Celebrate our birthday with us, looking back and looking ahead with the people who made it all happen
If you’ve been following our socials, or browsing the leaflets at your local site, or just been in our general vicinity, then you may be aware that Chance & Counters is hosting its 10th Birthday this May!
If C&C were a real-life human, it would now be allowed to get its ears pierced. How about that?
To celebrate this milestone, while we gear up for some big birthday festivities, I asked some questions to the people who have been here the whole time, running (and creating) the show, about how C&C went from a few friends’ passion project to a multi-site success.
Let’s have a look back from the start at the best moments and biggest challenges at Chance & Counters, and what we all have to look forward to next!
Skip ahead:
How did it all start?
Steve (Co-Founder): Luke and I grew up together in the Cotswolds, and playing board games was one of our favourite ways to hang out.
Luke (Co-Founder): There were a couple of places here and abroad that called themselves board game cafés, and the idea struck us as excellent! We loved board games, but were fed up with having nowhere decent to play them outside of the home. Pubs didn’t really work, hobby stores often felt unwelcoming, and we wanted somewhere that took gaming seriously but felt as warm as a great independent café/bar.
Steve: We ended up living together for a while in Birmingham, which is when the idea to open a really good board game café came about. We started thinking about what our kind of venue would look like, and it got really exciting, really quickly.
Luke: Then Richard (whom I genuinely met through a Reddit thread) also came on board.
Richard (Co-Founder): I stumbled into this after connecting with Luke via a questionnaire I had posted to Reddit for my dissertation. We chatted about their business idea, and 6 weeks later I moved to Bristol to start Chance & Counters with Luke and Steve.
I’ve tended to be the more logistical, finance-oriented person in the group, helping to take Luke and Steve’s early visions for C&C and steer them toward a functional business. We made plenty of mistakes regardless, but we’re still here so… success?!
Luke: Bristol felt like the right place to start. We found a former sandwich bar at the foot of Bristol’s Christmas Steps, ran a Kickstarter that blew us away, maxed out on loans, and opened doors on the 20th of May, 2016.
Luke: The three of us ran it ourselves on less than minimum wage for months. It was brutal.
Steve: In the early days, we were all doing everything, really, (and none of it too well). One day, we’d be learning how to use a terrifying commercial meat slicer (look ma, still got all my fingers!). Next, we’d be figuring out what needed to go on an employment contract. It was so chaotic.
It probably wasn’t until 6 months in that we really felt like we knew what we were doing!
Richard: A big part of why we opened was to share our love of board games and the great sense of community that this niche has. I also really wanted to buy board games as a business expense and play loads of them.
At the start, we’d finish closing the cafe about midnight and then start learning games like Terra Mystica. Those were epic nights.
What are you proudest of at Chance & Counters?
Luke: Not a press hit or a launch, but the people. Rhys started as an assistant manager in Birmingham and is now Operations Manager. Kit joined as a front-of-house part-timer and is now Head of Marketing. C&C has always been carried forward by people who properly care about it.
Kit (Head of Marketing): I started here as a Saturday job in that classic mid-20s ‘what am I doing with my life?’ phase.
Back then, we were still a much smaller business, so everyone mucked in with everything. I’ve done a bit of everything over the years: hosting games, making milkshakes, designing posters at 1 am. One of the things that really hooked me early on was how different C&C felt from anywhere else I’d worked. It genuinely felt welcoming and community-driven in a way that wasn’t forced.
Seeing regular groups meet, friendships blossom in our space, is probably the thing I’m proudest of. Some of my best friends now are people I met through working here, which says a lot about the kind of community that’s grown around Chance & Counters.
Richard: There are lots of proud moments, but going to the wedding of friends who had their first date at C&C was a highlight.
What has been the biggest challenge?
Luke: Covid, easily. We’d just opened Cardiff and Birmingham sites, so when the pandemic hit in early 2020, we were stretched paper-thin. We had to close Cardiff to save the rest of the business, as it genuinely could have finished us. What saved it was Rhys, who agreed to take Cardiff on himself, relocated, and turned it into one of our strongest sites once restrictions were lifted.
Rhys (Operations Manager): I started working with Chance & Counters back in November 2019 as a Bar Manager for the Birmingham café. Unfortunately, March 2020 rolled around far too quickly (and we all know how that ended).
During the lockdowns, I took on a more senior position in the C&C team and moved to ‘sunny’ Wales to lead the Cardiff site into reopening post-Covid.
Honestly, my proudest moment here has to be getting to that first day of reopening the Cardiff site. Everything was so uncertain, and then suddenly an announcement was made that indoor hospitality could recommence and boom! We had an opening date (kind of serendipitously reopening on 20th May 2021, the exact date of C&C’s 5th birthday!) and it was all systems go!
The team that worked so hard to get C&C Cardiff open during those times is indicative of the great teams at all our cafes.
Richard: Over 10 years of wars, Covid, recessions, and dealing with the orange monkey, we’re still here. The economy isn’t great, but we’re still providing jobs to so many great people. We still employ staff who have been with us from the early years, and we’ve seen others move onwards and upwards.
We’ve not always got it right, it’s been tough, but I’m still excited about what’s next for us.
What’s next for Chance & Counters?
Richard: Board game bus! Think tasty food served on the bottom floor, with games on the top deck, craft beer and great vibes. Steve and Luke think I’m bonkers. Please help me make it happen!
Rhys: Simply put, bringing C&C to as many people as possible. Going to the UK Games Expo at the end of May feels like a huge step in showing what we have to offer!
Steve: It’s not easy out there for hospitality at the moment. We’ve had a few years of consolidating, improving loads of small areas of the business and getting ourselves ready for whatever comes next. We want to grow again and open our doors to new communities around the UK.
Luke: Franchising. We’ve spent nearly a decade getting the operating model right across our own venues, and we’re now ready to bring C&C to many more locations. Right now, I’m focused on a small group of early partners and making sure each of them has the launch they deserve. Long-term, the goal is the same one we sketched out a decade ago: to be the UK’s best-loved board game café group, run by people who properly care about games and hospitality.
This next chapter is the bit I’m most excited about.
Kit: Even after 10 years, it still feels like there are loads we can improve, experiment with and grow into, which is probably the most exciting part.
As we prepare to host you guys at our birthday bash and meet you at UKGE, we here at Chance & Counters want to thank all our guests, whether you are regulars or ‘occasionals’, for continuing to come back and making C&C the special place it is.
To give back, we’ll be hosting birthday events across all our sites, full of great games, lovely food, and goodies. Don’t miss out and book your table at your local site!
Cheers to another decade, and all the exciting things to come!
For more information about birthday festivities and events, check out our socials and newsletter.
