WHAT IS A BOARD GAME CAFE & HOW DOES IT WORK?

Welcome to our board game cafe! Board game cafes have been popular in Asia for decades, but North America was first introduced to the concept in 2011 with the opening of Snakes & Lattes in Toronto. Now, in 2021, there are over 150 board game cafes in North America, and close to a thousand globally in other countries.

Typical industry standard pricing for board game cafes is between $5.00 to $10.00 per person, and many cafes have a per person or table time limit for game play.

How it works at Bard & Baker is you check in at the front counter with our team of Game Curators and pay one flat fee per person to enjoy board game library access for the entire day! You can even leave & come back later in the day to play some more.

GAME PRICING

Tues - Thurs: $5.00/pp

Fri - Sun: $10.00/adults & $5.00/students & children

CHILDREN UNDER 6 ALWAYS PLAY FOR FREE WITH PURCHASE OF 1 ADULT GAME COVER!

do you accept reservations?

We do and they are highly recommended to ensure that there is space for your party! We tend to fill up quickly on nights and weekends, and a calling ahead to make a reservation guarantees that there will be a table for your group upon arrival.

Reservations must be made a least 24 hours in advance to guarantee available space.

There is no cost for reservations for parties of less than 6 guests. We accept reservations up to one month in advance for tables at either location, and for weekly Sunday night trivia at our Troy location.

For parties of 6-20 guests, there is a 50% deposit on game covers due at the time of making your reservation to guarantee your preferred day and time. Cancellations of less than 24 hours notice for large party reservations forfeit the reservation deposit. Cancellations with greater than 24 hours notice will receive a full refund for their reservation deposit paid back to the card on file used to make the deposit.

For parties larger than 20 guests, please send us an email to discuss private event options for either space.

Bard & Baker Troy

518.948.6693

bardandbaker@gmail.com

ARE YOU CURRENTLY HIRING?

We get this question a lot and are always honored that people want to work with us at Bard & Baker! We are a small team of passionate individuals, so while we rarely end up posting a job position or ‘we’re hiring’ notice, we’re definitely always accepting resumes to review when positions become available.

Many of our staff are full time students and part time workers, so our staffing needs fluctuate throughout the year based on their availability in between semesters, but if you want to send us an email at bardandbaker@gmail.com with your resume, a little bit about yourself, and whether you’re looking to work in the kitchen or front of house, we’ll get back to you once we’re actively interviewing for open positions again!

Can I bring in my own food & drinks?

At this time, we do not allow outside food. If you have any dietary restrictions or are concerned about our menu offerings, please send us an email or give us a call, as we'd be happy to see what we can do to accommodate! We have many items on our menu that are, or can be made, vegetarian, vegan, gluten free, dairy free, or nut free. Please be sure to notify our staff at the time of order if you have any dietary restrictions so that they may communicate with our kitchen team effectively.

For severe food allergies, we unfortunately are unable to guarantee a 100% zero cross contamination environment as we have an open kitchen and consistently do work with gluten, nuts and dairy for our regular menu items. If you have questions or concerns about allergen friendly items available, feel free to give our team a call at 518-948-6693 & they will happily answer any questions you may have.

Outside drinks (750ml bottles of wine or beer) are permitted with a $10 corkage fee per bottle. We do not allow any other outside beverages at this time.

DO YOU DELIVER FOOD & DRINKS?

While we do not offer delivery by our staff, we do deliver through Mealeo and GrubHub.

Mealeo is our preferred delivery platform as it ensures our small business gets the largest percentage of commission from sales — where as GrubHub keep a large percentage of. You can order online through Mealeo, here.

didn’t you have a second location? what happened to bard & baker albany?

We did indeed open a second, smaller location, called Bard & Baker Albany in summer of 2021. We had a wonderful 2 full years of serve and at lease end decided to close the Albany location permanently to focus on the Troy location exclusively and expanding it to take over the space next door as well.

We have no plans to reopen a Bard & Baker Albany location at this time as Bard & Baker Troy and its expanded space is our sole focus and finally our fully realized dream space! We hope you’ll visit us soon!

are you a franchise?

We are not! We are two people, Charlotte and Bryan (the Bard and the Baker) who wanted to do what they love and share what they love with the world — fun board games, tasty food, delicious drinks and great hospitality!

We have no plans to franchise our business at this point in time as we are happy with our fully realized dream Bard & Baker Troy location as of May 2023.

where did the name bard & baker come from?

Thinking up a name for our business back in 2017 seemed harder than thinking up anything else for our business! We realized very quickly that this business was going to be our (Charlotte and Bryan’s) combined passions for board games, hospitality, food and drinks.

Passionate about hospitality and hosting others, and playing off of both the medieval traveling storyteller/songwriter (the bard!) and the classic playable fantasy archetype, Charlotte adopted the Bard persona for her half of the business and Bryan with his love of pastry, food and science, adopted the Baker persona for his half of the business.

Smooshed together, Bard & Baker was born and is a combination of our two passions and joys in life and we hope to share it with you soon!

CAN I BRING MY PET TO SIT WITH ME WHILE I PLAY GAMES?

We do not allow household pets in the restaurant space as we have an open kitchen. Only service animals trained to perform a specific task for their human are allowed inside. Thank you for understanding <3

can i bring in my own games?

If you do not see your favorite game in our library, you are more than welcome to bring your own to play, though the per person game cover charge will still apply for table access.

With such limited seats within the café, we want to make it as fair as possible for everyone to enjoy their favorite titles. However, you can bring as many games as you like from home, and stay for as long as you like, with no time limit!

If you would like to see your favorite game added to our library, shoot us an email! We are always looking for fun new titles to add to our list.

Bard & Baker Troy

518.948.6693

bardandbaker@gmail.com

DO YOU RENT THE SPACE FOR BIRTHDAY PARTIES OR PRIVATE EVENTS?

Absolutely! We have hosted many events in the past ranging from birthday parties, to family celebrations, receptions, corporate team building exercises, and networking/panel events. We can accommodate parties of up to 80 guests seated at Bard & Baker Troy for booking the entire space and all of our tables are modular which can be moved to accommodate any layout. We also have a brand new private event space called The Cottage which is available for booking parties of 15-35 guests!

To get the conversation started on your private event or large party reservation, please email our owner, Charlotte, at bardandbaker@gmail.com for options. Please include the following information in your email:

• Preferred date(s) and time(s) for your event

• Number guests (a range is acceptable if a confirmed number is unknown yet)

• Type of event (birthday party, networking event, professional panel, baby shower, anniversary celebration, retirement party, reception, etc)