Remember when groups of friends and families would gather around a table and play games like Clue, Monopoly, Scattergories and Risk without all the technological distractions? Cellphone culture has quashed the concept of being mentally present, but Cincinnati is returning to a simpler time of face-to-face interaction through fun game nights.
Zach Leopold and his dad run Scallywag Tag, a West Side entertainment complex with laser tag and minigolf, and they were looking to either expand their business or start a new one. Leopold, a board-game lover since childhood, had a brainstorm.
“I would love to take board games and turn that into some kind of concept, but I couldn’t really figure out how that would translate into the Cincinnati market,” he says.
Once the OTR renaissance took off in full swing — and once he realized successful board game parlors had opened in Toronto, Canada; Beijing, China; Brooklyn, N.Y. and Washington, D.C. — Leopold saw more of an opportunity, especially when other nostalgia bars, like 16 Bit Bar+Arcade, opened.
“I think we’re always swinging on a pendulum of technology and social media, which distances us from individuals, to feeling that need for connection, friends and family and meeting new people,” Leopold says. “So much of it is about sitting people down now and getting food and drink on a table and engaging people socially. I think a place like this, it’s the pinnacle — it’s sitting people down, it’s bringing something of common interest.”
A year ago, Leopold’s utopian board game dream began to take shape when he found an available location on Vine Street — a “total dump,” he says, nestled between a pawn shop and Ensemble Theatre.
It had been empty for years, so he and his dad had to demo the space and build it back up; they’ve completed 90 percent of the reconstruction on the two-floor building so far. After months of preparation, The Rook, named after a chess piece, opened to the public on May 24.
A 10-foot-tall by 45-foot-long wall of shelving on the first floor holds around 800 games (use their searchable online database to find available games). The games are divided into the categories of classics, light strategy and heavy strategy, some of which can take hours to complete. People can play Twister, Cards Against Humanity, The Game of Nasty Things…, The Resistance: Avalon and Pictionary, all the while snacking on sliders and drinking board game-themed cocktails.
“Everything comes in multiples,” Leopold says about the menu.
The Mr. Green sliders (a portobello mushroom, smoked provolone, balsamic onion glaze, spinach on rye) are named after the glowering Clue character, and the Agricola, named after the board game, features three roast beef sliders.
The Rook makes meat-stuffed tater tots and pizza rolls from scratch — a novelty for a restaurant. They also serve salsa with giant housemade chips and salad ingredients placed in romaine lettuce “boats.” Besides Lucy Blue pizza and Gomez Salsa, there aren’t many late-night food options in OTR, but The Rook serves food until it closes (2 a.m. on weekends).
The Leopolds offer concessions at Scallywag, but for them, the prestige of being in OTR means stepping up the quality. They hired 45 employees, including game hosts/hostesses, who explain the rules of the games to the customers (and make sure pieces don’t go missing).
Leopold’s cousin-in-law, Tony Capurro, painted a mural on side of the bar featuring the Roebling Bridge surrounded by Rock ’Em Sock ’Em Robots, the Queen of Hearts and Mr. Monopoly riding a Hungry Hippo.
As for the bar, they have 12 mostly local beers on draft, wine and eight cocktails. The Amaretto-spiked Pretty Pretty Princess comes in a champagne flute with a candy necklace wrapped around the rim. The Old Fashioned, made with shagbark hickory syrup, is smoked to order using a smoke gun.
For those who like kiddie drinks with booze, there’s a rum-infused Capri Sun, a Pixy Stix martini or a tequila sunrise made with Sunny Delight.
Unlike at some other board game parlors, it’s free to play, but you’re encouraged to eat or drink while gaming. And if you don’t want to play, you can just stop in for a drink or snack.
Leopold hopes to lure in gamers with food and drink, but also by organizing tournaments for games like Euchre. He wants to host Cincinnati’s biggest Harry Potter trivia night, and he’s considering a Throwback Thursday night of classic gaming. Basically, Leopold wants The Rook to be Cincinnati’s “board game authority.” They also have The Clue Room on the second floor for private parties.
“I think if we’re filling up our space on a Thursday, Friday and Saturday night, then I would be really happy just to have a full crowd here,” Leopold says. “Even that first floor on a Tuesday filled up with people, that would be my goal. I would love to take this model to a few other cities that don’t have something like it.”
GO: 1115 Vine St., Over-the-Rhine; CALL: 513-954-8191; INTERNET: therookotr.com; HOURS: 11 a.m.-midnight Monday-Wednesday and Sunday; 11 a.m.-2 a.m. Thursday-Saturday.
