I have no idea why it took me so long to get to this shop. Gather & Game is a real gamers' shop. I took my son, Nathan, and my daughter, Catherine. Nathan was more impressed with the shop than Catherine. She had been playing guitar while my wife was at an online class, which is less than optimal.
Name: Gather & Game
Location: 205 Grant St., Buffalo, New York 14213
Phone: 716-342-2823
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gatherandgame
Website: https://www.gatherandgame.com/
Gather & Game is located on Grant Street, a historic neighborhood with charm. Many of the shops have been there for decades and the game shop is no exception. The storefront is painted in vivid hues of purple and pink. From the outside, you'd have no idea that they crammed that much product into such a tiny space and left room for tables and gaming.
There is no missing this place from the street, even when surrounded by equally colorful shops.
Inside is cramped but comfortable. Shelves, displace cases, and gaming tables occupy most of the space. If you want to stroll along, you'll need to walk down Grant Street, which is always an adventure.
They have something for everyone.
Even better, the staff and owners are so knowledgeable about the wide array of products they have on hand. And it's not that salesman sort of knowledge, it's that warm and friendly passion about play and enjoyment that shines through. Even my heavy metal daughter smiled a bit when talking about products.
They are already back to hosting game nights and I can't wait to go back. If you get a chance to visit Buffalo, make time to stop at our local shops for your gaming fix.
Map:
This is fantastic.
ReplyDeleteI drifted from D&D to deafening electric guitars in 1986 because a lot of young men do that; hormones shine a bright light on the bare fact that there are no girls around dice and rulebooks, but they are drawn toward More than a Feeling or Hungry like the Wolf. You Look Wonderful Tonight - matchmadedone!
Alas.
Many years later I was driving home and spied The Games Tavern lurking among scrabbly cherry trees in Chantilly Virginia. A gaming hall in this Gather vein. It was a wonderland of games and polished wood and old books and dream-back nostalgia. Ah, to give away a point of Constitution to have a left-handed dwarf again for those dripping cavern crawls!
It was awesome. But they had no members. I tried, I tried to intimate the need to pay bills and leases while wearing my lived-in banker's suit. I offered to pay dues, as the first member, founder, alcoholic statesmen, whatever. No. They would sell miniatures and gamebooks and model paint, retail, and everything would be fine.
I sat there on nine separate occasions in August 2018, wrote a 117-page sh-ong story called Tales of Myull (an adventuring mule's perspective while in the company of a grizzled old dwarf on the broken brambled trail), butchered it down to 99 pages in editing, and sold it for $2,800 to a patron in Annapolis Maryland.
Not many months later, the Games Tavern was gone. Indeed there were bills to pay, and lead skulls don't pay rent for most of us. Maybe for Ozzy, but let's be honest, Ozzy is actually Sharon.
Congratulations to these guys on Grant Street for acknowledging that members drive these things. Memberships trade coin for haven, for good times and memories. It's the (expletive) joy business, man! I tried to pay for a membership immediately but got confused with the GoogleAppleSquare whatever the (expletive #2, same paragraph, embarrassing) pay system was and ran away like Breeyark. But I'll creep back.
Good for you, for acknowledging the costs of doing business and thriving.
-Puff'a tabac from Molly the Mule and Ancoor Icehauler, Sailhand of the Floes