Board Game Bars: The Best Games for a First Date

These days it isn’t enough to simply hit up your local dive bar after work or relax in a beer garden with your roommate’s beau you most certainly never stalked on Facebook.

Activity-oriented venues are all the rage with board game bars, barcades, and more popping up everywhere. Now you’ve got something to do with grandma on Sundays!

Except, she’ll be playing in heaven. She says the weather is great.

Our current fave are the board game bars. They’re perfect for a first date or a casual rendezvous with Jake from the office who you swear on your birth control you’re just friends with.

Board Game Bars Around the U.S.

• Detroit: In case you think Detroit has lost its edge, last year The Corner opened in Ferndale. Downstairs: Beers and board games. Upstairs? An axe-throwing arena. Because nothing goes better with drinking than chucking heavy weapons against a wall. FORE!
• Chicago: Athletic Association’s Game Room features classic favorites like chess, checkers, and bingo as well as bocce and pool if you’re feeling sporty.
• Los Angeles: Show off your gaming skills at Echo Park’s Sunset Beer Company and get nerdy over their expansive selection of craft brews.
• Fort Worth, Texas: The Game Theory board game lounge doesn’t just feature cocktails, brews, and 500 games, it’s located right next to the Rahr & Sons Brewery.
• New York City: The Uncommons has hundreds of games to choose from (though, sadly, no beer). This café is nestled in the “Pine District” (aka Greenwich Village) which used to be filled with swamps and streams –you can still experience them if you take the 1 train in July!

 

What to Play on Date Night at a Board Game Bar

Don’t worry, you can still fight over where to eat for dinner!

Cards Against Humanity

Rating: 4/5

Cards Against Humanity is everyone’s favorite “This Game is Kinda Horrible But We Secretly Love Talking About Anal Beads” game.

From college pre-parties to we-wish-we-were-still-in-college dinner parties that get weird real fast, you can’t deny that Cards Against Humanity is an icebreaker. Good luck keeping a straight face telling your date that “This year’s Spring Break weekend headliners are dysentery and Mother Teresa’s powerful thighs.” It’s a great way to find out how comfortable they are with poop jokes before you meet the parents.

 

Life: The Game

Rating: 3/5

Hopefully playing Life: The Game with your date will be the only time a storm will destroy your split-level, you’ll donate your entire life savings to your kid’s school auction, and your taxes will be due every eight minutes.

Not only will you get to see how they cope in crisis, you can also give the rainbow spinny-thing a whirl, and watch how many kids he loads that car up with. Then request the check without explanation if it’s not the number you were hoping for. Guys love it when you keep them guessing!

  

Candy Land

Rating: 2/5

If you date has a sweet tooth, Candy Land and allows you to focus on the conversation since the game is predetermined by the cards you choose. Sort of like life.

Jenga

Rating: 3/5 stars

Jenga can a little messy as it requires constant adjusting. (Your date might understand what we mean.) And, as you get buzzed, everything is bound to topple over. On the other hand, people tend to write lewd things on each Jenga piece. We’re stockpiling those ideas for when we finally have time to finish that Twilight fan fiction piece. We think it’ll be a big hit!

 

Risk

Rating: 1/5 – 5/5

If you like competition, and know the rules, start a game of Risk and see who ends up in the dominant position. On the board. If you don’t know how to play, there is a 100% chance someone used the instructions as a bar napkin so pick something else. We get it, wings are a handful.

 

Monopoly

Rating: 0/5

There’s always a chance they’ll have Monopoly. Never, ever play Monopoly. No one has that kind of time. Not even grandma.