“I love to cook, I love to bake, I love games, and I love the family-oriented feel.”
Owner of Main Street’s Bored Game Café, Priscilla Brownfield, got her home-based processing license in 2018 and started baking cupcakes, cheesecakes, and loaves of bread in her home. That spawned a desire to open her own bakery or restaurant.
She spent two years looking for the perfect location to open her café, knowing it had to be in Alexandria, where she was born and raised. While looking for a place, she had a display in Serendipity on Main Street in Alexandria, which allowed her to build clientele and money before opening her own shop.
“This area is in such high demand, it was hard, so when this place finally opened up for rent, I called the next day,” Brownfield said. “It was like a ‘that’s it’ type of thing.”
Brownfield also researched other board game cafes and found nothing else quite like her idea in the area.
Though Main Street’s Bored Game Café opened last August, the ribbon-cutting event for the location is being held Saturday, May 27. Brownfield said she wanted a soft opening and took the last few months to get into the groove of things before fully advertising her location.
Brownfield’s coffee and food items are all inspired by the board games at the café. She said she’s constantly experimenting at home with new recipes.
“When I have an idea, I write it down and come and look at all the board games and think, which board game fits with this one?” Brownfield said.
The café also has soups, salads, and sandwiches and, beginning June 5, will offer grill-outs every Friday and Saturday through the summer. She also plans to host shrimp and crawfish boils in June and July.
Brownfield also still bakes and carries desserts that vary weekly. She said she likes to follow the national calendar days and have desserts to match—like baking banana bread on National Banana Day. She also has cheesecake cups from her filling that she would make back in 2018 as a home baker.
Brownfield said her favorite part about running Main Street’s Bored Game Café is the families and regulars that stop by. Though she gets a lot of customers from Alexandria, Brownfield said she always asks people where they’re from and has gotten anything from Florida, to they came from an hour away to visit.
Looking to the future, Brownfield said her landlord is looking to sell her building, and she hopes to buy it. She said she would like to knock down a wall and implement a bar that sells local beer and wine if she buys the building.
“Everything around here is either locally made or bought,” Brownfield said. “My goal is to have somewhere for people to come and sit and have a few drinks and play games with each other. And then this side (café) is more family oriented.”
Main Street’s Bored Game Café, 8329 East Main St., Alexandria, ribbon cutting event will be held Saturday, May 27 at 1 p.m.