The Uncommons — Restaurant in New York

Yesterday I visited the Uncommons for the first time in months. A once favorite location for our weekly gaming group, it's slipped to the bottom of our list in recent months. What happened to this incredible space? Staff is rude, the wait is ridiculous, and the amazing atmosphere of the space has been completely polluted.

When my boyfriend & I first visited the uncommons, the cordial, friendly staff set us right at home, always willing to recommend and teach a game, and sometimes even play it with us if we needed a third (or, as we expanded our group, a forth, fifth, or sixth). OK, they didn't have air conditioning & sometimes the store would be overpacked & miserably overheated. But we kept going back week after week.

Sometime in the past year, things changed. Staff turned over, and new hires stick up their nose at actually helping customers. Yesterday, after putting my name on a wait list (a move widely regarded as a waste from my friend group-- I have been on perhaps dozens of these things and have never, not once, received a call. Maybe they're hoping I'll leave?) I noticed a smattering of empty tables in the side and front rooms. They were reserved, we were told, and not kindly. Okay, sure. After some finagling (begging for an empty table they, of course, failed to call me about) we were situated. The tables in the front slowly filled, but the side room remained half-empty. Happy to have a table, but somewhat cramped for the elaborate, sprawling games we favor, we decided to play a smaller game and see if a table opened up. An hour passed. The large, empty tables beckoned invitingly. But polite inquiries were shut down by the staff. Oh and by the way, these tables remained empty until close.

This isn't a one time thing, this isn't a case of an angry manager or a bad day or a particularly flaky group reservation. This is our experience time after time after time. Forget asking for a recommendation or game instructions-- it's good enough when the staff can manage a basic interaction without a nasty response.

To the Uncommons management: what are you doing?? You have an amazing selection. You have an incredible location. You had, at one point, a terrific and knowledgeable staff. But every time I come to the store I am told in no uncertain terms that my patronage doesn't matter. Maybe it doesn't. All I know is that I have to beg and wheedle my group to get then through the door of your establishment. This is a review coming from a bewildered place of love. Please...

Incredibly disappointed in my experience here. I went with a group of friends and paid for a reservation. We asked about 3 different very common board games and they explained they only had them available to purchase. Their board game selection is approximately 70% games you can purchase and 30% available to play. Most of the games available are incredibly weathered and not updated. I was so surprised that a place that charges for a reservation to play games would have games that you have to purchase on top of your playing fee. Not really in the spirit of a board game bar to not keep your selection active and instead try to make a profit off of people expecting a wide selection of games. Any other board game bar I have been to would graciously open a game they had for sale to add to their library if it was not available for play. This would best be labeled as a board game store rather than a board game bar. There are several other better options in New York that I recommend you check out before this place until they update their selection.

EDITING Based on owner response - This is good to know that games are opened regularly. This was not offered to us but I believe it really would have turned our mood as a group around on the night. The games we requested were The Quacks of Quedlinburg, Mysterium, and an Expansion version of Catan (all games I'd never had a trouble finding at similar places). I will edit the review to reflect that maybe we just had an off night with being offered this. This place does have a very wide selection of games when you include those available for purchase so a standing policy offered to customers to open any game not in the "for play" library would be an excellent change! Thanks for the prompt response...

The Uncommon is the only game cafe of its type in Manhattan. There's plenty of board games to pick from and I haven't really had to wait on a table. That being said, there are some drawbacks.

They offer food and drink, even beer, but the choices are few and expensive. Food is frozen stuff, like hot pockets, that is just warmed in the microwave. Don't expect even street vendor quantity eats.

Being Manhattan, the venue is small and the tables aren't up to the task of containing some of the larger board games. Case in point, me and a few friends went to throw down some Twilight Imperium one Saturday. Between the four of us and the large game, we had to push together two tables to have enough space. After paying $10 a piece to play all day, we were told 2 hours later that we would either need to give up the table at 2pm for other guests or pay double. The logic behind this request was that by taking up two tables we were depriving the business of other potential customers. The argument fails to hold up though as groups of 2 were monopolizing tables that could seat 4, so the case can be made that they too should be forced to pay double to make up for the 2 potential customers who could use that table. We ended up paying double; we were already 2 hours in a highly complex game. In all I think we dropped over $150 just to game and snack from 10 am to 5 pm.

So, just for a night out with a couple is fine. Eat before you go, and just pay a few bucks to have a game date night. Serious board gamers should consider their needs and determine if their game is compatible with small tables and...