Westside Stories Used
Books, 205 Grant St., has added a second location across Grant Street, called
Gather & Game, to tap into the neighborhood’s interest in board and other
games.
The addition at 212 Grant St. is
expected to bring in more business and add a new gaming type atmosphere to the
block
Due to heavy inventory of magic
cards and games at the bookstore, owner Joe Petri has always had the plans of
opening something like this to accommodate his customers.
“How often does the space across the
street from my job open up, we felt we would’ve been kicking ourselves for
years if we didn’t roll the dice now,” Petri said.
In order to differentiate the
gaming location from other game shops around the area, Petri’s idea was to do
something similar to the Elmwood area and make it café-style and lean into the
board game theme.
In an era consumed with technology
where people can literally play games at the palms of their hands, Gather &
Game goes beyond that. Here, you can learn how to play board games, some of
which you may have never heard of like “Clank!” “King of Tokyo” “Carcassonne”
and many more.
Petri wanted to do
something for the neighborhood when he opened the bookstore in 2011.. Only
living a couple blocks away and being home with his two children he was able to
make it work. His focus will now be continuing to improve the new place across
the street. By Christian Gaffney and John
Propis