The Board Room: Pick One Thing and Do It Right

by Samantha Tynes

Conveniently nested only a couple blocks north of the Dupont Circle metro station is a real gem for board game fans, serious and casual alike. Peering in the oversized front window will give you a peek into a busy, but not crowded, collection of tables and chairs with enthusiastic patrons huddled close over colorful, durable cardboard and a smattering of equally eye-catching plastic pieces. The Board Room opened in the latter half of last year with much anticipation. Barcades and board game bars were things saved for places like New York and Chicago, and DC got one of each in one year.

Baseball, beer, and Sorry! (image © The Board Room)

The bar stretches almost the entire length of the building, my friend waiting all the way at the end of it. I apologize for being late. “It’s alright,” he replied with a shrug, a tumbler of something dark resting on one of the many Uncle Pennybags cartoons that decorated the bar’s surface. The barman interrupts, “What can I get you?” With twenty-one beers on draft and a very well-stocked bar, it takes me a minute to decide. The cabinet at the front end of the bar is also packed full, but with all the classic games from childhood: Operation, Sorry!, Battleship, even Mousetrap. The extra fun comes in from the vintage games they have to rent. You could try your hand at MiamiVice: the Game, Kommissar, or even a game about the Kennedy family.

With matching glasses in hand, we head upstairs. The few tables in the downstairs area can fill up quickly once peak hours start, but the second floor is much more spacious, quieter and with larger tables. A second fourteen tap bar and tabletop Pac Man game round out the area for being the better of the two for actual gameplay. For all their games to rent, you don’t have to feel restricted to Connect-4 or Yahtzee. The Board Room is happy to let you bring your own games, they encourage it, in fact. I came prepared with a bag full of options, and one set of instructions later I was getting my ass handed to me in Ascension. 

Bird's eye view before the rush (image © The Board Room)

There isn’t a kitchen on site, unlike most other bars in the area. But as afternoon transitioned to evening and the tables upstairs filled, delivery men began to appear. They wandered the building balancing stacks of pizzas or loaded with arms of brown paper bags, looking around with that lost, yet hopeful expression of somewhere, in this building, this pizza belongs to someone. Just like bringing your own games in, they don’t mind if you order in. Ask the bartender about food and he’ll supply you with a thick stack of takeout and delivery menus that would do any college dorm proud. 

It’s a unique approach to the bar and restaurant scene. They don’t try to offer everything, or pretend that they do. It’s a bar, yes. But you aren’t confined to sitting in a row at a bar or little isolated booths. There are couches and chairs and nooks and open areas and room for a game in each. The casual atmosphere makes it feel like a little more than that. Across from us, an awkward first date was stumbling through semi-personal questions and a round of Battleship. While next to us, a loud group of friends were destroying a pizza and striving to cement their own monopoly. The Board Room feels less like a bar and more like a hang out spot. Just remember to be kind and give the delivery guy your cell number.