If building a unicorn army while sipping a bacon butterscotch milkshake is up your alley, you may want to check out a new board game cafe on Main Street in Newmarket.
Brothers Eddi and Felix Rayle opened Goblets & Goblins in early March at 208 Main St. S., in the former home of A Hui Hou cafe, a week before the COVID-19 pandemic sent the community into lockdown.
The public health crisis has disrupted their business model temporarily, which is to bring the community together to play their favourite games such as the brand-new Unstable Unicorns, Code Names, and Cards Against Humanity, as well as host events like open-mic and trivia nights.
“I definitely didn’t put that in my business plan when I was writing it up last year,” said Eddi. “It hurt. As a new business owner, I know in the first year you’re not really going to make a lot of money but I didn’t expect to make nothing for the first three months.”
Some relief for the brothers came in late April, when pandemic rules began to loosen and they were permitted to open a takeout window. It wasn’t long after that people began clamouring for their particular brand of street food and hand-crafted milkshakes.
“We saw a huge influx of people, more than we expected,” Eddi said, adding that they wanted to fill a niche they thought was missing on Main Street.
Patrons can grab food to eat on the go such as gobbo doggos and corn doggos (hot dogs), G&G nachos, garlic naan and dip, grilled cheese, flatbread pizzas, milkshakes, and specialty and iced coffees.
The inventive milkshake flavours have created a buzz in the downtown, especially the bacon butterscotch.
“I had a bacon milkshake at a fair in Owen Sound and I thought it was ridiculous, but I had to try it and it was actually really tasty,” said Eddi. “I spent a long time trying to recreate it, it’s just sweet and salty, it’s a great combo.”
The Rayle brothers candy their own bacon with brown sugar in-house, then blend the ice cream up with caramel and top it off with butterscotch and a full strip of candied bacon.
As public health restrictions further ease with the reopening of much of the economy, patrons are welcome to come back inside with safety protocols in place.
“Our business model is to get people in and together and get the community playing together, but we can’t really do that right now because a lot of our games involve playing with people you don’t know,” said Eddi. “So we’ve limited it to people coming in with their own friend group or social circle so there’s no intermingling people.”
The new business is sponsored by toy and board game company Hasbro and role-playing game company Wizards of the Coast.
The Main Street shop features hundreds of table-top games patrons can play for a $7 per person fee, including collectible card game Magic: The Gathering, fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, and other upscale Hasbro games.
Eddi, himself, has been playing such games since he was in elementary school and has been collecting Pokemon and Magic cards for as long. The idea to marry playing games in a public space with food and drink came to him in college.
“In my first year of college, shops started popping up where you go in and play, but they were all in Toronto and they didn’t offer food and drink,” said Eddi.
The brothers are feeling optimistic about the future and have applied for a liquor licence. Business is picking up, especially on weekends, and friends, along with their mom, have been volunteering to help out.
As soon as the pandemic subsides, the Rayle brothers will get back to what they say is the most important aspect of their business, which is to host in-store events that bring the community together.
“We want it to be a lot of fun, especially for kids,” Eddi said.
Goblets & Goblins is at 208 Main St. S. The shop also sells merchandise such as board games, cards, dice, and collectibles including Pokemon, Magic: The Gathering, and Dungeons & Dragons.
For more information, visit them on Facebook or at the website.
