Carroll Gardens/ Cobble Hill

Game on! Brooklyn gaming nerds, your new home is here

Lana Del Rey's got nothing on these guys: The spread at Brooklyn Strategist's temporary location.

Here’s your daily Jeopardy-style quiz: The last time you sat down to a rough-and-tumble game of Battleship. What is “Way too damn long ago?” My friend, that is correct. But a new game center in Carroll Gardens is hoping to change that. After a few months of temporary residency, the Brooklyn Strategist recently opened a set of permanent doors at 333 Court St. between Union and Sackett. Ten bucks buys you four hours of game time, in addition to a staff of gaming experts who can either be enlisted as challengers or strategy consultants. The club has 250 games including long-lost and out-of-print gems, newly favorited, and of course, classics from the bitter battles of family game nights. “You name it, we probably have it,” says the club’s owner Jon Freeman.

The game center doubles as a cafe to give players an extra buzz of entitlement, which any visit to a Financial District Starbucks will prove is necessary for IRL paper-rakin’ and monopolizin’. They serve snacks like queso and chips and veggie tapenade platters so that your belly is full but your brain stays hungry.

Sounds like some good old-fashioned fun, and a welcome alternative to a night out in trendy BoCoCa. Then again, you could put the 10 bucks toward a couple of six packs and stay in with your decks of Magic cards that may or may not be stored in an easily accessible desk drawer in your room.

What say you, good gamers of Brooklyn? Is this a fair price for getting your game on? Since — and I say this from experience — your roommates probably don’t care to see whether you can still able to beat them at Settlers of Catan, this might be a reason to take your big-talking swagger out of the house where it can pick on somebody its own size.

Follow Karina: @karinabthatsme.

4 Comments

  1. This is like Snakes and Lattes in Toronto, yet they boast more games than that, and it’s only $7 for as long as you want. But, it’s in Toronto :-/ been waiting for a place like that to open up here.

  2. I LOVE THIS PLACE. We just went there for the first time today. All the games you can play for four hours, $10. A 9-year-old’s dream, plus wifi and coffee for Mom. Plus it’s very social — the kids play pick up games of Catan, Munchkin, D&D, etc. with the other kids. The staff is very good at connecting different kids, but they don’t seem to need much of an assist. Perfect heat wave / rainy day spot.

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