Ottawa’s first board game themed bistro took off as it opened its doors last month. Fans came out en masse to support the opening of the long awaited restaurant.
The aptly named café, Monopolatte, officially opened for business on June 18, and has since seen success after less than a month.
“The opening night was packed. We were working non-stop,” said owner David Narbaitz. “We hadn’t even really begun advertising at that point.”
“People hear about it, and they’ve been excited about it for a while,” said employee Bruce Narbaitz, David’s brother.
The café began as an idea from David in 2011 after working for the Canadian Intellectual Property Office. According to David, the idea began as an attempt to create an open and welcome space for people to play board games.
“What’s wrong with some of the other spaces out there are that they’re dingy, poorly lit, and generally in the basement of comic book shops that weren’t very welcoming to newcomers,” David said.
According to Bruce, David later added in the idea of a café after receiving suggestions from the community, as well as from family and friends. He also became further inspired after paying a visit to one of Canada’s first board game restaurants in Toronto, Snakes and Lattes.
“Dave came down to see what it was like,” Ben Castami, the owner of the Toronto based bistro, said. “He didn’t come in and attempt to spy on us, but asked me for advice.”
Monopolatte faced numerous construction and bureaucratic delays that pushed the café’s opening back by nearly a year, according to David.
“The major issue was that the building was listed as a commercial unit by the landlord, but was later found to be a residential unit when the city came to inspect it,” David said. “This delayed the opening by seven or eight months, mainly because of fire and safety renovations that needed to be made.”
Even though the restaurant opened successfully, it still faces several challenges. According to David, the café is almost empty during the morning and early afternoon. Bruce added that another problem is knowing exactly how much food to prepare.
But fans of David and his bistro continue to give their support and spread the word about the café.
“I’ve been waiting for a place like this to open for a while now,” said Ari Black, a game teacher and customer. “I’d been hearing rumours about Monopolatte for the past seven or eight months from my gaming group, and so when it did, I decided to hand in my resume and see where it would take me.”
And the response has been overwhelmingly positive, according to David and Bruce. On a typical evening, the café can expect to be packed. But for David, the real success comes from the interactions between the gamers themselves.
“Whenever you get two or more groups of people that come separately, and then join each other over a board game, and then leave as friends, then that’s the greatest success that we could hope for.”
