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Board games surged in popularity during the pandemic as we all hunted for ways to stay sane while trapped round the clock with our housemates.
But now that the world has reopened, it turns out Portland’s a perfect place to take your new hobby outside the house. There are enough board game nights at venues across the city to satisfy any nerdy urge.
Guardian Games has events practically every night of the week at its 10,000-square-foot flagship store in inner Southeast. Battle Grounds Gaming Cafe opened just last month on Northeast Sandy Boulevard and allows you to satiate both your gaming and espresso habits at once. Or, if you’re looking to upgrade your friends’ weekly game night, you can rent rooms for up to 20 people at Mox Boarding House near Providence Park, which also has an extensive list of games available for loan or purchase.
The concept of pairing games with craft beer and good food is not a new one—but there’s something unique happening in Portland, says Elliott Kaplan of TPK Brewing. “We can do more weird experimental stuff. And the community here loves supporting it.”
Kaplan would know. He and two business partners, a professional brewer and a dungeon master, opened TPK Brewing in October. They host beginner Dungeons & Dragons games four nights a week, and their in-house campaign, with a storyline and beer pairings made up by the owners, now has more than 100 players. (Next week’s special brew is a stout made with candy cap mushrooms, says head brewer and co-founder Jess Hardie.)
Some people who signed up had never played before. The first three-month campaign recently wrapped up and nearly everyone came back for the second, Kaplan says.
“We get a lot of people who moved here during the pandemic, don’t really know how to meet people, and want a different experience than just going to a bar and trying to randomly make friends.”
DRINK: TPK Brewing, 5051 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 503-231-6354, tpkbrewing.com. 11 am–11 pm Wednesday–Monday.