From Monopoly to Botany: A new board game cafe is coming to downtown Santa Cruz

You have to be a grade-A Grinch — I mean, a real “a three-decker sauerkraut and toadstool sandwich with arsenic sauce” — to not like board games.

 Who among us doesn’t have at least a few warm-and-fuzzies about a familiar board game or two, often wrapped up in nostalgic daydreamy images of long summer days with friends or family? Who doesn’t have a funny story or two about a board-game moment that revealed the real personality of a loved one?

But there’s a paradox at work here, too. However popular board games are, most folks, I would venture, have quite limited experience with the variety and breadth of the board-game market. Like just about any other cultural product these days, board games contain multitudes.

If you are, like me, part of the I-love-board-games-but-I-will-never-be-talked-into-playing-Monopoly-again demographic, then here’s some good news: Wes Pannell — perhaps Santa Cruz’s premier board-game maven — is poised to open Game Santa Cruz, a coffee shop devoted to board games. 

What that means is that anyone interested can swing by the shop on Cedar Street in downtown Santa Cruz and experience a selection of board games that will instantly put to shame that little closet of beat-up old games at that summer rental in Tahoe. And then, they can play a new game or two (or 20) that will likely knock Clue or Yahtzee down a few pegs on their personal list of favorites.

Game Santa Cruz is not yet open for business. Pannell, the co-owner of the business, is aiming for a mid-June opening at 1101 Cedar St., the former site of the Tabby Cat cafe. Once that happens, Pannell will serve fine coffee, a few baked goods and other goodies, and then get busy building a thriving board-game culture in his shop.

Not that there isn’t one of those in town already. Pannell has been running a board-game group in Santa Cruz for about a decade, holding weekly game events at the now-defunct Caffe Pergolesi until it closed, then at Verve Coffee Roasters on Pacific Avenue, attracting on average between 16 and 20 gamers. “Yeah, I was like a pack beetle,” said Pannell. “I’d have this giant backpack filled with board games.”

A longtime bartender and retail clerk at Streetlight Records, Pannell, 48, has been into board games for most of his life, and he’s kept an eye on the board-game industry as it’s moved beyond the handful of ubiquitous brand names into a vast universe of titles and themes.

We are standing inside his yet-to-open cafe when he chooses just one example, a square, ornately designed box titled Botany: A Victorian Experience. It’s a strategy game steeped in the aesthetic of the 19th century and focused on the exotic flowers and plant life spread across the globe. 

“The whole idea is to get the best conservatory in London,” said Pannell, opening the box and showing the intricate decorations throughout the package, from the game cards to the inside bottom of the box. “The nice thing about this era of art is that a lot of it is in the public domain and companies can use it so that it’s absolutely stunning [for players].”

Those who have not been in tune with the latest in board games since the heyday of Trivial Pursuit might be surprised at the sophisticated nature of many of today’s popular titles. Others experienced that sense of discovery during the COVID pandemic, stuck at home looking for new things to do with loved ones. One of the flash points in the evolution of the industry, said Pannell, was a game called Wingspan, released in 2019. Wingspan takes advantage of another interest that boomed during the pandemic, birdwatching. The aim of the game is to attract the most birds to your nature reserve.

“It took the board-gaming world by storm,” he said. “It’s what’s called an ‘engine builder,’ which means that every action you take, you gradually improve on your ‘engine’ so it works better and better and is more efficient. And it’s absolutely beautiful, and they’re sneaking in an education [in this case, about birds], whether you like it or not.”

A big part of Pannell’s vision is to create a comfortable gaming spot for everyone, particularly those who might feel like outsiders in many highly competitive gaming communities that focus on combat, known often as “skirmish games.” 

“There are people who don’t feel included in those types of environments,” he said, “because they are often hyper-competitive, and oftentimes hyper-competitive environments are toxic, and also very exclusionary. I’m going to try to attract more underserviced groups of people here, you know, the LGBT community, the BIPOC community.”

Game Santa Cruz will work on a kind of time-rental model. You come in, score a cup of coffee or tea (no booze at first, but Pannell hopes to land a beer-and-wine license one day), maybe a quick snack, and then you rent one of five tables — one of them, set up for role-playing games, can likely accommodate more than a dozen people at one time. (Tables will be offered for $24 for a two-hour period; the larger table, $42.) From there, you can choose any one of up to 300 available board games, curated by Pannell himself — and yes, you can opt for Monopoly, if that’s your jam. Pannell and his staff will also provide what he calls “concierge services,” which means he’ll be on hand to help customers understand the rules of each game, and perhaps draw their attention to other games that might align with their interests.

What’s more, the cafe will have a retail component as well, where gamers can take home the game they just played for the first time. Hours, he estimates, will be 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. 

“I just did a private event here for my friend’s birthday,” said Pannell, scanning his roomy cafe space, “And there were 16 people in here and it was a great time. They played a game of Mysterium, and I forget what other game they played. But it was just smiles and laughs for hours. I’ve worked kitchen lines, bar lines. I’ve worked retail. And nothing brings people together like sitting down together, getting a bite to eat and laughing.”

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