Hexagon Board Game Cafe

When they first met in the University of Manitoba’s undergrad architecture program, Hexagon Board Game Cafe owners Kellie Ho and Randy Wong were set on pursuing careers in the design industry. The couple graduated at the height of the economic downturn and settled in Calgary but struggled to find employment after graduation. So they packed up and moved abroad to teach. “We lived and taught in Korea overseas for some time and these board game cafe concepts were really popular back then,” Kellie says. “We experienced these cafe concepts and thought, ‘This is amazing! It would be such a great concept to bring back home.'”

The couple eventually returned to Calgary and found jobs in the design field, but they still kept the idea of opening their own cafe on the backburner. “It was still kind of a pipe dream idea until eventually we were like ‘Okay! Maybe let’s go for it,'” Kellie says. The initial plan was to open up in Calgary, but the city proved to be a tough market for start-up businesses. So Randy and Kellie instead opened the first Hexagon Board Game Cafe location on Edmonton’s Whyte Avenue in 2014. A year and a half later, they were finally able to open up their second location in the heart of Calgary’s Kensington community.

Board game cafes offer all the regular trappings of a traditional cafe, along with a library of board games for customers to play during their stay. It’s a playful twist on the cafe concept that forces people to engage with one another. “I think board games are a good way to interact with people and that’s why it’s making a comeback,” Kellie says. “Lots of people think board games are played in the living room or basement. But then they come into a space like this where it’s very open and welcoming.”