October 2013 and we’re open! But does anyone even know that we exist? A few for sure. Jack’s (my partner) old store was a staple of the local gamer community for 15 years and many of his customers were anxiously awaiting our arrival. We had a Facebook page and a local Reddit post a couple of months before announcing our upcoming birth, plus a couple of small articles in local papers had mentioned us. We still did a soft opening though, I mean we didn’t even have food except for a few pre-packaged chocolate bars, chips and pops until we got our food license. No advertising, just word of mouth while we ironed out the kinks. Kinks? That would be like calling Mt Everest a little hill, it was a this point we really had no idea what the $%^! we were doing. The retail bit we had down. We had both done that, the cafe part, not so much. The build out had taken so much time and effort I guess we had got lost in those details and almost forgot how we were going to run the day to day of customers coming in and playing games and paying money and stuff like that. At this point it was just me and Jack, plus a couple of guys who would help out in the evenings sometimes. We were open 11am till midnight everyday. That’s a lot of hours to cover but we did it. Let me remind you again that Jack was 62 at this point, plus I was a father of a 7 & 8 year old. For the first couple of weeks some people paid up front, others at the end of their stay. When they left the store we often had no idea if they had or had not paid and just relied on their honesty. Then Josh (one of the 2 guys) mentioned it may be a good idea to either make everyone pay up front or at the end…genius! We went with tabs, Josh quit in frustration a week later, but his legacy remains! I look back at those times and cringe at our absolute cluelessness and wonder how the hell we survived. Well, actually I don’t wonder, I know the two main reasons; it was because we were always willing to listen to our staff who saw things we didn’t and implement those changes and because we cared about them and our customers. We may have been nincompoops at the beginning, but we were nincompoops who cared.
3 weeks in and we got our food license! Finally we could serve coffee (actually we could serve that before, so long as it was black (adding milk was a line we weren’t allowed to cross), make panini’s and the thing that would come to define our business as much as the games we offer…milkshakes. If you read the previous article, you’ll know that the O.G. plan was to sell beer. Near the end of the process we were told, not a chance we were getting a license (at that point BC’s liquor laws hadn’t been updated for over 100 years and getting a liquor primary license, which we needed, was impossible). About 6 months into the initial planning my friend Chris from the UK had mentioned that milkshake joints had become a bit of a thing in England and maybe we should consider that as well. I told Jack this and he said that back in his hippie days on Saltspring Island he helped run a small pizza and milkshake joint (of course he had, did I say he has done every job ever). Jack loves saving a dollar, way more than he likes making a dollar, so what better way than to make our own ice cream! We bought a small (but very expensive) gelato machine that would make 1.5 liters of ice-cream in about 40 minutes. We experimented with recipes and got one that worked, found a second hand milkshake machine and bought some syrup to make strawberry, chocolate and vanilla. People liked them, but getting the syrups were a pain in the butt from the store, so we looked for a place to get them wholesale. We found one and saw they also had a lot more than three flavors, so we got a couple more. Next time we ordered we got even more, then after that A LOT more. Suddenly we had 30 odd flavors, enough right? Jared from Jagasilk, our supplier of Matcha/London Fog/Chai, was dropping off our order and asked if he could get a milkshake to go, but with some of his London Fog powder in it. Weird, but OK! Wow, that’s really good, add it to the list and while were at it what other hot drinks would work? Coffee? Give it a go…added! This is getting out of hand, we should stop. We did, mostly! Suddenly people were coming in asking for a table and saying to their friends…’Oh yeah and their milkshakes are really good!’ People were coming in and didn’t want to play games, just get a to go milkshake, so we ordered takeout cups. The final addition was when one of our staff, Robin, a non-dairy drinker asked if she could use the machine to make vegan ice-cream. She took it home but before she did she tried using it to make a dairy free milkshake…which now make up 15% of our milkshake sales. That little 1.5 liter gelato machine would be turned on at 10.30am and be churning away non-stop as much as possible till close. We were getting busier and busier, people were having fun and word was spreading and the ice cream (which comes out the machine soft) would only get a few hours to solidify and the milkshakes would sometimes become pretty thin. So a couple of years in we splurged and spent an almost 5 figure sum on a 5 liter gelato machine meaning we could do 3 times the production. It was a great day for the staff who’s every working hour wasn’t going to be consumed by making ice cream (for a while anyway). But that didn’t end our problems, the next issue was milk. We only had so much refridgeration space and we filled almost every inch of it with dairy. We were making 2 to 3 trips up the street every weekend with a dolly and 3 milk crates to the Market to get 12 gallons of milk. I was also making 2 trips a week out to the a wholesale store to get whipping cream and more milk but a solution eventually presented itself a year later…and oh yeah it turns out it is far, far more expensive to make your own ice cream than buy it
