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Burlingame now has a board game cafe inspired by a pika.
While Plucky the pika is fictional, the small, Guinea pig-like animal pays homage to co-owner Michelle Slaughter’s home state of Wyoming.
“Plucky is outgoing, brave (and) adventurous, even when the odds seem a little bit against (her), which is what we felt like because we’ve never done food and beverage before,” Michelle said.
Michelle and her mother Mimi Slaughter, who both have backgrounds in tech, soft-opened Plucky’s Cafe on April 27 and will host their cafe’s grand opening on Friday, June 7. The board game cafe offers about 175 games, an extensive drinks menu with coffee, tea, beer and wine, a day menu (7 a.m. to 4 p.m.) with bowls and toasts, and a dinner menu (4-9 p.m.) with flatbreads and other entrees.
“We want to make a space where people can come hang out with their friends and basically make a third place, which is somewhere where it’s not home or work where people are still comfortable to be at and want to be,” Michelle said. “We want to make sure that people are able to be comfortable in our place, and it’s a fun place to hang out, play board games, eat food and have good drinks.”
Find drinks created by barista Noryn Aladana like the Butterscotch Kraken ($7), a hot latte with butterscotch and condensed milk; the Mont Blanc Mindthief ($8), a cold brew with housemade black sugar syrup, cream froth, fresh nutmeg and orange zest; the Blue Matcha Healer ($7), an iced blue matcha latte with orange blossom and oat milk, and much more.
“We wanted to make sure people felt like they were in a board game game when they were ordering too,” Michelle said. “So a Kraken is from one of our favorite games called Sail. And then some of the other names are also from another game that we’ve played a lot called Gloomhaven, and they’re playable characters in those games.”
Michelle said she and her mom are both caffeine sensitive, so finding decaf coffee beans that tasted just as good as caffeinated beans was a high priority. The decaf beans from Soul Grind Coffee Roasters were just as good as the regular, and Plucky’s is using the Pacifica-roasted beans in all of its espresso-based drinks.
The food menu, created by chef Gabor Rill, offers items like mushroom toast with Japanese buna-shimeji mushrooms ($14), smoked kielbasa with poached egg ($17), lecsó, a Hungarian paprika stew ($15), and desserts like tiramisu ($8) and affogato ($6.50).
Game play at Plucky’s Cafe is a set rate for unlimited games, a rate that increases from $7 to $10 at 4 p.m. There are free play baskets featuring quick games at no additional charge. Guests who don’t want to play are free to dine in before 4 p.m. without a cover charge. After 4 p.m., non-playing guests can either pay the cover charge to dine in or skip the charge by ordering to-go.
For guests who want to play games but don’t know who to play with, Plucky’s Cafe set up a Discord server to connect board game lovers.
“(It’s) a way to talk and chat with people, even when they’re not in the cafe, about what games they’re playing, what games they want to be playing, and even help people find other people to play with, or if they don’t have anyone, they’ll be able to play with them too,” Michelle said.
Plucky’s Cafe plans to host game events in which individuals or groups can come and learn how to play a pre-selected game. Follow Plucky’s on Instagram or keep tabs on the website to learn about upcoming game events.
Plucky’s Cafe, 1352 Broadway, Burlingame; Instagram: @pluckys_cafe. Open Monday through Wednesday 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., Thursday through Saturday 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sunday 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.
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