Board gaming in Los Angeles

May 10, 2007 6:14 PM

Anyone know of any board-game-friendly coffee houses in the Hollywood/West LA/Glendale/Burbank area?

I'm looking for a place where 4-5 friends can get together for a fun night of board games. My place is decent for gaming, but too small to accomodate more than four people comfortably, and anyway it's a pain in the ass to clean up before company comes over. Another set of friends has a bigger apartment, but lousy furniture.

Ideally I'd like to find a place where I can feel comfortable bringing my own games (the prospect of losing a Carcassonne tile in a public place scares me a bit, but life is about risk, right?) but a place that lends out their own games to customers would also be acceptable (in my experience, places like these rarely have wonderful selections, but Monopoly and Trivial Pursuit are still great games).

My track record in searching has not been great lately for some reason, so apologies if this has been covered.

posted by hifiparasol to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (6 answers total)

Best answer: There is a place called Kaldi Coffe & Tea in Atwater Village. They own another location in South Pasadena (with which I am more familiar - here you can often find patrons and baristas alike poured over games of chess, checkers, or backgammon). Their location in South Pas, which is not too far from Glendale, boasts a collection of comfortable couches, arm chairs, and mismatched furnishings, lending it a quaintness that makes for a good board-gaming environment. They often have boardgames on hand; just ask the baristas.
posted by numinous at 7:13 PM on May 10, 2007

How about Insomnia, on Melrose? It's not my favorite place in the world, but if they can put up with all those screenwriters and their laptops, they shouldn't have too big of a problem with you bringing your games.
posted by roger ackroyd at 8:01 PM on May 10, 2007

Insomnia's on Beverly, west of the New Beverly Theater on the south side of the street. Too bad Lulu's Alibi/Beehive are closed....
posted by brujita at 10:08 PM on May 10, 2007

In Venice there's always the Novel Cafe, which is open til 1am on weekends, and it's easy to get a table there... Just don't be too loud when you scream "Yahtzee!" because people do go there to write.
posted by np312 at 10:33 PM on May 10, 2007

*smacks self*

brujita's right. Beverly. Not Melrose.
posted by roger ackroyd at 10:36 PM on May 10, 2007

I rather like The Bourgeis Pig for this sort of thing.
posted by Space Kitty at 12:04 PM on May 11, 2007