on the building codes make mistakes \u2013 and every mistake is a two week delay,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n

TAKING OVER A BOOK STORE<\/strong><\/p>\n

The building was originally a bookstore, but the occupancy was still officially marked as residency. Narbaitz learned the occupancy had to be changed to commercial if he wanted to operate a caf\u00e9 \u2013 and that\u2019s led to the latest roadblock.<\/p>\n

The building\u2019s stuccoed ceilings are two millimetres shy of the thickness required to separate the commercial caf\u00e9 from the residential apartment on the second floor.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s immensely frustrating,\u201d Narbaitz says. \u201cTwo weeks ago I had it all set up with tables and everything in its proper place, just to take a look at it, and it was ready to go. I could have opened up the next day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, he has to wait for the changes to be approved by the city, and then wait on the construction. Up to this point he\u2019s done all the painting himself, but he has hired someone to make the final few changes to get it done quickly.<\/p>\n

But despite the delayed opening, Narbaitz is confident the caf\u00e9 will be a success \u2013 and he\u2019ll be able to pay off the bank loan he drew to fund the venture.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe support I\u2019m getting from the community, and the people I know that are going to be in here when I open, has allowed me to continue taking money out of the loan in good conscience, knowing that it can be repaid,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

A TORONTO MODEL<\/strong><\/p>\n

If the board game caf\u00e9 in Toronto that inspired Narbaitz is any indication, he has good reason to be confident.<\/p>\n

Snakes and Lattes, which opened three years ago, was one of the first board game caf\u00e9s in North America. Now it has more than 2,500 different games for patrons to play \u2013 another 1,000 are available on request. This caf\u00e9 \u00a0recently put on an addition and can now pack in more than 100 people at a time<\/p>\n

\u201cOur biggest problem has always been that we’ve been busier than we’ve been prepared to be,\u201d says Sean Jacquemain, who works for the Snakes and Lattes caf\u00e9. \u201cIt’s one of those good problems in business to\u00a0have.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are busy every night running wait lists,\u201d Jacquemain says, adding that the caf\u00e9 has never done any sort of advertising. Instead, he attributes part of the success to word of mouth and media coverage.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve gotten a lot of press about it,\u201d he says, because it\u2019s such a unique idea.<\/p>\n

Part of the appeal is that you can play expensive or rare board games, which can cost upwards of $100, for only the $5 cover charge \u2013 and you can stay and play as many games as you like, for as long as you want.<\/p>\n

Snakes and Lattes even has game gurus on staff\u00a0specifically to help customers choose the right game.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey’re kind of like game sommeliers,\u201d Jacquemain says.<\/p>\n

Narbaitz will adopt that same business model at Monopolatte, targeting both diehard fans and casual customers interested in trying new games.<\/p>\n

Board game nights are already a feature at several downtown pubs and caf\u00e9s, and Narbaitz says he\u2019s already received tons of feedback from eager customers.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery day I get a few calls saying \u2018Are you open yet?\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s learned not to make any promises, but hopes to throw open the doors in a matter of weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s billed as the capital city\u2019s first board game caf\u00e9, serving up lattes, beers, paninis \u2013 and about 700 different<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[174,173,99,172,176,175],"class_list":["post-3208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-board-games","tag-david-narbaitz","tag-joel-eastwood","tag-monopolatte","tag-sean-jacquemain","tag-snakes-and-lattes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3208"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4474,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3208\/revisions\/4474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}