Derek Laplume at The Pint and Pawn. photo/Tom Major
I’ll confess I was apprehensive when my editor asked me to consider writing about The Pint and Pawn, a tabletop-game bar in Biddeford beside the Saco Falls. I’ve been trying to pass myself off as a sportswriter for almost a year. I wasn’t eager to go off topic yet. And what’s so special about a game bar, anyway? Don’t most bars have a few games lying around?
Derek Laplume, who opened The Pint and Pawn last March, acknowledged that point. “Every bar, every brewery, has a little table with some games on it, but they’re not the place you go to play games. If they’re having game night, that’s one thing, but we are the game night.”
His pub’s library has hundreds of games, but most aren’t played. “What you have to understand about the library is that thirty percent of it is going to see play,” Laplume explained. “The other seventy percent is for the wow factor. You want people to walk in and say, ‘I could never build this kind of collection at home.’”
I was glad to hear the thirty-percent figure. My initial hesitation — let’s be honest, my bias — was rooted in stereotypes about dudes playing Dungeons & Dragons, Warhammer and Magic: The Gathering. Elves and trolls don’t show up in legit sports columns, right? Those games are popular, but so are Guess Who?, Scattergories and Settlers of Catan.
Laplume was candid about trying to break the gamer stereotype. “Game stores come with classic tropes: unclean bathrooms, a certain odor about the place, a very male-centric environment. It’s not intentional. It’s just that the hobby has been male-centric for a long time.”
He was quick to point out some laudable exceptions. Phyrexian Life Games, in Scarborough, is one of several (hygienic) local stores with well-rounded communities of gamers. Before opening his pub, Laplume talked with Phyrexian Life owner Eric Morin about breaking that stereotype.
Moreover, game bars are different from game stores. Laplume isn’t selling games; he’s creating a space for folks to come together and socialize, selling food and drinks to keep the lights on. The business model is unusual, but growing. As he was developing The Pint and Pawn, he attended PAX Unplugged, an annual tabletop gaming convention in Philadelphia. At the time, there were only four game bars represented. The closest one to Biddeford is Boards & Brews, in Manchester, N.H. Portland Food Map recently reported that Another Round, a 36-seat game cafe on Congress Street in Portland, will open by this summer.
The basic idea is that of a third space (not home, not work) where people can meet to play whatever game appeals to them that night. Library dues are $5 per hour, or $20 per month. For $200 per year, members can bring a friend, get 10 percent off food and drinks, and attend quarterly members-only events. The food and drinks are an important element of the appeal.
“I like going to a Warhammer tournament,” Laplume told me. “But it’s a little bit better when I can go to a tournament and have a beer, or I don’t have to go down the street to get lunch.” Although The Pint and Pawn lacks a kitchen, Laplume stocks prepared food from local catering companies.
Supporting other local businesses is important to Laplume. He says he has great synergy with Mantis Gaming Studios, in the nearby Pepperell Mill Campus, which doesn’t host events. The pub’s beer list includes offerings from Biddeford breweries Banded, Lucky Pigeon and Sacred Profane. The coffee is from Elements, a bookstore and café downtown. Local artists display their paintings on the pub’s walls.
The bar’s motto is Community Through Play. I’m generally dismissive of slogans, but this one has a sincere mission behind it. On the first and third Wednesdays of the month, the pub hosts Better Biddeford, a community salon addressing civic issues. Thirty-two people, including municipal leaders, business owners and concerned citizens, recently turned out to discuss homelessness.
As he works toward breaking even, Laplume needs some of those folks to return another night with their friends for chess, cribbage, Connect Four, or any of the hundreds of other games. I know this sportswriter will be back.
Send Tom Major your ideas for future columns that don’t involve elves or trolls at leagueofbollards@gmail.com.
