Chicago’s Board Game Cafe definitely has new restaurant syndrome.
Slide into the comfy new seats and serve up a deck of cards with only a few slight chunks of dinner crusted on the side.
The concept reminds me of the 50’s, Betty Who themed drive-in in my hometown, where the board games inside would leave a residue that sticks to your fingers as you dipped your coated french-fries into the Heinz ketchup.
Although Chicago’s Board Game Cafe elevates any ideas you may have about this type of experience, its front of house needs a shuffle.
The interior design transports you to another world thanks to impeccable design and lighting. Twinkling lights, trees, and an indoor town square huddled around the bar make it feel quaint.
The energy from the staff isn’t the relaxed, confident air of a well-seasoned team, but rather hesitancy, like a freshman walking into a room full of upperclassman. Servers in training, board game teachers, and runners crisscross the stage, and we feel like the test subjects for a live-action restaurant prototype. With the restaurant having opened just last week, we understandably are.
The food menu is solid.
Offerings span continents, styles, and flavor profiles. The back of house is composed of some of the big guys in the industry: Aaron McKay of Schwa, NoMi, & Le Lan and Evan Behmer of Mercat a la Planxa and North Pond have created and executed a geographically expansive menu spanning offerings from Vietnam to Mexico to Spain.
We order bread, popcorn, and fries off the snack list. The server kept coming back, as if forgetting that we had ordered our small plates. When our fries arrive, we put in an order for two large plates, remind him of our bread and popcorn, and we deny another request to order more 10$ draft beers. Our mains arrive.
We figure our server is new and we pardon the mistake, moving on with our evening.
Each dish is well composed and executed. The flavors are balanced and the ingredients are handled correctly and plated beautifully.
The cutlery is heavy and well-crafted.
We finish our board game and when I return to the table from the restroom my friends have gathered the check and are ready to depart. We all decide to head to Margie’s Candy right next door for their famous banana split.
As we pay, the server puts down three spoons and lets us know that a colleague of mine has two desserts ready to send out.
They’re amazing.
“CHOCOLATE NAMELAKA (GF) $10 Toasted Marshmallow Fluff, Cocoa Nib Brittle A big thing of chocolate. When we opened the cafe, we realized that we could buy specialty Ecuadorian chocolate that only gets sold to restaurants. So we did that and now you can eat it.”
The sweetness of the dessert fades when we head next door & realize we were charged for the two items that never arrived at our table.
It’s okay, the desserts were on the house, and the server will realize at the end of the shift and learn a lesson.
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Overall, I hope the FOH learns quickly and gives the experience to match the BOH talent. There’s a lot at stake with this risky business model, and execution and timing between the board game teachers and waitstaff needs to be flawless.
I’m hoping this concept sticks around.