Field trip to Card Kingdom and Cafe Mox

Dave Schueler suggested we visit a board game shop in Ballard last summer, Card Kingdom on Leary Way.  After batting the idea to and fro over the months, we finally agreed on last Saturday.  I picked up Dave and son Casey in West Seattle and we arrived at the shop about 11:00 AM.  Our timing was perfect.  There was dedicated parking across the street. 

We walked in the door and things were just getting started.  We did a lot of looking.  Card Kingdom has lots of games, but nothing terribly hardcore historical.  Lots of Eurogames, lots of card systems.  They even had a nice selection of Games Workshop miniatures, Reaper paints and brushes.  There wasn't anything that really lured me in, but great stuff to look at.

There are some real amenities Card Kingdom offers.  First, they have a really nice tournament space.  Nobody seemed to be using it on Saturday, and it seems best set up for card games--though I think it would also work well for DBA.  They also offer some very comfortable private game spaces.  I'm not sure what the cost of using the space would be, but it was quite nice for a group of 6-8 playing board games.

Card Kingdom has joined another game shop in the area, Blue Highway Games on Magnolia Hill in Seattle, that offers a game library.  Want to try out a game, just borrow it and play it--in the little cafe that's basically part of the store.  Whoa.  Cafe Mox is not fast food, nor is it a dive.  Very nice place, awesome sandwiches, and they have micro-brews and wine.  I had  a vegetarian sandwich, but Dave had a great looking Caesar chicken wrap, and Casey had your basic grilled cheese.  The prices were reasonable. Cafe Mox is a great stop whether you're gaming or just grabbing coffee or lunch.

We set up Revolution! by Steve Jackson Games and played around lunch.  We enjoyed it.  The game requires you to build support for your faction in a town during a revolution.  The rules were easy and in a relatively close game, Casey won.  When we left the cafe to return the game, every table was full of games and gamers.  There was some kind of Warhammerish tournament going on (everybody used unpainted and semi-painted figures--ick!)

We left at about 2:00 and I dropped off Dave and Casey and headed for home about 2:30.  It was a great trip I hope to make again.