By Christian Gaffney and John
Propis
When walking into Gather & Game, don’t
expect to see ordinary games like “Monopoly” and “Sorry” but instead games you
may have never heard of. Games like “Ticket to Ride” “King of Toyko” and many
more you will find at Gather & Game.
Located at 212 Grant St., Gather & Game is
attracting gamers from the West Side and elsewhere. Owner Joe Petri, who also
owns Westside Stories across the street, has been creating a fun gaming
atmosphere for many to enjoy.
Gather & Game has been open for about eight months, but Petri said he has
seen good progress with the new store. He sees many new and old faces that come
in every week.
Gather & Game features over 200 games
throughout the store and wants to bring in more. The store carries many
older games and a lot of new games as well and runs gaming tournaments.
T-shirts, gaming cards and board games are available for sale.
Josh Boyle, game coordinator for game nights every Friday, always
pitches new ideas in order to help the store to draw more people in.
“The more games we have the better. Right
now, we have a couple hundred games, and the community is starting to build
around us,” Boyle said.
Gamers’ ages range from 8- to
30-years-old and pay $3 to play. A frequent gamer Nicholas Griffith, 26, says
he loves coming to Gather & Game.
“I live in Allentown, so this is this the
closest gaming place for me. I don’t own a car so I usually either ride my bike
or take the bus. This is a place where I feel comfortable at and have fun
playing and learning new games each week,” Griffith said.
Petri
likes to provide a fun and comfortable for the gamers to play in and snacks and
drinks for refreshments. There are memberships and tournaments to be entered to
win cash prizes.
“It’s hit or miss. On a bad night we will get four and on a good one we will
get 10 to 12, usually around 8:30 p.m. is when more start coming. We definitely
see an increase on weekends or when there are tournaments,” Petri said.
