Snakes & Lattes is a board game cafe chain headquartered in Toronto, Canada, with three Toronto venues located at 600 Bloor Street West, 489 College Street, and 45 Eglinton Avenue East. The first American Snakes & Lattes opened in 2018 in Tempe, AZ. Other locations are being developed and should be opening starting in 2019. Guests pay a small cover charge to play board games for as long as they like, choosing from the cafe's collection of 1,000 - 3,000 games, depending on location. There was no wi-fi available at the original cafe when it first opened as the focus is on playing games and socialising with friends, however, public wi-fi was installed in all locations to accommodate those who wished to use their computers and specifically the morning business and student crowd. The cafes serve food and beverage items, including numerous local draft beers.
History
Snakes & Lattes was opened on August 30, 2010 by Ben Castanie and Aurelia Peynet, at what later became known as Snakes & Lattes' Annex location. The couple had moved to Toronto from France four years earlier, and came up with the idea for Snakes & Lattes, which they named after Snakes and Ladders, from a visit to a Chicago area game store in 2008. Over the next two years, they slowly built up their sizable game collection to prepare for the 2010 opening. As the cafe gained popularity it quickly outgrew its seating capacity. In 2011, the adjacent property was purchased and the wall between the two properties was demolished, adding roughly 2,000 square feet to the existing café and increasing capacity from 45 to 150 seats. With 7,500 square feet of space, Snakes & Lattes was, according to its managers, the biggest board game café in the world in January 2016. In January 2014, a second location was opened, a board game bar called Snakes & Lagers. Also in 2014, Snakes & Lattes became a sponsor of the Toronto International Film Festival, offering a board game concierge for interested visitors. In July 2015, The Globe and Mail reported that a sitcom, Snakes and Lattes: The Show, would air starting in September as a fictionalized account of the cafe's early years. In September 2015, Snakes & Lagers closed, but immediately reopened in a larger space across the street under the name Snakes & Lattes College in the space that was formerly occupied by the Andy Poolhall bar. The new location features space for 240 guests, a collection of more than 1,000 games, and a combination of the Lattes and Lagers concepts, offering beer, wine, and assorted coffee based beverages. In December 2017, Snakes & Lattes opened the corporate flagship location in Midtown at 45 Eglinton Ave East, Toronto, Canada The latest Toronto location covers 10,000 square feet and three floors. However, it is not the latest one to be opened overall. Snakes & Lattes expanded their operation to the United States in 2018. In May 2018, construction began at the first location in the United States in Tempe, AZ. "Snakes & Lattes Tempe" opened in October 2018, and is located at 20 W. Sixth Street in the popular Mill Avenue District. Snakes & Lattes is a wholly owned subsidiary of Amfil Technologies, Inc, a publicly traded company using the symbol FUNN.
Publishing division
In July 2017, Snakes & Lattes announced the formation of its own board game publishing division. And one month later, Snakes & Lattes officially received its first publishing contract, which includes exclusive distribution rights as well as a $200,000 signing bonus. Snakes & Lattes has retained the services of distinguished graphic designer Daniel Bieber to work with the Snakes & Lattes publishing division's design team. The first in-house published title by Snakes & Lattes is due out in 2018. On May 29, 2018, Amfil Technologies, Inc. acquired French board game publisher and distributor in an all cash deal worth $150,000 EUR. ‘Morning’ will continue to be run by a group of six experienced professionals within the industry from France as Snakes & Lattes Publishing SAS. This acquisition immediately gives Snakes & Lattes ownership of five games that are on the market or currently being developed.
Games
Snakes and Lattes Annex location began in 2010 with approximately 1,200 games, and its collection, under the guidance of a game curator, had grown to about 3,000 games by 2015, all of which are available to the public to be played for as long as desired for a small cover charge. The cafés sell a wide variety of games, at both locations and through an online store. Trained 'game gurus', some with teaching backgrounds, are on hand to help newcomers learn games they are unfamiliar with. Snakes and Lattes features a monthly Game Designers Night, where game designers offer prototypes to be tested by the public, as well as regularly hosting tutorials and tournaments.
Global influence
Snakes and Lattes has been cited as the inspiration for the opening of many other board game cafes around the world, such as Victory Point Café in Berkeley, Draughts in London, Thirsty Meeples in Oxford, the Tabletop Board Game Café in Cleveland, Loot & XP in Oklahoma, The Castle, near Boston, Boxcar Board Game Café in Calgary, Chance & Counters in Bristol, Small Print on Prince Edward's Island, and Bonus Round Games in Chicago. Its business model has also been a model for many of these board game cafes opening worldwide. Snakes and Lattes also pioneered the proliferation of board game cafés in Toronto, which has more than 20 such businesses operating across the city..
