The Rook & Pawn — Restaurant in Athens-Clarke County Unified Government

This is my detailed experience from start to finish for anyone curious/anxious about visiting a new restaurant. Went here for the first time last night with my bf and some friends. It was my birthday and since it fell on a Monday I wanted to do something cute and casual, but still unique. Immediately as you walk in there is the bar to your right and a huge wall of games reminiscent of an old library to your left. It is $7 a person to have full access to the game wall, which is essentially a 10x15 foot shelved wall FILLED with every. single. game imaginable. You have access to this wall ALL DAY! You can even leave and come back in the same day and still have access. They operate as a counter service so you order everything at the counter/bar when you first walk in. You can pay as you go, but my friends and I all just opened up a tab (by leaving our card with the cashier) and ordered as we went and payed at the end. The food was well priced, mostly sandwiches (~$10-$15) and their signature drinks are around the same price range. So yea, not the cheapest drinks BUT! they aren’t skimping on the alc. TRUST AND BELIEVE the drinks were worth their price. I only had two and left with a nice buzz still (I wasn’t driving us home lol). They also had other finger food appetizers, like a charcuterie board that sounded delicious. The dining area is just a super long hallway, with 2 to 4 person tables lining either side and a bathroom at the end of your left. There’s also still other seating options like the bar and some padded arm chairs both in the front and back of the restaurant. Over all, a 10/10 birthday experience, and I would do...

First time visiting and probably my last. Just a rude experience that sours my fist time being here with friends. Was playing telestrations and needed another marker for the game due to more than half we had grabbed not working. I go up to the counter and grabbed a marker as there are cups with TONS OF THEM UP THERE and the girl behind the counter was probably the most rude experience I've had in 5 or more years. She was so mad that I at a shop with board games was looking through the cups of markers on the counter. She said in a very rude way next time don't be up here grabbing stuff ask! Do not be grabbing stuff." My god I'm sorry it was my first time here with friends and had no idea what the unspoken rules were at this place. You'd have thought I'd been behind the counter making my own drink the way she treated me. I also mentioned this to my friend group and another girl also mentioned she was rude to her as well. So it was just not me that got rude service. Overall after this interaction with staff this place is soured and I'll bring board games to McDonald's before I set foot back in here. Go play somewhere else unless you like being treated like trash by staff by all means come here. Seems like a cool place but I don't appreciate RUDE STAFF, when I'm just looking for a marker. If a manager or owner wants to call me and hear more by all means let me know, but yeah not someone I'd want behind my counter at...

A great experience by day, an awful experience by night.

My wife and I arrived around noon, and got coffee and charcuterie. The coffee was great, and the charcuterie was good, if slightly pricey - the warm pita really put it over the top to make it enjoyable.

We stuck around for a few hours and played several games from the shop's vast collection.

When we left for dinner and returned around 7, things went downhill. I don't mind the staff enjoying some metal - you do you, rock out, man. But they cranked the volume on some particularly-aggressive screamo louder and louder until we couldn't hear each other anymore, and I left with a migraine. This, paired with passive-aggressive interactions from the lady working the night shift (who had earlier boasted of her own brand of revenge on customers by intentionally messing with their orders, and who was the one with the volume knob) made for an awful experience.

If we had not had such a good experience earlier that day, this would be a 1-star review, and we'd warn friends away. If we hadn't had the literally-painful experience tonight, this would be a 5-star review, and we'd recommend the place wholeheartedly.

Instead, it was, perhaps aptly, a dice roll, with the "you lose" outcome being so bad as not to make it...