'Nerds, misfits, gamers': New bar and game store opens in Chapel Hill

The Gathering Place — where board games, beer and bards come together — celebrated its soft opening on Friday.  

Located on the second floor of 157 E. Rosemary St., the combination bar and game store is situated above Buena Vibra's Caribbean restaurant and bar.

The store is co-owned by Joshua Goodsell, who has worked as a chef for more than a decade and has been selling cards from the trading card game Magic: The Gathering for the past three years. 

Goodsell transitioned to selling trading cards full time after the restaurant where he worked closed at the start of the pandemic.

"At the end of that year, it was pretty apparent to me that it could become a full-time job,” he said.

Goodsell’s success in selling cards led him and his business partner, Don Tiver, to consider opening a brick-and-mortar store. He said there aren't many games in the Chapel Hill area, and with UNC situated close to the locale, it made sense to open a store.

"We just wanted something for the people that don't really fit into that crowd — the nerds, misfits and gamers,” Goodsell said.

Matt Gladdek, executive director of the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership, said the town needed a social game room like The Gathering Place.

"Chapel Hill definitely has a little bit of a nerdy element and loves things along those lines,” Gladdek said. "It seemed like a perfect fit."

Goodsell said one main attraction of opening a storefront is being able to sell special products that aren’t available online. For example, the creators of the card game Flesh and Blood only release first-edition boxes to physical stores.

He said the space welcomes casual and serious gamers alike.

“We had people playing Scrabble and Monopoly and stuff like that, if you want a different vibe than what the rest of the downtown Chapel Hill bars provide,” he said.

The Gathering Place has a weekly game schedule, including board game night and Magic: The Gathering tournaments on Wednesdays, Dungeons and Dragons and other tabletop roleplaying games on Thursdays and Flesh and Blood on Saturday mornings.

Mark Drewery, the president and founder of Magic: The Gathering at UNC-Chapel Hill, said The Gathering Place is a perfect location for the club to meet.

“As a club, we get to go to the store and face off,” he said. “We're playing against each other, but we're at this cool store, doing what we love.”

The club typically meets at 6 p.m. on Thursdays in Hamilton Hall but has started to host additional meetings at The Gathering Place.

The store also offers a full bar with a wide selection of locally sourced alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages on tap. Their on-tap selection includes coffee from Gray Squirrel Coffee Co. and Carrboro Coffee Roasters, kombucha from Boro Beverage and sake, wine, beer, hard seltzer and cider.

"It's an all-ages establishment," Goodsell said. "So parents can come drop their kids off for a Pokémon tournament, sit at the bar and have a drink."

Gladdek said having businesses like The Gathering Place is important in ensuring all types of people are given the space to feel at home in public.

“I think the big thing is that it's going to provide another type of space for someone that might not have found their niche in Chapel Hill before,” he said. “It doesn't really compete with anything else here, and I think that's really important.”

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