If you’re not prepared to lose every friend you have ever made over a game board, you’re not playing hard enough.
It’s 2020. You can unlock your phone with a thumb, order a Chinese meal to your house whilst in the bath and meet the love of your life through an app. Fantastic, isn’t it? Then what is that feeling of sadness when we long for the “good old days”. Where times seemed simpler, where we seemed to speak more and candles and game boards would come out in a black out. Feeling melancholic yet? Well fear not… Sugar and Dice is here!
And if you’re worried about eating too many of those sugary delights, you’ll be happy to hear that playing board games is actually good for you. There is lots of research on board games and the benefits they provide. From beating stress and having fun, it’s a great way to get some quality time with loved ones. Playing board games also helps with memory and cognitive skills and they are even known to help your immune system, as the happiness from playing games and interacting with people can reduce depression and negativity, whilst giving your brain some excellent stimulation. New technology is awesome, however it’s changing the way we communicate. A board game brings people together, in the same place at the same time. There may be arguments, there may tears but you can play with people you don’t know, and quickly have a new best friend for life.
The café opened in November 2016 and the collection has more than 400 board games. You can find everything from the classics like Monopoly and Scrabble right through to a wide selection of modern designer board games. Similar to our ‘Booker prize’ for amazing books, in Germany, they have the ‘Spiel Des Jahres’ – i.e. the game of the year. Every year, several games are nominated, with the winner selling hundreds of thousands of copies. These games are always family friendly and in most cases, players are not eliminated during the game, so everyone is included right up until the end. These are often the most popular games at the café and if you’re lucky the staff will even come and play them with you!
Jason and Vanessa spent the last few years living in Berlin, where they were introduced to the concept of board game cafés. Being new to the German city, it was at this café that they found new friends and connections. They travelled the world, always checking out local board game cafés and every single one of them was filled to the brim with smiling and laughing people of all ages interacting with each other. They soon realised that this concept would be a perfect fit for the friendly and welcoming people of Liverpool and they decided to bring this little slice of joy to England and make it a reality here when they returned to the country at the end of 2015.
Early 2016, the couple met Rachel – a fellow board game obsessive. Rachel trained and worked as a Food Technology teacher and then perfected those skills to become a professional cake baker, so you know her baked goodies are incredible. Rachel’s dream has always been to open her own café with delicious home-baked treats. After visiting a fellow board games café in Oxford, she got thinking about how well this would go down in Liverpool and the rest is history. The cakes are all homemade in the kitchen and new flavours are constantly being created, from probably the best brownies in the world to the divine vegan golden syrup cake, your sweet tooth will find it hard to choose.
Whenever possible, the team try to source products locally from their unique coffee blend to their milk provider. All the Pale Ales are made right here in Liverpool and people talk about their toilet – you’ll have to visit to find out more! So whether you’re a hardcore gamer or just want to dabble into the hobby, you will have a blast at Sugar and Dice. The friendly staff love recommending board games to groups and will happily teach you the rules so you can start enjoying yourself as soon as you take a seat. With such a wide range of games including card games, strategy based games, cooperative games and dexterity games, there really is something for everyone. The only advice we have for you… Keep an eye on the person who wants to be the banker in Monopoly…