90 seats is a lot of people. Victoria is pretty big, but it’s no major city. Luckily for me, during the last 18 years Jack had been selling Euro games and had indirectly created quite a large sub-culture of gamers in town as well as a good chunk who owned at least one modern Euro game (e.g. Catan, Carcassonne). People came, they played, bought some games and ate and drank some food and we were able to pay the rent and stay in the black from the first month. I was working a lot though. At first it was everyday and most nights. Then we hired a couple of people and I got a few nights off, but would always be there for the busy ones. If my wife went out to her dance or with friends, the kids would come to the cafe and we would stick them in our small store room on a couple of bean bags where they would watch a movie and have a milkshake (we’ve since found out they are a little lactose intolerant, so opening that door after an hour was like being hit with a hot, smelly desert wind). Those bean bags were also used for a few staff members to sleep off a hangover and by Jack to get a few Z’s. I was tired a lot and in those first few years I pretty much stopped playing games except for work. A new game would arrive, it would seem like a good cafe game. I would learn it, try it with my kids and file it in my mind’s game database as a game good for people who like ‘x’, is ‘y’ long and plays ‘z’ players. In the first few months I was also a little overzealous trying to preach the gospel of games to people. One day a lady and her daughter came in and were setting up Mouse Trap, I offered to teach something else better, she said she was fine. I was a bit more insistant, she still said no, so I left. As I walked away I saw her face and realised what prick I was being. Its not my place to tell people what to play or like. Now I and my staff always offer to suggest or teach someone something when they are done with their game if they want help…and if that lady is reading this I’m sorry for being rude.
Even though we were paying the bills at the start, we weren’t exactly rolling in it, so when people asked for reservations we would happily accept them to get bums in seats. Two in particular stand out in my memory:
- A group of about 10 came in and asked for one of the big tables at they back. It was winter so coats were being worn but a few of them had ears on and what looked like Goth-esque makeup. No big deal, we get all sorts in the cafe and everyone is welcome. I went to the back 20 minutes later to see how everyone was doing and there was only about 5 people at the table!? I assummed the rest were searching for a game at the library when I heard a yipping sound. I glanced under the table and there they were. On leishes attached to their ‘owners’ who were happily playing a game. I was a little taken aback, what to do? Well, other than the occasional bark or meow, they were doing no harm whatsoever, most other customers just seemed quietly amused, so I just let them be and said if they needed a hand with a game to just ask. They didn’t.
- The second group still makes me feel a bit queezy. A very well mannered man called in and asked if he could reserve the whole back of the cafe one night. It was for a group who played video games, but he wanted to warn me that occasionally people had protested his group, but assured me they wouldn’t be any trouble. He vaguely described what they did, but I was like ’40 people, dope!’ The staff asked who they were, I said they mentioned they were a group about women in video games. The evening rolled around and the man who booked arrived first, thanked us and set up in the back with a few pamphlets and flyers. Attendees came and milled around talking. They took up the space, but no-one was playing any games, just talking. Their main guest turned up; a lady who went to the back took off her coat and revealed she was wearing just a corset and a pair of knickers (that would be underwear in UK English) and suspenders. OK?!? This is awkward, let me look up this group…I grab a flyer and hit up Google. Oh Shit! They are a group that advocate for preventing the desexualization of women in video games. First thought, was actually ‘F**k these guys, they aren’t even playing bloody board games.’ Second thought; ‘When are they leaving?’ Thankfully it was only about 45 more minutes. They chatted a while and then drifted out. Most hadn’t been informed they were supposed to pay $5 to play, so a whole bunch just left without paying and the rest were pretty ticked off there was a fee. Sigh…not a highlight moment and lesson learned, when a group openly says people protest their meetings, look them up!
