The Rolling Meeple Serves Fun & Food on the Go
Village Meeple is expanding! We are adding a food trailer, THE ROLLING MEEPLE, to our board game cafe experience. We started with just snacks – chips, candy, popcorn. And now we are moving into hot, tasty meals, and, most importantly, COFFEE! That’s right! You made enough sad faces and dropped enough groans, and we listened! We will finally have hot beverages, just in time for the chilly season.
Obviously, we are very excited about this and what it means to our small business. But we wanted to take a moment to tell you WHY we are taking this leap. It really comes down to two reasons.
REASON #1 – “CAFE”
We are proudly a board game cafe! And while we like to think we do a great job with the “board game” part, the “cafe” part for us has been in the loosest of terms. We have snacks and concession stand vibes. That’s not exactly living up to what the name evokes.
We have customers all the time who have to leave to get food. That interrupts their night, their gaming, and their focus. The wasted time of having to leave your game to go feed your fleshy meat suit is just so sad and inefficient.
We want to keep your gaming time – whether with friends, on a date, or solo time – as full of uninterrupted fun and possibility as we can.
So, we knew we wanted to add actual food to our offerings. If you’ve been to Village Meeple, you know that it is homey, unique, and … snug. We are full to the brim in the shop, the game library, and the seating. Not only that, but Village Meeple’s kitchen is a tiny breakroom, not big enough to make much other than ramen in a microwave. As much as we are all secretly 13 and are happy as a clam to throw down microwave ramen, we can do better! Say it with me! “WE CAN DO BETTER!”
To become a licensed place to make and hand you food to eat, the space also needed renovations. Our best (and really only) option was to repurpose the VIP room, opening up the wall that separates it from the kitchen and back room. So we would lose the small, private room as a seating option. We also needed to add health department code essentials (triple compartment sinks, mop sinks, etc). We decided, as much as we like our landlords, it wasn’t in our best interest personally to drop a bunch of money to Playdoh smash this space into something useable when we don’t own it.
REASON #2 – REACH
As previously mentioned, it’s a snug lady at Village Meeple. So the thought of losing space for any reason is sad. Not only that, but one of my goals for Village Meeple has always been to grow it to other places. The long-term plan is another location in another town.
But if we get a food trailer, it really solves two problems at once.
We can have food without losing our current space.
We can take this act on the road.
Village Meeple is a community and a vibe and an experience. Confining it to only the walls in The Galleria seems like a waste. While we hope to one day open another Village Meeple in another town, purchasing a trailer seems like an excellent bridge to that plan.
We are looking at festivals, conventions, weddings, reunions, corporate get-togethers, and more. This food trailer will not only serve tasty eats, but we will bring curated piles of awesome board games to make your event even better.
As we progress through this process, we are dragging you with us, making you look at pictures of our trailer just like they were pictures of puppies (we have those too). We also ask for your help with this adventure! We are crowdfunding to help make this dream a reality. We are trading you some truly unique perks for some of your sweet dollars! Check it out at https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-rolling-meeple-a-village-meeple-food-trailer/x/38717807#/.
We can’t wait to partner with you and see what is next for this community!
