Type Private Key people Greg May (CEO) | Founded 2013 Website The Uncommons | |
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Industry Entertainment/Restaurant Headquarters New York, New York, U.S. | ||
The Uncommons is a board game cafe in New York City, New York, USA located at 230 Thompson Street (Manhattan) in Greenwich Village.
Visitors pay a cover charge of $5-$10 to stay and play games as long as they like, or can participate in any of the regular tournaments, including several a week for Magic: The Gathering. Free wi-fi, coffee, and a beer and wine menu are available along with pastries, snacks, and other light fare. The location now features over 750 games in their library, and during weekends, "lines can snake out the door".
History
Opened in 2013 by founders Greg May, Jeff Cassin, and Henry Chang, The Uncommons occupies the space of the former Village Chess Shop. Funded in part by a successful Kickstarter campaign, The Uncommons is Manhattan's only board game cafe as of 2015 and has been featured on television shows, including NickMom's, Take Me to Your Mother.
In an interview of Laura Marling, John Seabrook, for the The New Yorker, writes, "...the Uncommons is the kind of laid-back, N.Y.U.-student-heavy place where you’d expect to hear a song by the twenty-five-year-old British singer-songwriter, a folkie who, with her new album, "Short Movie", has turned her hand to rock. But it was unusual to have Laura Marling walk into the café a few minutes later." Marling adds, "I do think that board games are a great way of gauging someone’s personality,.."