In the heart of Greenwich Village on the campus of New York University, is a tiny green shop with coffee and board games. There is a wall stacked from floor to ceiling with brightly colored boxes.  Two rooms with large, wooden tables welcome guests to play at the Uncommons Board Game Cafe.  http://uncommonsnyc.com/

We love seeking out board game shops whenever we visit a new place,  cultivating our slight obsession for board-gaming. (See Jager Boardgamers for more background about our favorites places to play board games.)  Uncommons is both a cafe and a board game hangout so it was a perfect spot to duck in from the cold for a game or two. The regular rate to play is $5.00 each for unlimited play and $10.00 on the weekends. Since we visited over Christmas vacation, the holiday rate was $5.00 an hour for each person. We only had 1 hour to play before an additional charge, so Derek picked out a couple games for us to try out and dived right into the rules and setup for “Game of Thrones: The Trivia Game” and “Codenames: Pictures.”

The Game of Thrones trivia stumped us with a few obscure facts about the show. We thought we were die-hard fans but we got a lot of questions wrong. Maybe if we had read all the books, we would know more about the series. We still carried through the game and enjoyed learning more about it.

Codenames is a great word game for two players or two teams. Your teammate must think of a one-word clue to describe multiple source words on the table for you to guess correctly in a specific number of rounds. We have two different versions of the game in our home library. Codenames Pictures differs from this format by having to relate multiple designs to each other with the one-word clues. It was a surprising challenge and good use of brainpower for the afternoon. 

Our time card ran out too quickly and we decided to pack it up for another adventure. Uncommons was a cozy shop with character and a welcoming atmosphere. Not every board game store incorporates the open play concept and it was nice to see Uncommons emphasize it in their store. It is a place where we could come back to multiple times to play new games, meet new people, and join in gaming events. I hope the locals keep supporting this business because it is a true charm in the neighborhood.