A new bar just across the river wants you to roll for initiative.
Dice on Draft opened Friday in Covington, and it features over 200 board games to play alongside a full-service cocktail bar.
Owner McKenzie Crist decided to open the space out of her own love for tabletop games and the lack of a space to play them in the area; Cincinnati’s most prominent board game bar, The Rook, closed just before COVID.
“[There’s] kind of a gap in the community for something like this,” Crist said. “There’s been board game bars in the past, and some of those still exist, but we wanted to open here in Covington to… offer something just over the river for everyone.”
The bar sports over 200 different board games and tabletop games—100 of which are from Crist’s personal collection. Classics like Scrabble, Pictionary and Battleship sit alongside modern favorites like Settlers of Catan, Wingspan, and SmashUp in the bar’s main area.
A private room available to rent offers space for tabletop campaigns, with several rulebooks and guides for Dungeons & Dragons displayed. In addition, more complex games like Gloomhaven and Twilight Imperium are available for play in the room. Starting in March, the bar will run smaller D&D campaigns (referred to as “one-shots”) every other Thursday for patrons to participate in.
The most prominent feature in the bar (other than the shelves packed full of board games, of course) is an arcade machine for Killer Queen, the popular 5v5 strategy-sports-platformer hybrid that’s become a mainstay of arcades everywhere since it released in 2013. While Crist doesn’t plan to feature any other arcade games at the bar, the sense of community-building that the game brings in was too good to pass up.
“We played it at Arcade Legacy in Sharonville and just found it really easy to play,” Crist said. “We loved the 10 person aspect. It’s really social, it encourages people to meet up together and play.”
The game already has a passionate following in the Cincinnati area, and the bar will host ‘Learn to Play’ events where Killer Queen veterans will show newcomers some tips and tricks.
While there’s no kitchen at Dice on Draft, there are plenty of drinks to go around. An extensive menu features cocktails named after some of Crist’s favorite games—like the ‘Don’t Explode,’ a cherry-tinged take on a caipirinha named for Quacks of Quedlinberg, or the ‘Mars Reviver,’ which is inspired by Terraforming Mars and features gin, amaro nonino, and cointreau. There are six beers on tap, too; classics like PBR and Rhinegeist Truth sit alongside seasonal beers from local breweries.
For Crist, opening a bar centered on board games was a no-brainer thanks to how they provide “so many options” to enhance social situations.
“There’s lightweight games that are easier to chat with friends over, there’s more competitive games that really expand your imagination. I love party games where you ask your friends questions and learn more about them. I just think board games have so much potential, and they really enhance social situations in many ways,” she said.
The game she’s most excited for guests to play is Mysterium, a social deduction game where one player is a ghost and the other players must work together to find out who killed them and how they did it before time expires.
The hope is that Dice on Draft will provide a space for Cincinnati’s tabletop community to enjoy what they love.
“Our goal is just to be a safe, cool, easy place for people to hang out at. A place for people to experience new games and meet new people,” Crist said. “We’re really just excited to welcome everyone. A place like this… has been a long time coming.”
Dice on Draft is located at 20 E 5th Street in Covington, near Madison Avenue. You can learn more on their website.