Café Boardgame brings games, food and a whole community together under one roof
Café Boardgame is a board game café in Kamppi, Helsinki. Along with the game shelves there’s a kitchen, a podcast studio, an arcade karaoke room and a calendar full of role-playing and game nights. Petri, one of the owners, says it all starts from games culture, and the food and drinks are built around that.
Location
Eerikinkatu 14, 00100 Helsinki
Website
Known for
Board games, role-playing nights and a community on Discord
Bought off a Facebook post
It began when Petri, now one of the owners, was looking for a place for his tabletop role-playing association to meet, and a small board game café downstairs went up for sale on Facebook. He and two co-founders took it over with big plans.
They redid the interior and kept it a little rough around the edges on purpose. Nice, not shabby, with the games at the heart of it.
I love doing this so much that it shows. I couldn’t run a business I didn’t love.
Upstairs, one room at a time
Before long people were knocking on the door and looking in through the windows, and the staff kept having to tell them the place was full. So when the restaurant upstairs moved out, Café Boardgame moved in, a bit at a time. The jungle room on the second floor came first, then the kitchen, and in the end the whole building.
A calendar out of Petri’s head
Most of the calendar comes straight from Petri, who has played role-playing games since 1989. He runs the beginner D&D groups and Call of Cthulhu sessions himself. In August 2026 a Shadowrun group was about to start, and Blood on the Clocktower is on pretty much all the time.
Cafe Con takes place at the start of the month, eight months a year, with a break over the summer and in January. The café has also hosted an international event where board game designers turned an idea into a game in 45 minutes and tested it on the spot, and there’s an indie shelf where designers can sell their own games without paying for the space. The idea is to give game makers somewhere to meet, since so many of them in Finland work alone.
- Beginner D&D and Call of Cthulhu groups
- Cafe Con at the start of the month and regular Blood on the Clocktower nights
- An indie shelf where designers sell their own games
Built around the people who play
The games bring people in, and the community keeps them coming back. A lot of it lives on the café’s Discord, which Petri calls the building block of the whole thing.
Young people are a big part of that. Every other month Avatar ry brings a room full of kids in to play role-playing games. The café has also made a point of reaching young people with immigrant backgrounds, who don’t always feel a place like this is for them. It has worked with student organizations, set up English-language groups on Discord and recruited game masters to run them. It’s still a work in progress, Petri says, but it’s starting to pay off.
Petri has thought a lot about how communities work. Getting one started is the easy part. As it grows, smaller groups form inside it, each with their own ideas, and the café’s approach is to back those groups rather than fight them. That’s how beginners, Blood on the Clocktower regulars, kids’ role-playing groups and indie designers all end up under the same roof.
The community is exactly what it’s all about.
- A Discord that keeps the community connected between game nights
- Kids’ role-playing with Avatar ry every other month
- English-language groups with their own game masters
Pizza, beer and Noppamokka
The first menu was nachos and toasties. When the café expanded it moved to pizza, which is simple to make and easy to staff, and brought in an Italian chef to make it properly. The kitchen has grown since, and today’s chef cooks a full lunch menu. Petri named the pizzas himself, and every name is a nerdy reference to something he loves.
The coffee has been there from day one. The café designed its house blend, Noppamokka, and the roast together with Kahvi Charlotta Roastery, also known as Rekolan Paahtimo. The café’s own collab beers come from Salama, with art by Damjan Gjorgievski.
First-timers are best off starting with something quick that needs no thinking at all, then moving on to a proper board game that isn’t too technical. Handing someone a rulebook on their first visit is a good way to lose them.
More than games
The podcast studio is open to outside productions, and there’s room for more. The café would rather make shows together with people than just rent out the room, and Petri enjoys directing. There’s also an arcade karaoke room.
Café Boardgame has its own YouTube channel too, with a let’s play series that has grown to dozens of videos, and its Instagram is full of game unboxings.
Café Boardgame also runs role-playing events for companies, priced to fit an ordinary team budget.
- Role-playing events for companies, priced for an ordinary team budget
- A podcast studio for outside productions, with Petri keen to co-produce
- An arcade karaoke room and let’s plays on YouTube
Working with Fiest
Café Boardgame was using Fiest before it was even called Fiest. Petri was around while the founders were working out what to build, and shared ideas along the way.
What matters most to him is that the Fiest team listens and then follows through. Fiest also looks modern, you don’t need to be an engineer to use it, and the customer support gets full marks.
They listen. They take things on board and actually get them over the finish line.
- On Fiest since before it was called Fiest
- Ideas from the café picked up and seen through with the Fiest team
- Customer support Petri gives full marks
In Kamppi
A closer look at the room, counter, and details behind the story.
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