What a Great Time!
When we arrived the place was packed. It literally was standing room only with every table and booth packed to the gills. I immediately knew I was in a gamer crowd just by a simple look around. Steampunk goggles, black trench coats, crazy hats, you name the stereotype and it was there.
We hovered around the end of a table talking with one of our party who had arrived early and secured enough table space for most but not all of us. The table was a bit wonky and could not be leaned on and was quickly dubbed Grimtooth's Table due to its trap-like nature. This was no huge deal as one of my buddy's and I spotted a gal from a store we both used to hang out at and went over for a hug and a chat. We eventually found a table of our own after chatting with another friend who showed up and his charming table mates.
I'll spare any further play by play but the night was entertaining. The place was a gamer's dream hangout. There were at least three or four D&D games going on that I saw. Stratego, Ravenloft, Magic the Gathering and others were also in action. The table next to us was running a game of ICONs and at one time came to our table seeking advise on what to name their super team.
We ordered up a pitcher of beer and pulled out Lunch Money and settled in nicely. Shooting the bull with the folk around us and catching up with a recent addition to the group who had just come back into our lives after an extended exile to some far-off part of the state. It was so great to be able to hang out in a place with a ton of other gamers again.
This was a slightly different experience than an FLGS or convention. People were out to socialize and hangout and if they got a game in, all the better. You ran into old friends, got news (good and bad) on others that you may not have seen in ages. We made new friends, even if their names escape us this morning.
As far as the service and food goes, it was clear that AFK was caught a bit off guard by the success of its opening night. They ran out of everything from food (kitchen stopped taking orders at 9PM) to beer pitchers. The latter was to our advantage as they had to run out quickly and get more pitchers and our third ended up being substantially larger than the first two. Our beloved pitcher had leveled up. We made sure to get the email address for the owner as we had a few suggestions for the menu concerning possible changes and additions. In true form, our group was already making house rules before we'd barely got the game out of the box, so to speak.
All in all, a good time was had by all! I don't think it will be as packed all the time and regular business should leave a bit more table space. I wasn't able to get many pictures and the ones I did were dark and grainy camera phone snaps.
-Eli
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