By the end of the first year I was working far more normal hours but our longest running (and still current) problem finally surfaced for the first time…we were full. That’s great! Well yes, but what do we do with the people wanting to get in? I knew this was going to be an issue. Snakes and Lattes had run into this early on and had used a waitlist and texted people when a table was free. Then they went to a reservation system, they stopped that after a few months and went back to calling. Some cafes now give reservations, but you get a specific time slot such as 6-9pm. We’ve been dealing with this for 5 years and still don’t have a perfect answer, but one thing will never change; you can stay as long as you want. If I’m playing a game, I don’t want to be rushed or have to pack up half way through, so I wont do that to my customers. The price is some of you will have to wait on busy nights (so when you leave a bad review because you waited, remember I am losing money doing it this way!).
We got some temporary relief in late 2017 when we received some inside information that our neighbours Meat & Bread (M&B) were closing. In 2015 we had considered taking the other empty half of the building, but ultimately passed. A hot shot restaurant from Vancouver decided to move in. They had been going gangbusters over there and swept in creating a beautiful space and were packed for the first few weeks. Then, well Victoria happened. We’re a very fickle bunch when it comes to food and the novelty seemed to wear off and they weren’t so busy any more. After just under 2 years they decided to cut their losses. By lucky happenstance earlier that year BC updated it’s liquor laws and we could apply for a Liquor primary license (19+ only, but people can stay as long as they want as oppossed to food primary which is all ages but you can’t hang out after the food is finished). Should we take the space? It would mean taking on an 8 year lease (that is a long time), plus we would have no guarentee that we would get the license and we couldn’t apply without the lease. If we didn’t get it, we would be barely breaking even on the extra space on a good day. As an aside, rent is a huge cost. On our block its around $25 per sq. ft (FYI, every block closer to the Inner Harbour and you go you can expect to pay around $10 more). On top of that you usually pay triple net which can be anything from 30-70% of your lease again. Taking on the extra space would put us up around 4700 sq. ft…you do the math! We were very unsure about making the leap. 8 years, no license guarentee, a tonne of extra rent and M&B wanted a bunch of cash to pay for the work they had done to the place and we had to renovate the place to repurpose it for our needs. We had waitlists every weekend and most nighta to get in, but enough extra people to fill another half again? Who knows. The waitlists won and we made a move. M&B had better offers than us, but the fact that the our landlord was willing to let M&B give us the lease in full won out (the others would be sub-leasing, I’m guessing to other restaurants, so if they went bankrupt M&B would be back on the hook again and restaurants don’t have a high success rate for lasting 8 years). We began the renos, applied for the liquor permit and waited.
In 2 months we opened our new half and fairly soon had a waitlist again, but this time it wasn’t so bad. We also now had a walk-in fridge. Remember the milk thing, well we could get it delivered by the pallet load! We also realised that we could just put the beer (if we got licensed) right in the fridge and the taps directly on the outside. That’s right; Victoria’s shortest beer lines. You don’t know what you have till you have it. When I look back I can’t believe we almost didn’t take the extra space, bizarely it meant we were in a strong negotiating position because we we’re quite happy to walk away and stick with what we had, but I couldn’t imagine life without that extra space and the fridge.
1 year later after navigating the labyrinth that is the BC Liquor Board, we got it. No-one tells you the licensing path to take and there is no clear place that tells you what to do in what order and where to take what where and when. We took 3 months longer than we needed because of all the oopsies we made! Our initial licensed hours we requested for were shortened because people complained that the Tap House Bar up the road made a lot of noise at night, ergo…we shouldn’t get a license (AirBnBs + complaint = palm on forehead). We started with 3 beer taps, then quickly realized that in BC nowadays that is unnacceptable and quickly upgraded to 6, which is fine…I suppose. We added the roll a D20 for a shot, I made the staff start doing them with no training and barely any warning…didn’t go that well, may have got a few angry messages from them that night.
So we are mostly up to date. We have a slightly smaller 19+ side and an all ages section which suits us perfectly. We max out at a 150 person capacity and have started selling fresh cooked pizzas. What’s in the future? I occasionally get to go into schools to do game nights and I am planning to try do more of that next (school) year. Games are fun and have the ability to be used in so many ways to engage kids in story telling, planning, math and just plain old thinking. Teacher’s and parents just don’t know these games exist unless someone tells them. So that’s the plan for me. I have a tonne of great staff who run the cafe magnificently and much of it can be left to them.
What about Jack? Well he’s 66 (I think). He hasn’t taken a day off since we opened, that’s 1984 days straight at the time of writing. He’s come in to the cafe everyday, including Christmas Day and New Years when we are shut. He’s an invincible beast, although one day he says he will retire, I have no idea when though…I guess that will be the next challenge.
One more post after this. It’ll be quite a bit shorter I promise.
